It is somewhat surprising that Christian Zadar has no home-grown saints of its own, and that the saints venerated in our city — Anastasia, Chrysogonus and the elder Simeon — were all brought here from elsewhere. The only one recognised by the Church as a blessed is James of Zadar, and even he won his renown and died in Italy, at Bitetto near Bari. So we must admit that we are, in a sense, poor in officially canonised saints. Yet when we come to eternity, we shall see that throughout the long Christian history of Zadar there lived a great many holy people who can be models and intercessors for us. One of them is Anđelika Salghetti-Drioli, née Isola, a holy woman and mother, together with her husband Frane.

Her likeness is painted in the choir, behind the high altar, of the Church of St Francis in Zadar, a monumental work by her husband Frane Salghetti-Drioli, an academic painter and owner of a liqueur factory, the forerunner of today’s «Maraska». The Salghettis came to Zadar in the eighteenth century, while Anđelika was born in Novi near Genoa.

     She died in childbirth on 20 September 1853 and was buried at Preko on the island of Ugljan. Frane came to know his future wife through her father, Andrija Isola, who was likewise a painter. Here we shall not go into the details of her life, but only sketch her character briefly, so deeply steeped as it was in the Christian spirit. For this purpose the letters she exchanged with her future husband during their engagement will serve us well. These letters have fortunately been preserved and published in print. Here are a few extracts from them.                    

                                                            Anđelika, the Bride-to-be

      As a token of regard, the young Frane sent her a book as a gift, even though they had not yet met, which she interpreted in the best possible light. «But when I saw you for the first time, your gestures, your person, the seriousness that could be read on your face, left such a deep impression on me that I changed my opinion» — she would later write in a letter. It was love at first sight, one that would not be extinguished until the end of their lives. Like every young woman, she was curious to hear what impression she had made on her young man when he first saw her. «Tell me, are you satisfied, have you regretted coming to Genoa, did you find me less worthy than you had thought? ... If you have discovered in me some feeling you do not like, tell me freely... As the day of our parting drew near, I felt how much I love you.» Between the young couple there developed a lively correspondence, through which they revealed their inner selves to one another and deepened their love.

     Anđelika had six brothers, one of whom was only eight months old, and she was the eldest, and the only girl. She was born on 30 October 1817 in Novi near Genoa. Her father had served in Napoleon’s army, and one of her brothers, Ulisse, would later become an admiral in the Sardinian navy. In a letter from 1841 to her Frane, she recalls the advice her mother gave her before she died. It had cut deeply into her heart, and she now shares it with her fiancé. From it we see that the family was deeply religious. Her mother commends to her a young cousin, Adriano, and asks her to be patient with her father, even when he is not especially considerate towards her. «My dear Anđelika, I am so sad to leave you so young, but let us submit ourselves to God’s plans... Never forget your duties towards God, towards your neighbour and towards yourself. Do not let the false and empty words with which people will shower you erase religious feeling from your heart, for then, in misfortune, in weakness and at the hour of death, you will find great comfort. Never rebel against Heaven. Know that even when God’s highest designs are beyond us mortals to grasp, they are always founded on Justice and Mercy. My dear Anđelika, I must also speak to you of something you did not need to know for a long time. If one day you find yourself having to choose a husband, be quite scrupulous about it. A sensible and well brought-up woman should avoid the snares that are set for a young girl on account of her inexperience, and should despise the language of flattery.»

            When her mother soon afterwards died, and while she was preparing for marriage, her father took a step that is hard for us to understand today: he sent her for a time to a convent in Genoa — not, indeed, to become a nun, but to think carefully about her future and to learn women’s household skills, which was not unusual in those days. Of her stay in the convent she writes to her fiancé: «Could you but for a moment enter this holy nest, to see with your own eyes what I could never have believed had anyone told me. Here one enjoys a true peace of soul and body. It seems to me that I have moved into that great family of the patriarchs of Holy Scripture, in which evil was unknown, and only good was known. All the sisters rejoice in that angelic joy, all love one another as dear sisters. They practise every virtue, and I assure you that the time I have spent in this nest of peace will be of benefit to our future. Taken up with various tasks and with prayer, I can only marvel at how quickly the hours and days pass.»

     In the correspondence between the young couple there is revealed a mature seriousness and sincerity that we do not find among young people today. «My dear Checco» — as she affectionately called him — have trust in me, as I have in you. Your Anđelika lives for you alone.» An aunt once wrote of her to her father: «I have never doubted that God would make her happy with a good husband, for I know no girl who would deserve it more...».

«I am sorry,» she wrote modestly to her Frane, «that my aunt has such a high opinion of me. I would love with all my heart to have even the least of her virtues, so as to make you as happy as possible... You doubt me and ask whether I truly love you? Your love, and the fact that you suffer for my sake, is worth a thousand times more than anything I can do for you... If you have troubles, put them on my shoulders. I am rather stronger than you, and more used to suffering. From my earliest years I have been accustomed to pain and hardship.»  

