Everybody's heard of St. Francis of Assisi, but how many have heard of St. Clare of Assisi? I hadn't until now. I had heard of the Order of Poor Clares, one of the sororities (credit to Cat Nawawi) of nuns. Clare was the daughter of a count, considering becoming a nun; on Palm Sunday, someone handed her a palm, which she took as a sign so she took the vow. Maybe things were different in the 13th century -- I got a palm every year that I attended church on Palm Sunday. Or maybe I'm just too dim to recognize a sign when I see one.
Not Clare though. So well could she see signs that when she became too ill to attend church services, the image of the Mass would play on the wall of her chamber. Thus, she is the patron saint of television. To think that she has dominion over Weeds, The Real Housewives, and Jersey Shore. Let's enlist her to pray for something worth watching.
NB. I have since learned that September 23 is the feast celebrating the discovery of Saint Clare's body. Her dies mortalis, August 11, is her full formal feast. -tm, 8/10/12
AWESOME!!! You have a blog site!!! Years ago my alma mater (Eastern University) performed a play on the lives of saints. The performance displayed the good works of the various saints but also dug a bit into the correlation between possible illness (physical / mental) and the visions or messages attributed to God.
ReplyDeleteI can only gather that weakness and infirmities sharpen reception to hear the divine. Like a network dish or antenna :)