A Literary Masterpiece and a Discrete Testimony of Princess Bibesco’s Faith

"In contemplating with wonder someone who is genuinely virtuous—someone who makes no effort to draw attention to herself, but shines as naturally as the sun on a spring day over Lago Maggiore—we come to perceive the beauty of Goodness and Truth."

From One Peter Five

By Robert Lazu Kmita, PhD

One of the most beautiful pages of literature and Christian witness ever written.

Ancient pagan cultures and the Judeo-Christian world have always “canonized” their heroes. The Greeks and Romans, like other idolatrous peoples, regarded the epoch-making heroes of their cultures as divine beings—in short, as demigods. Jewish culture has handed down to us the stories of the prophets of the Old Testament and, more rarely, of kings such as David and Solomon, or legendary warriors such as the Maccabean brothers. If the epic stories of Achilles, Odysseus, Heracles, or Aeneas are still read today, it is because of their exemplary character. They were, and remain, models of heroism and virtue.

Christian culture brought about a profound transformation, as can be seen in the lives of the desert fathers and hermits among whom Saint Anthony the Great shone so brightly. Military and physical heroism, grounded in secular virtues, was replaced by spiritual heroism, in which the adversaries confronted by the one advancing on the path of virtue are the fallen angels:

For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).

In other words, there was a transition from pre-Christian, military-chivalric heroism to Christian spiritual heroism, founded upon the power and grace of God. The exorcisation of the possessed, asceticism and mysticism, the practice of discernment, spiritual warfare—all these are realities and acts that are possible, indeed intelligible, only within a Christian context. From its very beginnings, the Church has held up as examples those heroes of the faith who practiced the supernatural virtues—Faith, Hope, and Charity. Their canonization, whether formal or informal, has always been the privileged means by which concrete models of holiness are proposed to us.

At the same time, Saint Francis de Sales reminds us of an important truth: many of these models are more worthy of admiration than of imitation. This is especially evident for us laypeople. It is clear that ascetic saints, monks, and contemplative nuns can be imitated only within a life of withdrawal that is practicable in monasteries and presupposes special graces. This is why we also need models suited to the vocation of the laity. For centuries—indeed, for more than a millennium—the world of the European Christian aristocracy provided such lay models.

If we think of families distinguished by holiness, such as that of Saint Macrina and Saint Basil the Great—which gave the Church no fewer than seven saints—or that of Saint Margaret of Scotland, or of other royal families such as that of Saint Stephen of Hungary and the Árpád dynasty, or of the illustrious Cardinals Charles and Federico Borromeo, we find in all these cases saints who emerged from the ranks of royalty and the aristocracy. Today, the true meaning of the word “aristocracy” has largely been forgotten. It is time to remember it: the rule of the good, of the virtuous (from the Greek aristos, “best of its kind, noblest, bravest, most virtuous,” and kratos, “rule, power”).

Understood in this sense, royal and aristocratic families furnished the Christian world, for centuries upon centuries, with its foremost models of excellence and virtue. This does not, of course, exclude the existence of counterexamples: members of royal and aristocratic houses who failed to honor their vocation and instead became occasions of scandal. Unfortunately, contemporary television and film tend to highlight almost exclusively this latter aspect. Yet this should not prevent us from discovering those truly remarkable members of the great royal and aristocratic houses of the past.

Received into the Catholic Church by Abbé Mugnier on 18 April 1912,[1] Princess Marthe Bibesco was profoundly transformed by her gradual conversion. A writer, memoirist, and diplomat of exceptional stature, she left in the thousands of pages of her writings abundant evidence of her Catholic commitment. Her journals are not only an inexhaustible source for the history of the twentieth century but also a testimony to her constant practice of the virtue of prudence. She rigorously avoided rash judgments, gossip, and calumny. Reading her pages, one becomes acutely aware, on the one hand, of how degraded today’s journalistic and media culture has become, feeding almost exclusively on scandal and defamation, and, on the other, of the radiant dignity of a person who avoided all such things with incomparable elegance.

Among all the practices of the religious life, two have always held pride of place: prayer and meditation. While the former is generally present in the life of every Christian, the latter—so insistently recommended by Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint Alphonsus Liguori—has been almost entirely forgotten. For most Catholics, the very notion of “meditation” evokes, if anything, Zen practices, but scarcely ever “active contemplation” or “mental prayer.” None of these realities was foreign to Princess Bibesco. Her journals are filled with biblical references—the fruit of her meditations.

At the end of most of her daily entries, often written in English and carefully dated, we find a verse from the day’s biblical reading. If we follow these references attentively, we discover not only that the author read Sacred Scripture daily and continuously, but also that she sought in its sacred words the keys to understanding the events through which she was living. Consider, for example, an entry from 1915, when the First World War was already wreaking havoc:

16 February 1915

Luncheon at Saint-Cloud (Princess Marie Bonaparte’s residence) with Briand and Le Bon. Dinner there as well. Reports had begun to circulate of cities reduced to ashes.

‘Literally, heaps of ashes,’ Briand remarked.

‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands’ (Mark 14:58).

