Clara nobilis virgo

Today is the Feast of St. Clare, Virgin, and since I have no idea where our own Clara is, for I haven't heard from her in awhile, which causes me to despair of her posting about her own patron, I will do it myself. I draw upon what I wrote last year to the Cornell Society for a Good Time in an email. You see, before I even knew what a blog was, for I don't think that I had ever looked at one a year ago, I harassed the fellow members of this Society with sometimes long and always boring emails, which should very well have been posts, but I didn't know what that was back then. At any rate, a year ago today, this is what I wrote:

As today is the Feast of St Clare, Virgin, I found this delightful passage from her biography in the old old Roman Breviary which I thought you might enjoy reading:

While the Mohammedans were besieging Assisi and trying to seize the monastery of St Clare, she desired, though sick, to be carried to the gate of the city, together with a vessel in which the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist was contained, and there she prayed:

"Do not hand over to the beasts, O Lord, the souls confessing you, and guard your maid-servants, whom thou hast redeemed by thy Precious Blood!"

At whose prayer, a great voice was heard:

"I will always protect you!"

Indeed part of the Musselmen betook themselves to flight while those who had scaled the wall, having lost their sight, fell headlong to the ground.

Saracenis Assisium obsidéntibus et Claræ monastérium invádere conántibus, ægra se ad portam afferri vóluit, unáque vas in quo sanctíssimum Eucharistiæ sacraméntum erat inclusum, ibique orávit: Ne tradas, Dómine, béstiis ánimas confiténtes tibi, et custódi famulas tuas, quas pretióso sánguine redemísti. In cuius oratióne ea vox audíta est: Ego vos semper custódiam. Saraceni autem partim se fugæ mandarunt partim qui murum ascenderant, capti óculis, præcípites cecidérunt.

Doubtless, a partial fulfillment of our Lord's prophecy in St Matthew's Gospel "quia videntes non vident et audientes non audiunt neque intellegunt" (13:13), for they teach as doctrines the precepts of men (cf. Matthew 15:9). And of whom can this more fittingly be said than of the Mohammedans?

Isn't it great that we have a painting of St. Clare confounding the Mohommedan hordes with the Blessed Sacrament? Do click on the picture below to enlarge it and see the full version.

I would note, however, for the edification of my readers that it is a grave abuse and horrendous scandal for a woman to hold the Blessed Sacrament in her hands. But everyone reading this blog knows that. Doubtless, the painter took some liberties in his depiction, but the author of the passages in the Roman Breviary did not.

The compressed biography for today's feast makes it more clear even than the longer version, for we read in the compressed version: "Saracenos monasterium invadere conantes, cum sanctissimum Sacramentum deferri iussisset, humillime orans, penitus fugavit." She orders the Sacrament to be brought while she herself prays and altogether puts them to flight. And in the longer version, which I've supplied above, we find that, "aegra se ad portem afferi voluit," that is, "though ill she wished to be carried to the gate," another inaccuracy in the painting, where we see her charging into battle on her own two feet. Quite frankly, the woman didn't eat enough to be able to walk, let alone to lead an Eucharistic procession amongst raving Saracens.

But the painting is still splendid because it shows routed Mohammedans and blinded Mohammedans falling from the walls of the city. Would it be right to suggest processions of the Blessed Sacrament in the streets of Iraqi cities? or would this be tempting God, as our Lord warns us against?






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