St. Illuminatus Feast Day: UNK UNK ​ ​ Next Item Previous Item

St. Vincent Ferrer Feast Day: April 5 1350 Confessor, Dominican ​ Next Item Previous Item

St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows Feast Day: February 27 1838 Confessor, Passionist ​ Next Item Previous Item

St. Vincent de Paul Feast Day: September 27 1581 Confessor ​ Next Item Previous Item

St. Christopher Feast Day: July 25 ~220 Martyr ​ Next Item Previous Item

St. Peter the Apostle Feast Day: June 29 UNK Apostle, Martyr ​ Next Item Previous Item

St. Clare of Assisi Feast Day: August 11 1194 Virgin, Founder of Poor Clares, Franciscan ​ Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order, reached many people during his time traveling the world to spread the word of Jesus Christ. In 1212 A.D., while preaching at a Lenten service at a church in Assisi, his message reached the ears of a teenager named Chiara Offreduccio, and a mission was sparked within her to live a life after the Gospel. That mission would lead her to found a religious order, defend her monastery from attack with nothing but the Blessed Sacrament, and become Saint Clare of Assisi. Born in Assisi, Italy during the middle ages, her parents Favarone and Ortolana welcomed her to the world on July 16, 1194. She was the oldest daughter to her wealthy parents; her father was a wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, and her mother belonged to the noble family of Fiumi. Her mother was a devout woman who had traveled on multiple pilgrimages to Rome and the Holy Land, she passed her love of prayer down to Clare. She embraced prayer rather than lounging in her luxurious palace surroundings and dedicated her life to God at a young age. She was 18 years old when Saint Francis of Assisi came to the church of San Giorgio in Assisi to preach, and the words that she heard would change her life. She asked Francis to help her further dedicate her life to God, and he vowed to help her. So, when her parents chose a wealthy young man for Clare to marry, she refused their arrangement, and on Palm Sunday in the year 1212, fled to the Porziuncula to meet Francis. She knew there was no turning back now that the message of Christ was ignited within her heart, and she exchanged her rich, fancy gown for a rough, woolen robe and veil, and had her golden hair sheared down to a short, cropped cut. She took vows dedicating her life to God, and the Second Order of Saint Francis had begun. Clare traveled to the convent of Benedictine nuns of San Paulo, but her father, enraged with her leaving their family and refusing to marry, attempted to force her to return home. He arrived at the monastery alongside her uncles and would’ve resorted to dragging Clare back to their castle, had she not clung desperately to the altar of the church, resisting any attempt to move her. Throwing back her veil to reveal her cropped hair, she professed that she would have “no other husband than Jesus Christ” and her family, recognizing her unbreakable will, left in defeat. Francis relocated Clare to another monastery of the Benedictine Sisters in Panzo, Italy, and sixteen days after refusing her family’s attempts to dissuade her from religious life, her sister Catarina would also arrive to join the monastery, taking the name Agnes. Nearby the monastery was the restored church of San Damiano, which Francis had famously repaired, and when a small dwelling was constructed for them next to the church, they moved into there. Clare made it clear that her aim was to live a simple, holy life filled with poverty and Jesus, and that quickly attracted more women who desired to be brides of Jesus in the bold way Clare was pursuing. They soon became known as the “Poor Ladies of San Damiano”, following a simple rule that Francis had established for them. Included in this rule was a focus on austerity, seclusion from the world, and deep poverty. Clare and her fellow sisters did not wear shoes, eat meat, or sleep in a bed, and they kept silent for the large majority of the day. Their lives were filled with manual labor and prayer, but their joy was undeniable. At the age of 21, Saint Francis appointed Clare as abbess of the order, a role of which she held until her death. The order, which would later become known as the “Poor Clares” were committed to a life of stark poverty. They owned virtually nothing- walking around town begging for alms, completely dependent on whatever food was given to them. So committed to a life of abject poverty was Clare, that when officials such as King Gregory IX and the Pope himself suggested they tone down their practices, Clare responded ““I need to be absolved from my sins, but I do not wish to be absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ.” Clare humbly served the Lord, but her sanctity and dedication to the Lord was apparent. Many stories tell of her returning from prayer with her face so shining that it dazzled those nearby. Popes, Cardinals and Bishops would travel to the church of San Damiano to consult with her but despite her growing notoriety (she was sometimes given the title “alter Franciscus” which translates to “another Francis”), she never left the cloistered walls of San Damiano. She would later defend her order valiantly in September of 1240 and June of 1241, when a pair of armies attempted to attack their monastery. Violent soldiers from Frederick II were on their doorstep ready to attack, when Clare went out to meet them with the Blessed Sacrament, displayed prominently in a monstrance. Raising up the monstrance to where the enemies could see it, she fell to her knees and begged God to save them. Struck by a sudden fear, the attackers fled as fast as they could, without laying hand on a single person in Assisi. Clare took care of her dear friend St. Francis as he grew old, and when he finally passed away in October of 1226, she continued to promote her order, as well as fight to preserve its core values. Many popes would attempt to impose rulings aimed at watering down their radical commitment to poverty, but she vehemently refused. St. Clare would exclaim, “”They say that we are too poor, but can a heart which possesses the infinite God be truly called poor?” Despite her health declining rapidly in her later years, Clare would devote herself to crafting her own rule of life for the Poor Clares, one that would remain faithful to the true mission of their order and be resilient to any attempts to water it down. On August 9, 1253, Pope Innocent IV visited Clare on her deathbed and declared that her rule would serve as the governing rule for the Poor Clares. It is believed to have been the first set of monastic guidelines written by a woman. Two days later, Clare passed away after receiving absolution from the Pope. Before she died, she turned to speak to one of the Franciscan brothers at her bedside and said, “Dear brother, ever since through His servant Francis I have known the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have never in my whole life found any pain or sickness that could trouble me.” She was 59 years old. Clare’s remains were held at the chapel of San Giorgio, where she had first heard Francis preach, while a new church was being constructed to hold her remains. At her funeral Mass, Pope Innocent IV (who considered canonizing her immediately upon her death) instructed the friars to perform the Office of the Virgin Saints rather than the Office of the Dead. This ensured that Clare’s canonization process, while not immediate, would begin very shortly following her funeral. Sure enough, just two years after her death, Pope Alexander IV canonized Clare as Saint Clare of Assisi on September 26, 1255. The examination of her miracles took just six days to complete. The Basilica of Saint Clare was finished in 1260, and her remains were transferred to a burial place beneath the high altar. In 1263, Pope Urban IV officially changed the title of the Order of Poor Ladies to the Order of Saint Clare. Saint Clare of Assisi had a passion for poverty; despite having ample opportunity to settle into a life of opulence, she chose instead to shed her attachments to this world and embark on a mission of holiness and simplicity. Her courageous resistance to the attacks by soldiers on their lives and politicians on their radical ideals made her an incredible leader, still guiding the more than 20,000 Poor Clare sisters in over 70 countries to this day. Next Item Previous Item

