#Poor Clare nuns

[bereavedmum]

Maybe deep down inside we somehow knew this little one would only be with us for a season

“This won’t affect your fertility” I was still groggy from the anaesthetic and doped from morphine but these were very welcome words from Dr Martin, our consultant gynaecologist. He had just removed a gangrenous ovary and fallopian tube from my left side. Rachel, our only child at the time, was 18 months old. By the time Rachel was 2 years old there was still no sign of a brother or sister for…

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1943 – A fire broke out in a Co Cavan orphanage ran by the enclosed order of Poor Clare nuns killing thirty-five children and an adult.

Thirty-five children and one adult die in a Cavan orphanage fire at St. Joseph’s Orphanage Industrial School run by the enclosed order of Poor Clare nuns. Many of the children were orphans, others were committed either because they were born out-of-wedlock or as in the case of two unfortunates allegedly committed because the local Roman Catholic priest did not want the children to be looked after…

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Colette 1381-1447 Feast day: March 6 Patronage: Women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers and sick children

Saint Colette, born Nicole Boellet (or Boylet), was a French abbess and the foundress of the Colettine Poor Clares, a reform branch of the Order of Saint Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. Due to a number of miraculous events claimed during her life, she is venerated as the patron saint of women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers and sick children. {website}

[bisayangprayle]

In one of the subdivisions in Catalunan Grande, Davao City, one may notice a very narrow road leading to a seemingly ordinary gate with a fading, small tarp stating: "Monasterio de Sta. Clara." But behind the gate and high walls attached to it, is a beautiful Church and a monastery of nuns - the nuns of the Capuchin Poor Clares of the Blessed Sacrament (Clarissas Capuchinas Sacramentarias). They spend the rest of their lives inside the monastery, contemplating in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

Many years ago, in their monastery in Laoag (Ilocos), whenever they had conferences/ classes with their spiritual director (a friar), novice brothers should replace them for the adoration to the Blessed Sacrament. One brother will spend 30 minutes to one hour sitting, but "preferably" kneeling for the Adoration. Then afterwards, he would be replaced by another brother. If the next brother will not come, the Blessed Sacrament shouldn't be left alone. It is most challenging for those assigned to adore at 'midnight' onwards.

[beautiful-basque-country]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/realestate/spain-nuns-convents-poor-clares-of-belorado.html

What a horrible, awfully researched article that just describes the sedevacantist nunettes as victims of the evil Catholic church - which is in fact evil, but they're no victims.

Also, they kicked Pablo de Rojas out because he was too extreme as to make them pray on their knees, omfg. Like you can be a francoist, an homophobe, and a complete bigot, but praying on their knees??? That's where our girls draw the line.

The only saving grace is the statement of a citizen of the Basque town of Orduña called Bixintxo Azkarraga: On a recent morning, Bixintxo Azkarraga, 59, was buying a loaf of bread at the Orduña village market. He has bought sweets from the nuns there in the past, but he said he wouldn’t buy from them again. “One thing is buying cakes from a nun,” he said. “Another thing is buying from a fascist.”

Bixintxo, kuttuna, I LOVE YOU.

[sgiandubh]

Hello! I am Caitriona anon. My ask was prompted by a comment from succulently speaking who commented in your post a few days ago “what has Sam done wrong and what exactly do you want him to do”? You responded he needed to step up his game. That’s why I asked about Caitriona because I thought it funny how much you post about Sam and what he should or shouldn’t be doing and I thought, I wonder why Caitriona doesn’t get that same treatment? I've been following you since you got here. I understand your position. My only quibble is I don’t think of them as one entity and I think Cait especially has pushed against this for years. She’s offended at the notion. As I said, of course it's your blog and you can post whatever you'd like and certainly don't owe me an explanation, but I thank you for the one you gave anyway. I’ll continue to read you because I enjoy you. I hope I didn’t offend or that I was impertinent.

