Due to the respect those writings engendered in the Catholic Church she became known as Theologorum Magistra ("Teacher of Theologians"), as first used by Maximilian Sandaeus, later cited by Bollandus in the Acta Sanctorum).

[5] With one serving woman, Masazuola, as her companion, she began to divest herself of her possessions and to live as a penitent.

These accounts are contained in a compilation of two works, usually published under the title Il Libro della Beata Angela da Foligno.

She dictated, in her Umbrian dialect, an account of her spiritual progress, known as the Memoriale, which was transcribed in Latin by a Franciscan friar indicated only as "Bro A."

[9] Brother A. remained with her until 1296 while she completed the higher and more difficult final ten stages, but since it proved impossible for him to understand these fully, he condensed them into seven ‘supplementary stages’ whose description takes up the larger portion of the Memorial.

The text was finished by 1298, and submitted to Cardinal James of Colonna and eight Friars Minor, who gave it their approval.

[6] Between around 1296 and her death in early 1309, the fame of Angela's sanctity gathered around her a number of other tertiaries, both men and women, who strove under her direction to advance in holiness.

Later she established at Foligno a community of other women tertiaries, who added to the Rule of the Third Order a commitment to a common life without, however, binding themselves to enclosure, so that they might devote their lives to works of charity.

These teachings are rather more conventional in tone and have differences in vocabulary and emphasis from the Memorial – which may reflect redaction by several hands.

[4] Angela's authority as a spiritual teacher may be gathered from the fact that Bollandus, among other testimonials, quotes Maximilian van der Sandt, of the Society of Jesus, as calling her the "'Teacher of Theologians', whose whole doctrine has been drawn out of the Book of Life, Jesus Christ, Our Lord".

[13] Francis also mentions her in his encyclical letter Dilexit nos as one of a number of "holy women" who have "spoken of resting in the heart of the Lord as the source of life and interior peace".