When Frane wrote to her of various difficulties, she answered him with these words: «Consider that God has permitted all this for our greater happiness. I hope that in the hardest difficulties of life you will find in me all the support and comfort that one mortal can offer another... Trust in God... Give everything over to God, and you will find great comfort. In the same measure that God sends us crosses, he also gives strength to those who trust in him to bear them worthily... Blessed are those who are humbled, for they shall be raised up in the eyes of God.»

The eminent Tommaseo, a friend of the Salghetti family, discovered at first hand, and from the letters of the young couple, Anđelika’s great and devout heart. He writes: «She calls Our Lady our common and loving Mother, who loves us beyond measure». And she herself would write to her beloved: «I assure you that I have complete trust in her, and were it not so I would be unhappy... She visibly protects us — I tell you this in all truth, and I have proof of it.»

Young Anđelika was not afraid of life’s hardships, and accepted everything from God’s hands. «In this world we do not lack for trials, but I am ready for every misfortune». When she fell slightly ill, she writes: «It is good for me to be a little unwell. It gives me the occasion to think about the past and the present, and at the same time it strengthens me spiritually»... «A sailor is only known in the storm. Everyone knows how to sail when the sea is calm and the wind is astern; but on the contrary, in storms, those who surrender the helm to the One who governs all things and go according to his will — they are the ones who reach harbour, and there are few of them.»  

            The young painter Frane had truly come to love his fiancée, and he writes to her: «My dear Anđelika, every day I become more convinced that you truly know how to love... I see that God has been too good to me, giving me one such as I always wished for... I asked God to give you to me, and he heard me... I trust in God, from whom I have unworthily received so much kindness, though I have deserved no small share of sorrow, and I hope that our union will soon be blessed.»

            But some clouds gathered on the horizon of their love. Frane’s mother was not happy about her son’s attachment, for she had a different plan for him — first that he should become a businessman, and now she hoped he would become a priest, so that she might have a secure old age at his side. Anđelika learned of this, and so on 19 September 1841 she wrote two letters, one to Frane’s mother and the other to her own fiancé. «Dear Mother, for eight years now all manner of misfortunes have followed me, the first being that I lost my good and dear mother, and so my heart has needed tenderness — I longed to find it in you. Be assured, my dear mother, that I love and respect you, and that I would give my life for your happiness, as for the happiness of my dear Checco, your beloved son. Here is proof of it... Listen, my dear mother, to what I have to tell you: ‘If you think I am an obstacle to your son’s happiness, I shall know how to sacrifice myself — indeed, so that you may be at peace, I shall put on the religious habit, so that your future may be secure; and if I survive all this, I shall devote the rest of my life to praying for your happiness and the happiness of your dear son, whom I love and shall always love, in the firm hope that I shall find myself with him, as sister with brother, in that Homeland where no worldly interest will ever be able to part us.’»

And to her Frane she writes: «If I am an obstacle to your happiness, here is the occasion for me to declare my feelings to you. If your happiness requires my own sacrifice, I am entirely ready for it... May Heaven grant you a better companion. As for myself, if God grants me to go on living, my wish would be, as a penance for my sins, to put on the religious habit, so that your mother may be at peace. That would still be little, compared with what you have done for me, and if I can do still more, tell me... I advise you not to be troubled, for in doing so you harm only yourself. Jesus carried his own cross upon his shoulders and fell three times. Simon of Cyrene helped him carry it. We too must carry our own cross, and this is a sign that God loves us; and it will not be Simon of Cyrene who helps us carry it, but Jesus Christ himself.»

                                                                 

                                           Anđelika and Frane — A Christian Married Couple

     Anđelika’s father, Andrija, kept putting off their wedding because of the poverty in which they lived. At last a date was set: 7 November 1841, in Genoa.

     The young and well-to-do Frane Salghetti-Drioli, knowing of the Isola family’s poverty, wanted to give his fiancée a splendid wedding gown, but she objected to this: «I am endlessly grateful for the gift you wanted to give me, but I hope I shall be just as dear to you if I am dressed simply... The only joy I long for is you, who have suffered and still suffer so much for my sake. The only thing I ask and require of you, if you love me, is that you go to no expense on my account... My father will give me what is necessary, and I shall be content.»

As a further illustration of how humble and unassuming she was, let this detail serve as well. Near her house there lived an old woman, alone and ill. Anđelika cared for her as much as she could, for her mother had commended the old woman to her. She washed her, changed her linen and brought her food. And just shortly before she left Genoa, the old woman was on her deathbed and wished to be prepared for the last sacraments. She no longer had a decent shift in which to receive the priest, and so Anđelika gave her one of her own — one of only two she herself owned; hard as it is to believe.