Dear (returning) Caitriona Anon,

For an Anti, you sound pretty literate and polite. So, I am going to answer you and try to keep this dialogue line open. Try me: keeping dialogues open is my bread and butter, IRL. Has been so for twenty years.

Thank you for understanding my position, but I do not really need to be 'understood', like a minor Romantic poet by his posterity. I try very hard to rationalize yours and I believe it is your constitutional right to believe what you want about this saga. Conversely, it is my prerogative to believe exactly what I want about it, based on what I do consider to be relevant facts. Not social media, press circus or PR induced tacky blogger manipulation.

Having said that, it is also my constitutional right to express my opinions and try to encourage others to do so, in a no-drama, friendly environment. It would also seem that determined Mordor to marginally step up their game, for I seem to be the nightmare these people collectively manifested every single time they howled 'the shippers are stupid', on full moon nights.

Shippers are everything but stupid, pumpkin. They are witty, funny and completely immunized to bullshit. For rhetoric bullshit with honors is your question: why Caitriona doesn’t get that same treatment?

You know very well why and I am going to tell you a Romanian proverb: cine nu muncește, nu greșește. Loosely translated: no work, no mistakes. How do you want me to say anything about a statue, who doesn't show us anything else about her life anymore, spare her outfits, her make-up and some rare events, with or sans the PA? Oh, and marGINally, her erratic business projects, for ever ongoing, hinted and never ever, God forbid, materialized? SAG-AFTRA strike? News of it never seemed to have made it to Caitrionaland. Israel-Palestine conflict? Prudent silence, but hello Tilda, darling, how are you. Ukraine? Last I heard/seen, a short appeal for helping the refugees and then crickets. Women's rights? Again, a short snippet on Persia, then mum. Just what the fuck is this supposed to be? Surely not a coherent PR strategy for a gifted, intelligent and fun (yes, fun!!) 44 year old actress who wants to keep her lucky strike going on! Let me tell you: she doesn't come across as dignified. She comes across as despising, condescending and entitled. Too cool for school, too sexy for your car, peons.

She is not Queen Victoria, for crying out loud, and we are definitely not amused!

You then proceed to say 'she pushed against it for years'? Please, do not insult my intelligence! She pushed against shippers who deface the nice Narrative, when she needed sympathy and massive support for her Belfast promo, unwittingly making a major PR blunder and for ever fracturing this fandom in at least two savagely antagonistic camps. Then, a cold, totally DGAF attitude, including towards her stans: tough to be her stan, when your Goddess is more silent than a Poor Clare (pun totally intended) nun! And she denied being an item with S (which is a complete, pious lie), because that is the Narrative, ever since IFH.

So, it's safe to say: yes, public Caitriona Balfe is dismissive of the notion, but since when is social media indicative of an undeniable or even intimate truth, especially in that particular world of hers? Oh, and by the way: sorry to be pedantic, but - it's offended by the notion, not 'at the notion'. Simple curiosity: you translate your thoughts from which language, exactly? My bet would be either German: bei, or Russian: обидеться на - yes: literally 'offended at'.

My complete Romanian proverb includes a conclusion. In full, it would be: cine nu muncește, nu greșește, dar nici nu reușește. No work, no mistake, no success.

How I wish to be proven wrong, Anon, on that one: you can't even imagine! Thank you for the time you took to answer me. I am afraid we agree to disagree. Change my mind? Not in a million years.

[beardedmrbean]

Sixteen Spanish nuns have announced they are breaking from the Catholic Church and instead placing themselves under the authority of Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco, a self-styled bishop who was excommunicated in 2019.

The 16 Poor Clare sisters, part of the Franciscan Order of Saint Clare, were based in the dioceses of Burgos and Vitoria in northern Spain.

The schism comes against the backdrop of conservative anger over the leadership of Pope Francis. In February, 90 Catholic clergymen and scholars wrote a letter to "all Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Church," urging them to oppose a document approved by the pontiff that allowed priests to bless same-sex couples. Earlier this month, Francis angered many American conservatives by describing efforts to prevent migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexican border as "madness."

