August 11: St. Clare, Virgin

She heard Francis, left comfort, and slept on the floor for forty-one years

Silicon Valley is not, topographically, a valley. The name is a contrivance dating from the 1970s and 80s. The actual valley is named after today’s saint. Santa Clara Valley, running southeast from the southern shores of San Francisco Bay, was named after its beating heart, Mission Santa Clara de Asís—a church, school, and farm—founded by Franciscan Friars in 1777. The current mission church, a beautiful twentieth-century idealization of mission architecture, sits on the site of the original Mission structure and is the iconic campus centerpiece of Santa Clara University, California’s oldest. It’s likely that Saint Clare never left her convent in Assisi, Italy, for the last forty years of her life. Yet a valley, city, and university in far away California are named in her honor. That a medieval, cloistered, Catholic nun is still so present to a hyper-modern portion of the world is a testament to the global reach and cultural impact of Catholicism and the Franciscan order.

Clare of Assisi was born about a decade after and in the same small town as Saint Francis. Many of Clare’s earliest friends became nuns in her community, survived her, and gave testimony in her canonization process, reporting interesting details about her early life. Clare was from an economically comfortable family in the upper part of Assisi, in the neighborhood of the....

Attributions

[RoyNo-fh]

ST. Clare, Virgin. Pray for us. Thank you, and God bless you. AMEN...❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊

[hoacao]

I love St Clara Who has inspired me to love Eucharist Jesus and keep pure body.

[josemariaobiajulu]

St. Clare please help us to see God's grace and blessings in my life. Amen🙏🏾💜💙🌹🌹

[MariaLacsamana-ikin]

St. Claire of assisi, pray for us & help me not to lose hope in our lord I have my doubts sometimes that im so ashamed since I came from z catholic family I admit I'm weak, a sinner but your guidance may lead me to become a truly authentic Christian ✝️ 🙏 😢 of this world amen amen 😅😅😅😊

[patgordon]

Their penances were due to their radical love of Jesus, as intercession that the whole world would get to know Him too. They were not masochists. Please add this catechetical point as new people might not understand. Thank you.