     At last the young couple entered into Christian marriage in the chapel of St Philip, among the Oratorian Fathers, and so sealed their love. «Although that autumn season is usually dull and overcast, on the shores and hills of Genoa the sun shone as though it were May... and nature herself seemed to rejoice with them» (Tommaseo). And that is exactly how the young couple felt themselves.

            At last Frane and Anđelika, filled with inner contentment, set off from Genoa, travelled via Trieste, and arrived by boat in Zadar. Frane was a respected citizen of Zadar and continued to keep company with distinguished people of the city and the province. Reluctantly, he had to take on responsibility for the factory and for his family, which would gradually begin to grow. Taken up with his business affairs, he was less and less able to devote himself to painting.

Anđelika’s caring father would soon write to her a letter which shows that he too was a true Christian, telling her: «Always be steadfast in those principles which God has planted in your heart, as in soil that must be fruitful for new generations. Do not let any hardship of life shake you. Keep God, your husband and your household always in mind, and be assured that you will be blessed in eternity». Anđelika was a quiet and unassuming woman, and rarely, and reluctantly, when her husband asked her, would she go to parties or into the high society to which the family in fact belonged. «She never let herself be led astray by fashion, nor by any wish to go to balls, gatherings or the theatre» (Tommaseo)

Her father learned that a new arrival was expected in the Salghetti household. At last a little girl was born, whom they baptised Luigina. But the child was frail, and they feared for her life. Old Andrija wrote to comfort his daughter Anđelika: «Always be steadfast in submitting to the will of God, even though he sends you girls... Perhaps he wishes to spare you some bitter distress... You need not grieve if God should wish to take your gentle Luigina from you... Dear Anđelika, if God wishes to take to himself one fruit of your motherhood, he will entrust to that child, as to an angel, the watching-over of the rest of your family. You know what turns of Divine Providence have guided my own family, to save it through so many hardships. Do I not owe this to the souls that belong to me in heaven?... So, if some misfortune must come, however sad it may be, be a strong woman, and not a weak one. »

Luigina died a few months later. In the painting she is the smallest of the little girls, who together with her two sisters come out to meet their mother as an angel leads her up to heaven. Frane sent his father-in-law the sad news, and he in turn consoled his daughter Anđelika: «I am very sad, for I know how hard this falls on a father and a mother. But if the fleeting pleasures and sorrows of this earth are compared with the goods of God, with holy faith, and with what secures for us eternal life — ah, my Anđelika, cry out for joy and thank God from your heart that you were found worthy to accept this sacrifice... Who knows, once that blessed angel appears in heaven, whether she will not obtain for you, for us, countless graces. I therefore beg you, and advise you, and charge you, to rejoice with me in your heart over the great treasure you now possess in heaven.» Her father can see, from Frane’s letter, that he too, «like a good Christian thinker, accepts God’s will concerning the blessed Luigina». Anđelika accepted this, and the similar sacrifices that would follow, bravely and as a Christian; she did not rebel against God.

     «She loved God above all things, believed in him firmly and trusted in him greatly. She set such store by prayer that she asked her husband to build her a small chapel in the house, where, far from everyone, she could pour out her prayers and give herself wholly to God, to obtain for herself and her family the graces they needed» (N. Tommaseo). There she found the true strength she needed to be open to life and to be able to bear and raise many children. This is confirmed by the fact that in twelve years of marriage she bore nine children. And that she had already had to shed so many tears is shown by the fact that, after Luigina, she lost two more little girls, already well grown. With a fourth, who died in childbirth, she herself would go to heaven. She left behind five living children, two boys and three girls. Anđelika did not live with her head in the clouds; she had experienced the fragility of life and knew that human life is a journey towards eternity. She had experienced suffering in difficult childbirths, had looked death in the eye, and so had already grown accustomed to its reality.

 

                                                          Towards Calvary

     She held, unrealistically, that for her children a father was more important than she herself, and so she «ardently wished to die before her husband». «Listen, my Checco, if it is true that I am dear to you, never say that I should have to outlive you, for that cannot be. Every day I pray so fervently to God for this grace, and I do not doubt that he will grant it to me — that he will give you many years, and that I may die before you.» She was thinking of the family’s material security, and not of the children’s need to be warmed by their mother’s love and formed by her goodness. And although she was six years younger than her husband, God truly heard her prayer.

