August 11, Feast of St. Clare of Assisi, Virgin

[DemBones DemBones]

St. Clare's parents were a count and countess, quite wealthy, and expected her to make a good marriage. But Clare wanted to live for God. She heard St. Francis preach in the streets, was inspired by him, and confided in him.

On Palm Sunday 1212, when she was 18, the bishop himself handed Clare a palm branch at church. She took this to be a sign. That night she, her aunt and cousin, went to the chapel of St. Francis and the Franciscans and she vowed her life to serve God, becoming the first 2nd Order Franciscan, i.e., Franciscan nun. Franciscan nuns are also called Poor Clares because they take a vow of poverty and because Clare was their foundress.

St. Clare was in charge of the Poor Clares convent at San Damiano for 40 years. Once an army was about to attack the convent but when Clare went to the gate holding the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance or ciborium, the army retreated. She is often depicted holding a monstrance or ciborium but may also be depicted embroidering, as she is the patron saint of embroiderers, or holding a cat, because she had a cat which would bring her things when she was old and bedridden.

She is not the patron saint of cats, however, but is the patron saint of radio and television. I thought that was very odd when I first read that in "Butler's Lives of the Saints," which gave no explanation for the association of a 13th century saint with 20th century inventions. The explanation is that when she was unable to attend Mass, she was able to see and hear Mass at a local church and could discuss the sermon with those who had been at the Mass.

Most sources say she was gifted with bilocation, meaning her soul could travel to a church to hear Mass although her body was confined to bed. One source says she saw the images on the wall of her cell, instead. Other saints have allegedly been gifted with bilocation, too, even within my lifetime. St. Pio, the Italian Capuchin priest and mystic who bore the stigmata for fifty years, until his death in 1968, after which the bleeding wounds healed, was said to have the gift of bilocation.

[theredpen]

1. St. Joan and St. Claire

We attended mass at St. Joan of Arc Church in Las Vegas tonight. It was a double-shot of Saints, since St. Joan prayed for guidance from St. Clare.

(It's a beautiful little church to, crafted from polished stone that appears to be native to Nevada.)

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Interesting, I did not know that St. Joan prayed to St. Clare.

It's always nice to find a beautiful church. My parish church is also made of native stone, though not polished, that was quarried not far from the church, which sits on top of a hill. On the outside front, over the doors, is a huge carved crucifix and the words "Venite Adoremus" are carved under the crucifix. It's beautiful inside as well, being an old church that our priest has renovated in keeping with the old style. We always had a marble high altar but he was able to buy a larger, more ornate one from the chapel of a closed school in the Midwest. It would be perfect for a Traditional Latin Mass, Deo volente.

[Matilda]

2. St Clare is my patron.

I took her name at Confirmation, and I've visited her tomb at Assisi.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. I have prayed at the tomb of St. Francis in Assisi but

did not get to go to St. Clare's because the weather was so bad (freezing cold, ice and snow on the roads and ground.) My husband was sick with a bad cold and got chilled to the bone so we left Assisi and got on the atostrada back to Florence after praying at St. Francis's tomb.

My patron saint is St. Catherine of Siena and I never had the nerve to go see her head in a reliquary that's in the Basilica of St. Dominic. If you've been to Siena, you know how hilly it is and getting to that church from the Campo was a deterrent. It's so nice to sit on the Campo, enjoy the sun, watch people. I wouldn't care to be in Italy in August, though! It's hot enough here. How is the weather Down Under?

[Matilda]

5. It;'s unseasonably warm at the moment.

After quite a cold start to the winter, we're now having Spring weather about two months early,
although it can suddenly turn cold again for a day or two, but generally we're just wearing light
winter clothes, no coats needed most days. Global warming, I'm sure.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. That's how our winters have been for years now.

We also don't get the high amount of rainfall we used to and haven't had significant snow since the blizzard of 1993, which was quite significant!

If I go out on a cold morning I have to wear several layers of clothing and often by mid-day I've shed all the outer layers, one by one. We have always had some days like that here but now a day that stays cold is pretty rare.

Are your summers hotter, too? The Department of Agriculture or whoever puts out the zone maps for gardeners shows on their new map that I'm now living in a subtropical zone, and I'm still living in the same place I've lived for many years. Time to plant palm trees, hibiscus, and bougainvillea, it seems!

[Matilda]

7. Two years ago, we had an extremely hot summer.

Christmas Day was 40 deg. C (over 100 F). Last summer they forecast more of the same, but it turned
out to be quite a mild summer - overall pleasantly warm, but not extreme. We live in a bushfire
area, so we were preparing for the worst, but it never eventuated. We were fortunate last year,
but who knows what lies ahead?

[DemBones DemBones]

8. The weather has been getting weird for about twenty years.

My daughter overheard a great remark in a store. A woman said "I don't see why everybody is saying the drought is because of global warming. We had a drought 15 years ago."

:dunce:

[flamingyouth]

9. Have you been to Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome?

That's where she's buried (minus her head). It's a gorgeous church. I've never been to Siena, but I love St. Catherine of Siena as well.

I've been to Rome in August. It's not fun, trust me!!

[CBHagman]

10. Remains to be seen!

All this talk of relics is making me nostalgic for Fulda, Germany, which I visited a couple of times back in the '80s. You'll possibly remember that Saint Boniface did missionary work in Germany and was martyred. Well, there are bits of Boniface decorously stored in various ornate reliquaries, yet I think there was also a tomb in the cathedral. I guess they buried the big guy in sections.

Getting back to Saint Clare, one of my dearest friends was in the secular Franciscans and traveled to Assisi many years ago. She had so many stories (and so many picture postcards for me)that I felt as though I'd been there myself.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. . . .

:rofl: "Remains to be seen!"

Maybe parts of St. Boniface had been taken elsewhere and were later returned to the
church where his tomb is? Or maybe there's no body in the tomb. . .

In Santa Croce, in Florence, where Michelangelo and Machiavelli are entombed in big tombs along a side wall, there is a tomb for Dante Alighieri, too, but Dante was exiled from Florence, died in Ravenna, and Ravenna won't give him back to Florence.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. No, the only churches I've seen in Rome

are St. Peter's, of course, and the Sistine Chapel, and the Coronaro Chapel inside a church, I believe a Franciscan church, to see Bernini's sculpture "St. Teresa in Ecstasy." There are so many churches in Rome worth seeing. I wish I'd seen the one where the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is.

My husband has been to Italy in summer and wouldn't do it again. Too hot, too crowded.