Veil of the Blessed Mother Feast Day: January 1 1st Century Mother of God ​ Through the faith and obedience of a young, teenaged girl from Jerusalem, the Savior of the World came to Earth. Mary, the daughter of Sts. Joachim and Anne, showed immense courage when visited by the archangel Gabriel, who brought the news that she would become the Mother of Jesus. And she continued to show that courage when she remained at the foot of her Son, as He hung upon the cross. As Roman Catholics, we have more theological doctrines, teachings, prayers, teachings, and devotions to Mary than any other faith group. We hold true four very important dogmatic beliefs: 1. that she is Theotokos, or Mother of God, 2. Her perpetual virginity, 3. The Immaculate Conception, and 4. Her Assumption into heaven. It is this fourth and final dogma that leads us to a relic from the Blessed Virgin Mary; we firmly believe that following her death, she was Assumed body and spirit up into heaven. Not a single first-class relic of Mary will ever be found. However, a few of her personal items remained here on Earth, which would be second-class relics. Of these, the most venerated around the world is the veil of Mary. Through many of the monumental moments of Jesus’ life, there was the veiled Mary – presenting Jesus in the temple, initiating the first public miracle at the wedding in Cana, and even praying with the Apostles following His death. It’s unlikely that the seamstress who weaved the silk thread into a beautiful veil could ever have guessed the miracles it would be present for, sitting upon Our Lady’s head. The life of Mary, and the journey of her veil, are not highly documented and many details have been disputed over the years, but the pieces of information that we do know point to Mary having lived in Ephesus following the death and Resurrection of Jesus. She lived with John, having been instructed by Jesus upon the cross to take Mary into his house, in what is now present-day Turkey. Her death is not recorded in the scriptures, but tradition told of her body being placed in a tomb in Jerusalem, where she experienced her “dormition”, meaning that Mary did not experience the violent separation of body and spirit that occurs due to the stain of original sin; but instead, Mary, free from original sin, “fell asleep” and was assumed, body and spirit into heaven. The Apostles, upon realizing that Mary had been assumed into heaven, collected her belongings that remained, including her veil. They were kept in Jerusalem until around the year 400, before St. Jerome, the secretary to Pope Damasus I, took the Mantle of Joseph and Veil of Mary back to Rome for safekeeping. Had St. Jerome not relocated these precious relics, they likely would have been destroyed during the Muslim invasions that soon followed in Jerusalem. Tracing the remaining journey of the veil is a tough task, but history tells of the veil being transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople around the year 800. After being presented by the Empress Irene to the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, it was then given to his descendant Charles the Bald, who gave the relic to a cathedral in Chartres, France. It was in Chartres that stories tell of the veil being taken from the church and paraded as a flag of war in the year 911, when the bandit Rollo and his henchmen were besieging the town. With the veil proudly raised above the city by the bishop, Rollo and his men were defeated, and the siege failed. The veil was placed in a reliquary, which began attracting pilgrims far and wide to pray near the veil. Since the veil was viewed to provide a divine protection, many pilgrims placed shirts up against the reliquary in order to wear them prior to going to war or giving birth. The cathedral in Chartres was badly damaged by a fire in the year 1194, and many feared the veil had been destroyed. However, three days after the fire, a procession of priests emerged from the church with the relic intact, having been rushed to a crypt beneath the cathedral for safety. The cardinal of the area declared this as a sign from Mary that she desired a “more magnificent church”, and reconstruction began immediately. Fast forward to the 14th century, when a lead box was discovered at the Basilica of St. Anastasia, where St. Jerome had served as the parish priest. Two miles from St. Peter’s, the boxes were opened, and the Veil of Mary and Mantle of St. Joseph were discovered. They were immediately enshrined in the chapel, and in the 1750’s, the bishop authorized the creation of relics from tiny pieces of the veil. Scientific tests on the veil found that the silk veil is of Syrian design and can be traced back to the 1st century. At one point, the fabric was thought to be that of a tunic, but after being unwound, it was discovered to in fact be a veil. Every year in August, on the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, the veil is processed with great reverence. With shared reverence, have in our reliquary a small thread of this very veil in the Our Lady of the Angels Chapel. May this relic guide us closer to Jesus in order to grow in faith and love for Him, just as the wearer of this beautiful veil demonstrated every day of her life. Next Item Previous Item

St. Benedict of Nursia Feast Day: July 11 480 Abbot, Founder of Benedictines ​ Next Item Previous Item

St. Mary Magdalene Feast Day: July 22 UNK Apostle to the Apostles ​ Next Item Previous Item