The 16 nuns, led by Sister Isabel of the Trinity, announced their break from Catholic authorities in a five-page open letter published on their convent's website.

In the letter, Sister Isabel said Catholics have had to endure "the silence of our pastors," who "left their sheep alone and helpless to face the wolves."

Referring to the papacy, she added: "From the Throne of Peter we have been receiving contradiction, confusion and doublespeak, ambiguity, lack of clear doctrine, which is all the more necessary in stormy times, to hold the rudder more firmly.

"During this time the sisters, each in her own style, way and rhythm, have been contemplating a question, a doubt about the one who steers the Barque of Peter, and his closest collaborators. A doubt which, in time, became SCANDAL."

Newsweek has contacted the press office of the Holy See for comment by email.

Sister Isabel also said the Vatican prevented the community from selling an empty monastery in Derio, the proceeds of which were intended to pay for a new monastery in Orduña. She said the decision was a bid to control "traditionally minded communities and keep their real estate to sell."

The sister said the group would instead put itself under the authority of Sánchez-Franco, whom she styled a "legitimate bishop of the Holy Catholic Church" despite his excommunication by the Vatican.

She added: "They are going to call us heretics and schismatics, crazy, and many more very disagreeable and calumnious things, but don't believe them; at least this once, don't let them fool you."

In an attached 70-page document titled "Catholic Manifesto," the group said it recognized "H.H. Pius XII as the last valid Supreme Pontiff," adding that "the see of St. Peter is vacant and usurped."

In a broadcast on Spanish radio station COPE, Archbishop Mario Iceta of Burgos, under whose jurisdiction the 16 nuns fell, said when he first heard they were leaving, he "thought it was fake news," the Catholic News Agency reported.

He said the schism "seems absolutely wrong," adding that the church must see "if it is possible to heal it, cure it, reverse it" through dialogue with the nuns.

According to the Catholic News Agency, the archbishop added: "I don't know if they realize the profound consequences that this step has and that is why my option or my opinion is that this should not be done precipitously, let this media tidal wave pass, let's see if it's possible to establish a relationship with them and dialogue and look at these issues and give them time to reconsider this situation that seems so surprising and strange to me."

[thebaronmunchausen]

Chin Chin Guitierrez was too good for the role of Maria Clara

She conveys strength, shrewdness, reliability, a bit of ruthlessness.

(Ugh she's so pretty)

Ironically, those virtues in a female character usually make her a kontrabida in our narratives (Chin Chin's best role, the intimidating mother-in-law Corazon Berenguer from 'Maging Sino Ka Man,' exemplifies it). Yung tipong sasabunutan ka when she's had too much of you

(Ugh yes please Chin Chin)

That we villlainize strong women really says a lot about Filipino values, no?

In contrast, Rizal's Maria Clara - the ideal Filipina woman - is a weak and stupid woman rendered powerless by her own virtue.

She was blackmailed by her stalker Padre Salvi with Padre Damaso's letters revealing that she was the elder priest's illegitimate child.

She could have told the stalker 'go to town boi, my mom was raped, she was a victim! And let's see what Damaso will do to you if he learns you trash talked him!' But instead Inday Mari gave Salvi Ibarra's letters, letters Salvi subsequently used to get Ibarra arrested, making Maria Clara complicit to Ibarra's arrest

(Ugh sorry kaganda talaga ni Chin Chin)

Tapos ayun, when Maria Clara decided she wanted to be a nun, sa dinamidami ng order, she chooses to be a Poor Clare e alam naman ng gaga na sa Sta Clara nag-chaplain yung nagblackmail sa kanya

So ginawa siyang comfort woman ni Salvi - she had more than enough chances to stab the fucker in the neck with those sewing needles while the priest was on top of her, pero wala, isinadiyos lang lahat ng tonta, e God is on the side of the winners

Chin Chin looks like if she met Maria Clara, binatukan na niya

Is Maria Clara really the ideal Filipina? Boba, Hindi marunong lumaban, pavictim lang?

