Italy is well-known as a Catholic nation and, due to its long history of Catholicism, has given rise to a large number of saints. With so many saints, not everyone can be patron saint of obvious causes which has lead to the creation of some rather strange ones including a Patron Saint of Cranky Children (St Sebastian). One of the most unusual is, perhaps, St Clare of Assisi. Assisi has had a long history of religious affiliations, with St Francis being intimately connected to the area, but another saint hailing from the town is St Clare, Patron Saint of Television. You read that right, television. Why not find a vacation rental in Umbria and spend a day in the city of Assisi, learning all about this strange saint?
St Clare began her story when, at 15, this daughter of a rich family refused to get married. She was moved by the preaching of St Francis and wanted to dedicate her life to the Lord. At 18, she escaped from her father’s home during the night. On the road, she met friars carrying torches and was brought to the chapel of Portiuncula where she received a rough woolen habit, exchanged her jewelled belt for a common rope with knots in it and cut her hair. Francis then placed her in a Benedictine convent, which her father and uncles immediately stormed in rage. She clung to the altar of the church, threw aside her veil to show her cropped hair and refused to leave. She lived a simple life of great poverty, austerity and complete seclusion from the world and her order went on to become the Order of the Poor Clares. At 21 she became abbess, a position she maintained until death.
In 1958, Pope Pius XII declared St Clare of Assisi the Patron Saint of television, just as televisions were becoming universally common. This must strike most immediately as an odd thing to do. St Clare lived in the 13th century, far before the advent of the television and was a Franciscan foundress dedicated to evangelical poverty. So, what is the connection? It might seem a tenuous one but Clare is the first person to experience a “broadcast” mass. Near the end of her life, when she became too ill to attend mass in person, the Holy Spirit projected the service onto her wall so that she did not have to leave her room or bed, nor miss mass.
A strange story, to be sure, but just one of the many that make Assisi so fascinating and make it somewhere you must visit if in Umbria.
A strange story, to be sure, but just one of the many that make Assisi so fascinating and make it somewhere you must visit if in Umbria.
