Franciscan University of Steubenville joins the EWTN family in mourning the death of EWTN foundress, Mother Angelica.

With humble roots not far from Franciscan University in Canton, Ohio, Mother Angelica started and ran the world’s largest religious media network, today reaching more than 264 million households worldwide.

In the early days of her media apostolate, Mother Angelica often called on her friend, Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, then president of Franciscan University, to be a guest on Mother Angelica Live, which then reached barely 60,000 homes. Father Scanlan made many trips to Irondale, Alabama, where he would celebrate Mass for the sisters and then speak on a wide range of spiritual topics on Mother Angelica Live on Sunday evenings.

Mother Angelica returned the favor as a speaker at Franciscan University summer conferences in the early 1980s, and as the speaker at the 1983 commencement ceremony, at which she received an honorary doctorate of sacred theology from Franciscan University.

Mother Angelica was a true media giant. She proved that the Church belonged in the popular media alongside the news, sports, and talk shows, and she welcomed Franciscan University Presents, the roundtable theology discussion produced by the University for EWTN since 1993.

She heeded the call of the Second Vatican Council to bring the Gospel message into contemporary society. With humor and the occasional stern word, but always moved by a deep love of people, Mother Angelica faithfully conveyed the knowledge and love of God to Catholics, Christians, and non-believers alike. What started in a garage with a few used cameras has today become a global television, radio, print, Internet, and social media apostolate.

Having received a religious vocation as a cloistered nun, Mother Angelica embraced even more deeply a life of silence and prayer following a stroke in 2001. She devoted the final stage of her life to prayer, living out what she once wrote: “We, too, must suffer in order to prepare ourselves for our glory.”