Sanctuary of Women: Blog

Saint Clare © Jan L. Richardson

When I became the Artist in Residence at a Catholic retreat center more than a decade ago, it was due in large measure to the hospitality of the Franciscan community that administered the center. I harbor a deep fondness for Franciscans as a result, and so August 11 is a particular day of celebration. It’s the Feast of Saint Clare, the friend and colleague of Saint Francis who became a remarkable leader in her own right.

Born in Assisi, Italy, around 1194, Clare was the third of five children born to the well-to-do Favorone family. The story is told that as Clare’s mother Ortulana anxiously prayed for her child’s safe birth, a voice called to her, “O lady, do not be afraid, for you will joyfully bring forth a clear light that will illumine the world.” When she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Ortulana and her husband named her Chiara or Clare: the clear one, the bright one.

In his book Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, Regis Armstrong relates a story about Clare that took place on Palm Sunday in 1212. He writes that “when all the young ladies of the town customarily dressed in their finest and proudly processed to the Bishop for a palm branch…Clare remained in her place, prompting him to come to her.” Although some ascribed her reticence to shyness, Armstrong suggests that this was “a symbolic gesture suggesting her renunciation of the social conventions of the time with all the vanity and appeal to wealth with which they were imbued and the Bishop’s awareness and reverence of the movement of God within her.” That same Sunday, Clare, who had befriended a radical young preacher named Francis, secretly went to Our Lady of Angels, the Portiuncula, where she made a commitment to Francis and his spiritual brothers to embrace their life of devotion and poverty.

Clare lived in several monasteries, moving more than once to avoid pressure from her family, who had sought to arrange a marriage for her. Other women later joined her, including her mother, and Clare became the leader of the Poor Ladies of San Damiano, later to be known as the Poor Clares. Clare and her sisters shared Francis’s passion for poverty, humility, and charity to all, particularly those on the margins of the affluent society in which Clare and Francis had grown up.

In a time when women’s monastic communities received various forms of protection from the church, including financial support, Clare insisted that her community have the right to poverty, trusting that the goodwill of others would provide for their needs. The church authorities resisted Clare on this point, but she refused to relent. Finally, on August 10, 1253, Clare received an approved copy of the Rule she had written for her community. Bearing the seal of Pope Innocent IV, the document ensured that the charism of poverty would remain the privilege of the community that Clare had founded. Clare died the next day.

Although tradition attached to Clare the identity of la pianticella (the little plant) of Saint Francis, she embodied her own distinct vision, one that continued to shape Franciscan life after Francis’s death. Clare’s few surviving writings reveal a deep commitment to a God-centered life, a life in which she sought to give up all that would hinder intimacy with God.

In Clare’s “Second Letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague,” she offers this blessing:

What you hold, may you [always] hold.
What you do, may you [always] do and never abandon.
But with swift pace, light step,
unswerving feet,
so that even your steps stir up no dust,
may you go forward
securely, joyfully, and swiftly,
on the path of prudent happiness,
not believing anything,
not agreeing with anything
that would dissuade you from this resolution
or that would place a stumbling block for you on the way,
so that you may offer your vows to the Most High
in the pursuit of that perfection
to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you.

And so may this be our blessing for this day. Happy Feast of Saint Clare!

Artwork: detail from “Saint Clare” © Jan L. Richardson. To use this image, please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Thank you!

This reflection originally appeared at The Painted Prayerbook. Clare’s blessing is taken from Regis Armstrong’s book Clare of Assisi: Early Documents.

At Her Prayers: Mary Magdalene with a
Book of Hours © Jan L. Richardson

At this point in the year, we are well into Ordinary Time, so called because it is a season in the Christian year that is largely absent of major holy days. I know for lots of folks this season comes as a sweet relief after the wondrous but so very intense days between the beginning of Advent and the Day of Pentecost! With its different rhythms, there is yet much to savor in these days of Ordinary Time, as God invites us to notice the presence of the sacred in the midst of the habits and routines of our daily lives. And there are some  splendid opportunities for celebration in this season.

One such occasion for celebration happens tomorrow: it’s the Feast of Mary Magdalene, the ever-intriguing follower and friend of Jesus. Called by Christ to be the first to tell the news of his resurrection, the Magdalene became known in the Middle Ages as the “apostle to the apostles” for her role in proclaiming the good news.

The Middle Ages stirred up some great legends about the Magdalene, particularly in France, where Mary Magdalene was said to have journeyed after Christ’s ascension. The legends tell that she became a famous preacher (as a clergy chick I really like that one) and that her ministry in France included freeing prisoners from a jail. According to some legends, the Magdalene lived out her years as a hermit in the wilderness, clad only in her long hair. And at each of the liturgical hours, angels—so the legends say—would whoosh Mary up to heaven to join in the liturgy, then whoosh her back down to the wilderness until the next heavenly trip.

Though short on fact, the legends provide a charming window onto what many medieval folks thought of this woman whose ministry and message were so crucial in the life of the early Church and the spread of the Gospel. The medieval stories invite us to bring our own prayerful imaginations to the tale of Mary Magdalene and to listen our way into the wide gaps that are present in the handful of details that the Gospels offer about her life.

The Magdalene legends provided inspiration for a series I did some years ago called The Hours of Mary Magdalene; the image above comes from that series. Creating this mixed-media series, which incorporates paper collage, acrylic, and calligraphy and was inspired also by images of the Magdalene in medieval Books of Hours, was a wonderful way to climb into the story of Mary Magdalene. I’ve never seen her quite the same since then. Years later, she continues to tug at my imagination and prompts me to ask, What word is Christ calling me to proclaim in my own life? What good news am I being called to tell, and where?

I am open to going to France…

Earlier this year my remarkable singer/songwriter husband and I created a video that intertwines the images from The Hours of Mary Magdalene with his haunting song “Mary Magdalena.” If you journeyed with us here at Sanctuary of Women during Holy Week, this will be familiar to you, but on this eve of the Feast of Mary Magdalene, I wanted to share it again. Please note that if you click the Vimeo logo in the player below (in the bottom right corner), it will take you directly to a larger version of the video. We have also released the video on YouTube, where you can view it here.

May you have a festive Feast of Mary Magdalene! And many blessings to you in these days of Ordinary Time.

P.S. I’ve just launched a completely redesigned, brand-spankin’-new website at janrichardson.com and would love for you to visit!