Tête à Tête - Mary Manning

As clear as television

A conversation with St Clare of Assisi - Feast day 11 August

Starting this month, Madonna’s reporter plans to bring you regular interviews with saints who remain important for us in the 21st century.

In this issue, we meet St Clare who lived in Assisi in Italy more than 800 years ago. Readers may have seen her in the church of Santa Chiara looking like a curled-up child dressed in a dark robe. She was originally buried here and when her remains were dug up in 1850 her skeleton was found in the perfect state of preservation visitors see today.

Madonna’s reporter asked St Clare first about her patronage of television and telephones. How had this come about?

C : We might return to that later as I knew nothing of it during my lifetime. I am also known as the patron saint of gilders, goldsmiths, embroiderers, sufferers from eye disease, laundry workers, needle workers, eyes and good weather—most of which more relevant to the time I lived in.

MM: You were born in Assisi 16 July in 1194. Can you tell us something about your parents.

C: I was the daughter of a count and countess .

MM : What made you decide to leave that comfortable background and work with the poor?

C : My life changed when I was 18 and heard Francis preaching in the streets. I confided in him my desire to live a life of poverty as he did. Francis and I became close friends and on Palm Sunday 1212 the bishop presented me with a palm which I took as a sign. I ran away with my cousin Pacifica. We eventually took the veil signifying religious profession from Francis at the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi.

MM : How did your family react to your running away?

C : They were horrified at first and brought me home by force but I slipped away and returned to the house of the Franciscans. Francis found me a place in a nearby convent. Eventually my mother accepted my decision and, along with two of my sisters and Pacifica , she joined the order that I founded, the Poor Clares. I was leader for forty years. We depended solely on alms as a gesture of trust that God, through the people, would provide. That was a new idea at the time.

MM: What did the Poor Clares gain from such hard rules?

C: By following the same way of life as Francis, we could keep our minds steadily fixed on God. We went barefoot, slept on the ground, did not eat meat and spoke only when really necessary. Although these rules seem hard, similar convents were soon founded in other Italian cities and various parts of France and Germany. Agnes, daughter of the King of Bohemia, established a nunnery of our order in Prague, and took the habit herself. I wrote her many letters that nowadays you can read on the internet [see mmm – ed.]

MM: You have been described as merciful, charming, optimistic and humble. I have heard that you would get up at night to tuck in your sisters who'd kicked the covers off their beds. On the other hand, I believe you had a brave, impetuous side. Can you tell us about this?

C: Those adjectives make me sound self-indulgent but they came about through my engagement in God’s work. For instance, in 1221, when I learned about the Franciscan martyrs in Morocco, I tried to go there to give my own life for God, but I was restrained. Another time, when my convent was about to be attacked, I displayed the Sacrament in a monstrance at the convent gates, and prayed before it, and the attackers left. This was not bravery on my part: it was God’s intervention. It is, by the way, the reason I am often portrayed holding a monstrance.

MM: Can you tell us about miracles in your life?

C: I don’t like the idea that miraculous events were due to anything special about me. You might have read about olive oil jars being miraculously filled after I blessed them or the sick being cured when I made the sign of the cross, or a rainbow aura surrounding me when I prayed. Such events were a sign of God’s power at work, not mine. If your readers like reading about how God worked through me there are other examples. I believe that my cat used to bring things to me when I was too ill to rise. I’m sure the sick and old will gain comfort from this idea.

M M : One last question, the idea we started with. How do you think your patronage of television and telephones came about?

C: My name Chiara relates to light: it means bright or brilliant. My mother chose it because just before my birth she heard a voice telling her she would give the world a clear light to enlighten it. But the other reason must be the miraculous event that occurred near the end of my life when I was too ill to attend Mass in the Basilica of St Francis. When I looked at the wall of my cell I saw a wonderful vision of the Mass. It was as clear as your television pictures, so clear in fact that I was able to name the friars present.

M M : Can you leave us with any advice for living in the 21st century?

C: This little prayer I wrote should help people living in any century.

Go calmly in peace,
for you will have a good escort,
because he who created you
has sent you the Holy Spirit
and has always guarded you
as a mother does her child
who loves her.