Bishop Vincenzo Viva, presides over the Solemnity of Saint Clare of Assisi at the Poor Clare Monastery in Albano

A calling that sets one on the journey

A calling that becomes contagious—that of Saint Clare of Assisi—when, in San Damiano, even her mother Ortolana and her sister Beatrice embraced the same form of life. This is confirmation that it was not an isolated choice but rather “a calling that even today sets us on the journey, if we listen to it—a calling that provokes processes of inner transformation”. Thus spoke the Bishop of Albano, Monsignor Vincenzo Viva, as he presided over the concelebrated Eucharist on the feast of Saint Clare of Assisi, Monday afternoon, August 11, at the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception of the Poor Clares, located within the territory of the Pontifical Villas. The latter are administered by the Governorate of Vatican City State.

The Poor Clares had invited the faithful to take part in the celebration in order to “praise, bless, and thank the ‘Father of Mercies’ for the luminous life of Saint Clare” and to ask, through her intercession, “for the gift of fidelity to Christ and to the values of the Gospel, so as to be instruments of peace for all humanity.”

At the conclusion of the Mass, Monsignor Viva blessed the “Bread of Saint Clare”, which was then distributed to the faithful.

The origin of this tradition goes back to the famous miracle of the saint, when she multiplied half a loaf of bread for fifty sisters. The tradition tells that only one loaf of bread remained in the monastery. Clare instructed Sister Cecilia to send half to the friars and to cut the other half into fifty slices. Faced with the sister’s hesitation, Clare began to pray and urged Sister Cecilia to trust in Providence. Miraculously, the bread was enough to feed all fifty sisters.

The miraculous event is depicted in one of the eight scenes on the Altarpiece of Saint Clare (1283), kept inside the Basilica of Saint Clare in Assisi.

The custom of offering blessed bread on the feast of the saint arose from the practice of preparing hundreds of small loaves for the poor. The gesture was not mere charity; it was a concrete sign of Saint Clare’s legacy—sharing, in poverty, the goods available. It was also meant to be an invitation to trust in Providence, in memory of the multiplication of the loaves.

The feast at the Albano monastery was preceded by a solemn triduum preached by Friar Rino Bernardini, OFM, from Friday, August 8, to Sunday, August 10. On Saturday, August 9, during the 6:00 p.m. Eucharistic Celebration, the Poor Clares renewed their monastic vows. The triduum concluded on Sunday, August 10, with the commemoration of the Transitus of Saint Clare.

The following is the homily of Bishop Viva:

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Saint Clare in the heart of this Jubilee Year, so rich in grace also for our Diocese of Albano. Still fresh in our hearts is the recent visit of the Holy Father to our Cathedral and to our Poor Clare sisters: right here in this church, before the tabernacle, Pope Francis paused in prayer with our sisters; with them he shared a dialogue made of fraternity and joy, of mutual listening and encouragement.

Two Sundays ago, fifteen hundred young people from the diocese concluded their Jubilee with a celebration that was truly moving and impressive.

On one hand, the Jubilee invites us to be pilgrims, to set out on a journey, to cross the Holy Doors opened in the Basilicas of Rome. On the other hand, you, dear Poor Clares, with your radical choice of life—your charism of spiritual spousal union, of contemplation in enclosure, of poverty, joy, and comunal life—remind us of a fundamental truth: there is an inner pilgrimage to make that is far more important than any outward pilgrimage. There is a door to cross—one that the open doors in Rome point to and signify for each of us. This door is called Jesus Christ, his living person, who is waiting for us and wants to meet us.

The eighteen-year-old girl from Assisi… can you imagine her? On the night of Palm Sunday in 1212, she left her father’s house to join Francis at the Porziuncola. In her heart, she had already heard that spousal call we heard today in the first reading from the prophet Hosea: “Therefore, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her… I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.” The gesture of cutting her hair before the altar of Our Lady of the Angels was not, for Clare, a break with life—on the contrary. It was the discovery of true life. Clare had found in Christ the Bridegroom her heart was seeking. This is the door each of us must truly cross in this Jubilee Year.

Saint Augustine reminds us with words that never grow old: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” This longing—innate to the human person—found in Clare a radical response. The young noblewoman, raised in comfort, chose the path of the most absolute poverty.

And see what happened: when her sister Agnes joined her—only sixteen years old—at San Damiano, and when her mother Ortolana and yet another sister, Beatrice, embraced the same way of life, it became clear that this was not an isolated choice. It was a calling that becomes contagious—a calling that even today sets us on the journey, if we listen to it, provoking processes of inner transformation.

We thus discover an important truth: to set out on pilgrimage for the Jubilee, to cross a Holy Door, ultimately means allowing oneself to be transformed by Christ, to discover the true dwelling place of the Jubilee, which is “to remain in Christ.” This verb—“remain”—resounds in the Gospel of John we have just heard. We can say that it characterized Clare’s entire experience: “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.” Clare understood this when she settled permanently at San Damiano. In that little church which Francis had restored, stone by stone, obeying the voice of the Crucifix, Clare found her true home.

Think of it: for forty-two years she never again left those walls! And yet her spiritual influence reached all of Europe. Her enclosure was not confinement, but total openness to God; not isolation, but universal communion.

We know from our own experience how beautiful it is sometimes to remain in a place where we feel at home and welcomed. How beautiful it is to linger in the company of those who love us. The evangelist John takes this expression from common Greek usage and gives it a new meaning, relating it to what Christ works in our lives.

There is an intimate communion between Christ and his disciples. Jesus invites us to enter into this communion, to remain in it, so that our life may bear fruit in the Gospel sense. But where can we experience this remaining—this mystical union—even though we are made of clay, fragile and vulnerable (cf. 2 Cor 4:6–17)?

I would like to recall three places:

In Scripture: Lectio divina becomes an inner pilgrimage. Each sacred page is a door through which the living Christ continues to speak to our conscience. In this Holy Year, let us rediscover our relationship with Scripture as the word of life.

In the Liturgy: Every Eucharistic celebration is a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy, where even now we share in the joy of the Kingdom. Especially in the Eucharist we experience “remaining in Christ.” Many of you find right here in this church, every morning at 7:00 a.m., thanks to the well-prepared and carefully celebrated liturgy of our Poor Clare sisters, a place to “remain” in Christ, to encounter his love that gives direction to the day.

In the Theological Life: in daily witness. Faith, hope and charity, lived with commitment, are the place where we bear witness to our belonging to Christ. In our witness as disciples of the Lord today, it is evident that we “belong” to him and that in him we have “our true dwelling place.”

As we celebrate today your holy mother, we entrust to her intercession the intentions of this Jubilee Year. We also ask you, dear Poor Clares, for this intercessory prayer: that Clare may obtain for the universal Church the grace to be ever more a “door of hope” for lost humanity.

May your precious witness—of radical spousal love, of poverty and fraternity—awaken vocations in our local Church and help all of us to grow in the desire to “remain in the love of Christ” and to bear fruits of holiness and joy in the world. Then it will truly be a Jubilee—a Holy Year blessed by the Lord. Saint Clare, pray for us all! Amen.