Or is this part of the conditioning of the Filipino people to glorify their misery and console their own enslavement with delusions of being on the moral high ground, believing in dei ex machinis that would somehow bring about poetic justice, all the while keeping them from doing anything, making them unwittingly complicit to the perpetuation of their own victimhood?

Ang totoong kalaban ay ang sariling kahinaan. Marahil nga't sa buhay ay hindi maiiwasan ang masugat sa patalim, ngunit hindi naman kailangang ilapag ang leeg sa sangkalan.

(Ugh Chin Chin is so pretty, siya ang ideal woman)

—Karlo Antonio Galay David, fb post, July 29 2024

[anastpaul]

Within the Corpus Christi Octave and the Saints for 31 May

Within the Corpus Christi Octave St Alexander of Auvergne St Camilla Battista da Varano OSC (1458-1524) Virgin, Italian Princess, Poor Clare Nun and Abbess, Mystic, Spiritual Writer, Stigmatist. Both Saint Philip Neri and St Alphonsus Liguori recorded their admiration for her. On 8 April 1821 Pope Leo XIII approved the acts of the process for her Canonisation. She was Beatified by Pope Gregory…

[elipheleh]

Santa Chiara

Continuing my series of learning about things referenced in the book, I'm looking at things referenced in Alex & Henry's visit to the V&A Museum. These are all tagged #a series of learning about things that are referenced in the book, if you want to block the tag.

Through the marble choir screen at the back of the room is a second, deeper chamber, this one filled with church relics. Past stained glass and statues of saints, at the very end of the room, is an entire high altar chapel removed from its church. The sign explains its original setting was the apse of the convent church of Santa Chiara in Florence in the fifteenth century, and it’s stunning, set deep into an alcove to create a real chapel, with statues of Santa Chiara and Saint Francis of Assisi. When they kiss, Alex can hear a half-remembered old proverb from catechism, mixed up between translations of the book: “Come, hijo mío, de la miel, porque es buena, and the honeycomb, sweet to thy taste.” He wonders what Santa Chiara would think of them, a lost David and Jonathan, turning slowly on the spot. -Chapter 10, Red White & Royal Blue

-----

The visual provided for this scene is the Chancel Chapel from the Church of Santa Chiara, in Florence. The only Italian Renaissance chapel outside of Italy, it consists of four parts - the Chapel and Frieze, the Tabernacle, and as Alex references, the Statues of Saint Francis and Saint Claire/Chiara. While the artist is unknown, it has been attributed to Giuliano de Sangallo or those associated with him, in the last decade of the 1400s. It was purchased on behalf of the V&A museum in 1860 by J.C. Robinson.

The Chapel belonged to the Poor Clares order of nuns, whose founders were the Saints featured in the piece - St Francis and St Claire/Chiara. The convent of Santa Chiara was founded on the site of a hospital, and this altar was commissioned by the brother of some of the nuns, Jacopo Bongianni in the 1490s.

-----

The proverb Alex remembers is from Proverbs 24:13. I've included both the English and the Spanish versions. I used the King James Version of the English bible and the Reina-Valera Antigua for the Spanish version.

Come, hijo mío, de la miel, porque es buena, Y del panal dulce á tu paladar. My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste.

-----

David and Jonathan are characters in the Book of Samuel in the bible. Many queer people look to them as an example of a queer relationship that was affirmed and blessed by God. Jonathan was the son of the first King of Israel, and David became the second King of Israel.

When they were introduced to each other, Jonathan took an immediate liking to David and "the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as himself". [1 Samuel 18] Following Jonathan's death, David expresses that Jonathan's love for him was "more wonderful than that of women". [2 Samuel 1] He also later adopts Jonathan's adult son, Mephibosheth, saying "I will [...] show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan." [2 Samuel 9] He does so despite the risk this poses to his position as King - Mephibosheth was a potential claimant to the throne, being the grandson of the former King.