Some of her daughters were already old enough that, should she die, they could take on the role of mother and housekeeper. Soon this would indeed happen, though unexpectedly. She was carrying her ninth child beneath her heart, and the time came for the birth. We do not know whether it was at home or in hospital; in any case, complications arose during the birth, so that in bringing her last child, a girl, into the world, she lost both her own life and the child’s. Anđelika went, together with her little daughter, to meet her Lord, whom she had loved so much. She had, quite simply, grown ripe for eternity. Here was fulfilled the word of God from the Book of Wisdom: “The righteous, though he die early, will be at rest. For old age is not honoured for length of time, or measured by number of years; but understanding is grey hair for men, and a blameless life is ripe old age... Being found pleasing to God, he was loved... he was taken up... Being perfected in a short time, he fulfilled long years; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he took him quickly.” (Wis 4:7–14)  

We can imagine the depth of grief in which her husband found himself, a man with little aptitude for either household affairs or the raising of children. In one document he gave expression to his sorrow: «With you, whose companionship I was unworthy of, I have lost the visible angel of my life. Without you, everything around me is mute to my heart, which had grown accustomed to the harmony that God, in pure beauty, had built into your person, and to the inexpressible gentleness and the gift of Christian suffering and loving that he inspired in your heart. For me and for our children you were the living image of the greatest goodness. Wholly turned towards your loved ones, you were my comfort in sorrow, the calm to my hastiness, always a wise counsellor. You found your happiness in the care you showed to me, to our children and to the poor, joyful in the quiet of your home, in dignity of spirit, and not in the empty amusements of the world.»

            The death of this holy wife of a well-known artist took many of their friends and distinguished acquaintances by surprise, and expressions of condolence arrived from every side, in writing, by word of mouth and in verse. Since the Salghettis had a country house and estate at Preko on Ugljan, where the family spent its days of rest and relaxation, especially in summer, Mr Frane decided that Anđelika should also be buried in the local cemetery there, not far from their house. On the Zadar waterfront there was a magnificent send-off of the deceased onto the boat, and a great crowd of God’s people accompanied her to her earthly resting place. The funeral, attended by a great multitude, was led by a friend of the family, a professor at the Zadar School of Theology, Mons. Marko Kalogjera (1018 – 1888), later Bishop of Split (1866-1888). On her grave there stands an inscription in Italian, which we translate here:

 

HERE  REST THE REMAINS  OF THE FAIR AND  MODEST

A N Đ E L I K A   I S O L A

BORN   IN  NOVI  (near Genoa)  1817.

MARRIED TO FRANE  SALGHETTI – DRIOLI

WHO  THEN HAD  HER FOR  12  YEARS AND

REJOICED IN  THEIR CHILDREN *  AIDED BY HER 

COUNSEL * BUILT UP BY HER VIRTUES

AND BLESSED IN LOVE.

SHE SUDDENLY LEFT THIS EARTH  22 SEPTEMBER  1853.

MOURNED BY  ALL * TRULY ANGELIC  SOUL

CONTINUE FROM ABOVE TO GUIDE YOUR SORROWING HUSBAND

WHO  WILL  ONLY  THEN BE CONSOLED WHEN YOUR  BODY IS REUNITED FROM THIS COFFIN WITH YOUR  SOUL IN HEAVEN

                                                       

                                                              

The Monumental Painting

How highly Frane Salghetti-Drioli esteemed his Anđelika is shown not only by her beautiful grave monument, but also by the idea that soon came to him, as an academic painter, to immortalise her with his own brush as well. Searching for the location best suited to this, he settled on the choir of the Church of St Francis in Zadar. There was an empty area within a Gothic frame, on which Frane, first in his heart and imagination, and then in reality, created a great composition depicting the death and ascent into heaven of his wife. While she lies on her bier with her little daughter, the painter, together with their five surviving children, mourns his wife and their mother. An angel lifts the transfigured Anđelika, with her little daughter in her arms, up towards heaven, where Our Lady, whom she had honoured so greatly, awaits them with open arms. Coming to meet them are her three angels, the daughters who had died earlier, so that all together they might go into the glory of heaven.

One might ask whether such a painting, depicting a human fate that is not, after all, so rare, has a place within the sacred space of a church. That question was raised even while the painting was being planned. The church authorities, as well as the civil authorities, having seen the design for the painting and knowing what kind of woman was being depicted, gave written approval for its execution. The realisation of the painting, from design to final execution, took a good deal of time — from 1854 to 1861 — for the painter wished to give the very best of himself in order to honour his holy wife and the mother of his many children.

 

Beneath the painting there is an inscription in Latin, which in translation reads:

«To Anđelika Isola, sweetest of wives, her husband FRANE SALGHETTI-DRIOLI wished, by this monument of his art and of his misfortune, to leave a memorial to posterity, suddenly left in grief and tears with their children on 20 September 1853. She lived 35 years. She was the comfort and joy of her father’s and her husband’s household, a model of piety, modesty and gentleness; she deserves that all should follow her example in love.»

     Anđelika is truly a beautiful flower in Zadar’s garden of saints.

     A fuller biography of this holy woman can be found in the book ‘Zadarski sveci’ [Saints of Zadar] (publ. «Benedikta») by the author of this account, fra Stanko Josip Škunce