The most important spots of Saint Angela Merici's life - 3

The Statue

	Backing on to Desenzano’s main square, Piazza Malvezzi, are the porticoes, overlooked by the old Town Hall; facing it, the local council building (today known as Palazzo Todeschini), built by the same Todeschini (16^th Century) who drew up the plans for the Cathedral and who gave the town centre a definitive urban convergence. The statue of Angela Merici is made of white Botticino marble, carved by the Brescian sculptor Antonio Callegari (1698 – 1775). The Saint is not in a humble act of religious concentration but rather depicted in a vigorous gesture of devotion to supreme Will: her face is turned up to the sky, her right hand on her chest and her left hand clutching the pilgrim’s staff.
The square finishes where the old port starts, which takes us back to the times of our Saint Angela. The people of Desenzano erected the monument to their great Fellow Citizen in this square, in 1782. In the memorial epigraph they proudly used the word «fellow citizens», rather than the word «faithful» or «devout», as one might have expected, since the statue was actually erected in memory of happenings concerning the history of the Church.
	Saint Angela Merici was proclaimed the principal patron of Desenzano, by a Papal decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites on the 29^th January 1962; being able to claim that Angela was born here is a great honour for the town of Desenzano.
*Itinerary:* Facing the porticoes, continue to the left, crossing Via Papa, Piazza Matteotti and Via Santa Maria, to spot No. 4 (The Convent of the Ursuline sisters)

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