Oscar Wilde referenced David and Jonathan in the well known reference to "the love that dare not speak its name" during his trial. We know that Henry has an affection for Wilde - Alex sees a copy of his complete works on Henry's nightstand.

Sources: V&A - Chancel chapel from Church of Santa Chiara, Florence Proverbs 24:13, Spanish and English QSpirit - David and Jonathan: Same-sex love between men in the Bible - the comments on this contain homophobia Samuel references - 1 Samuel 18, 2 Samuel 1, 2 Samuel 9

[immediatebreakfast]

"Say ye, who preach Heaven shall decide When in the lists two champions ride, Say, was Heaven’s justice here? When, loyal in his love and faith, Wilton found overthrow or death, Beneath a traitor’s spear? How false the charge, how true he fell, This guilty packet best can tell."

Powerful, truly powerful. Constance telling loud, and clear how Marmion blatantly cheated under the eyes of the king, the church, and even herself to force Clare to marry him was chilling. How this lord decided to ignore all laws, and take advantage of chivarly to gain Clare's lands. Constance tells that Marmion may be a lord, but he is nothing more than a cheating bastard as a man.

How she never denied anything about her current situation, and told herself every single thing. Yes, Constance de Beverley escaped the convent to become Marmion's page boy, yes she laid with him and loved him, but after being abandoned then imprisoned for her murder attempt against Clare she holds nothing but hatred towards the traitor lord.

And now my tongue the secret tells, Not that remorse my bosom swells, But to assure my soul that none Shall ever wed with Marmion. Had fortune my last hope betrayed, This packet, to the King conveyed, Had given him to the headsman’s stroke, Although my heart that instant broke. Now, men of death, work forth your will, For I can suffer, and be still; And come he slow, or come he fast, It is but Death who comes at last.

It's incredible how Constance took control of her own doom in the last second. She knows she is going to die today, that the powers of the church won't give mercy upon her for her crimes are unforgivable, yet Constance de Beverley isn't going to die a poor fool, but as the person who made that lord's plans impossible.

From a runaway nun to the first bell that marks Marmion's doom, and the end of the knightly England as they know it.

[troybeecham]

Today, the Church remembers Saint Clare of Assisi, Monastic.

Ora pro nobis.

St. Clare (Chiara in Italian) was one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life, the first set of monastic guidelines known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares.

She was born in Assisi (July 16, 1194 – August 11, 1253 AD), and was the eldest daughter of Favorino Sciffi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, and his wife Ortolana. Traditional accounts say that Clare's father was a wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in Assisi and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio. Ortolana belonged to the noble family of Fiumi, and was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land. Later in life, Ortolana entered Clare's monastery, as did Clare's sisters, Beatrix and Catarina.

As a child, Clare was devoted to prayer. Although there is no mention of this in any historical record, it is assumed that Clare was to be married in line with the family tradition. However, at the age of 18 she heard Francis preach during a Lenten service in the church of San Giorgio at Assisi and asked him to help her to live after the manner of the Gospel. On the evening of Palm Sunday, March 20, 1212, she left her father's house and accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion proceeded to the chapel of the Porziuncula to meet Francis. There, her hair was cut, and she exchanged her rich gown for a plain robe and veil.

Francis placed Clare in the convent of the Benedictine nuns of San Paulo, near Bastia. Her father attempted to force her to return home. She clung to the altar of the church and threw aside her veil to show her cropped hair. She resisted any attempt, professing that she would have no other husband but Jesus Christ. In order to provide the greater solitude Clare desired, a few days later Francis sent her to Sant' Angelo in Panzo, another monastery of the Benedictine nuns on one of the flanks of Subasio. Clare was soon joined by her sister Catarina, who took the name Agnes. They remained with the Benedictines until a small dwelling was built for them next to the church of San Damiano, which Francis had repaired some years earlier.

Other women joined them, and they were known as the "Poor Ladies of San Damiano". They lived a simple life of poverty, austerity and seclusion from the world, according to a Rule which Francis gave them as a Second Order.

San Damiano became the center of Clare's new religious order, which was known in her lifetime as the "Order of Poor Ladies of San Damiano". San Damiano was long thought to be the first house of this order, however, recent scholarship strongly suggests that San Damiano actually joined an existing network of women's religious houses organized by Hugolino (who later became Pope Gregory IX). Hugolino wanted San Damiano as part of the order he founded because of the prestige of Clare's monastery. San Damiano emerged as the most important house in the order, and Clare became its undisputed leader. By 1263, just ten years after Clare's death, the order had become known as the Order of Saint Clare.

In 1228, when Gregory IX offered Clare a dispensation from the vow of strict poverty, she replied: "I need to be absolved from my sins, but not from the obligation of following Christ." Accordingly, the Pope granted them the Privilegium Pauperitatis — that nobody could oblige them to accept any possession.

Unlike the Franciscan friars, whose members moved around the country to preach, Saint Clare's sisters lived in enclosure, since an itinerant life was hardly conceivable at the time for women. Their life consisted of manual labor and prayer. The nuns went barefoot, slept on the ground, ate no meat and observed almost complete silence.

For a short period, the order was directed by Francis himself. Then in 1216, Clare accepted the role of abbess of San Damiano. As abbess, Clare had more authority to lead the order than when she was the prioress and required to follow the orders of a priest heading the community. Clare defended her order from the attempts of prelates to impose a rule on them that more closely resembled the Rule of Saint Benedict than Francis' stricter vows. Clare sought to imitate Francis' virtues and way of life so much so that she was sometimes titled ‘alter Franciscus’, another Francis. She also played a significant role in encouraging and aiding Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure, and she took care of him during his final illness.

After Francis' death, Clare continued to promote the growth of her order, writing letters to abbesses in other parts of Europe and thwarting every attempt by each successive pope to impose a rule on her order which weakened the radical commitment to corporate poverty she had originally embraced. Clare's Franciscan theology of joyous poverty in imitation of Christ is evident in the rule she wrote for her community and in her four letters to Agnes of Prague.

In 1224, the army of Frederick II came to plunder Assisi. Clare went out to meet them with the Blessed Sacrament in her hands. Suddenly a mysterious terror seized the enemies, who fled without harming anybody in the city.

In her later years, Clare endured a long period of poor health. She died on 11 August 1253 at the age of 59. Her last words as reported to have been, "Blessed be You, O God, for having created me."

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Clare, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

[portraitsofsaints]

Mother Angelica

Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA

April 20, 1923 - March 27, 2016

Mother Angelica (Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration) was an American Franciscan nun who founded EWTN Television, WEWN Radio, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, Our Lady of Angels Monastery and The Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament. Born in Canton, OH, she had a difficult childhood and battled debilitating health issues throughout her life. Mother maintained a strong love of Christ, her spouse, a love of Eucharist adoration and redemptive suffering. With a fiery faith in divine Providence and huge obstacles, she spread the faith throughout the world through her media outlets.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[eopederson3]

Iglesia, Belorado, Burgos, 2011.

Today's New York Times has a fascinating story about an order of nuns in Belorado excommunicated by the Vatican. They once made their income selling sweets, candy and pastries, and on a couple of pilgrimages stopping for a break the small city I enjoyed those pastries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/realestate/spain-nuns-convents-poor-clares-of-belorado.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[heresylog]

tl;dr the nuns formerly known as the Poor Clares wrote a manifesto declaring the current pope as a heretic and wanting to go back to Vatican I

Wait, some nuns of the order of St. Claire in Orduña have been asking the bishop for a licence to sell their pastries at the Derio monastery for 10 years, to no avail.

And they're so fed up they have officially rejected the Pope, archbishops, and bishops, and are now creating a schism inside their order because they're gonna sell those fucking pastries whether they like it or not.

WTF is this fantasy!!!!!