What connection is there between the horrors of war and the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ quoted by the Princess? She does not tell us, but leaves us to reflect for ourselves. In this way, we follow in her footsteps, learning that nothing that happens is unrelated to Divine Providence. A day later she notes that it is the beginning of Lent—Ash Wednesday. Her comment, written in the midst of war, is filled with tragic evangelical significance:

There is no shortage of ashes.

I could continue for many pages, offering other examples and perhaps attempting to decipher their meaning. Ever since I began reading Princess Bibesco’s journals, I have not ceased doing precisely that. Yet nothing is more important than what I shall now say: reading her writings makes me want to become a better person. In contemplating with wonder someone who is genuinely virtuous—someone who makes no effort to draw attention to herself, but shines as naturally as the sun on a spring day over Lago Maggiore—we come to perceive the beauty of Goodness and Truth. Perhaps no work illustrates this more powerfully than her extraordinary novel Isvor, le pays des saules (Isvor, the Land of Willows), published in Paris in 1923.

Though ostensibly an autobiographical literary work, Isvor is one of the most haunting novels of the twentieth century. Drawing upon Princess Bibesco’s intimate knowledge of the deep Romanian countryside, it recounts the lives of peasants in a world where the ancient echoes of Homer and Virgil can still be heard.

I have read this singular and incomparable work several times, always with fascination. As I progressed through its pages, I felt myself sinking ever deeper into a kind of utopian realm, beyond history itself, where the pre-Christian world of the gods had somehow met the apostles and saints of the Gospel. For these simple people, who understood nothing of the demands of modern life and were content to live as their forebears had lived for thousands of years, embodied an unimaginable amalgam of pagan superstition and Christian faith.

Without ever judging them, and in perfect harmony with her own virtues, Princess Bibesco portrays them exactly as they were, while with princely discretion she sought to help them whenever the opportunity arose. Even when those whom she assisted stole timber from the Bibesco estates—despite the fact that she herself freely gave them wood from her family’s lands—or attempted to secure advantages they had not earned, she always acted precisely as Our Lord Jesus Christ had taught:

And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also (Matthew 5:40).

Yet nowhere is the grandeur of holiness more evident than in one of the immortal scenes Princess Bibesco recounts in this novel. It is impossible to read it without feeling overwhelmed by the moral beauty of a soul that lived Christian charity to perfection. Equally impossible is it not to notice the extraordinary discretion of the narrative. At no point does the reader perceive even the faintest trace of vanity—that subtle pride which so often taints the good deeds of those who wish to appear better than they truly are. Without ever aspiring to be a teacher of etiquette or morality, Princess Marthe Bibesco succeeds far better than a thousand self-appointed masters in showing us not only how Aristocratic, Christian virtues may be lived in practice, but also in awakening within us the desire to possess them ourselves.

Before such an achievement, there is little left for me to do but remain silent, inviting you instead to read and to meditate—to meditate and to read—one of the most beautiful pages of literature and Christian witness ever written:

Whenever I smell June raspberries, or see the flesh-coloured velvet of the melting fruit, and its rosy wine oozing from the baskets exposed to the sun, the remembrance of an old pain quickens again in my heart.

I had just arrived at Isvor. I felt I was going to weep, there, at the station, in front of everybody, and that I’d have to hide my tears, when suddenly I heard someone break into sobbing among the crowd. My tears were checked on the edge of my eyes, as if held back and dried by my anxious glance to see who it was who could have ventured to weep out loud.

It was a young woman. Her clothes were in disorder, the plaits of her hair undone, her scarf had fallen to the ground, and a station porter was shaking her violently by the arm. She hid her face, and he was treading on the raspberries in front of her spilt from her overturned baskets.

The station-master, trying hard to guide me towards the door, was eager with explanations. This woman was a thief… She was known… she gathered raspberries without a permit… she was not an orphan: no, she had never had any parents… nor a widow: she had not been married. She was a nuisance in the station, running down alongside the incoming trains. It must be put a stop to…

The crowd parting, I went up to the woman. I tried to discern the face hidden behind her hands, which could not hold back her flowing tears. And suddenly she fell on her knees. Before I knew what she was doing, I could feel the warmth of her lips pressing my shoes.

I raised her. I think I kissed her. And having now some excuse for tears, I dared to cry myself. And the anniversary of that day must be about now. For today, on my way to the station, I met on the road the daughter of the widow Marie, carrying green baskets full of fresh raspberries, and the air grew sweet as she passed, and wasps were buzzing after her.[2]

---

[1] “The Conversion of Princess Marthe Bibesco:” https://onepeterfive.com/the-conversion-of-princess-marthe-bibesco/ [Accessed 25 July 2026].

[2] Isvor, the country of willows, by Princess Bibesco, Translated by Hamish Miles, New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1924, pp. 147-148.

St Clare, Virgin

Today's Holy Mass from SSPX Australia. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

St Clare, Virgin ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

St Clare, Virgin

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

The same year in which St. Dominic, before making any project with regard to his sons, founded the first establishment of the Sisters of his Order, the companion destined for him by heaven received his mission from the Crucifix in the church of St. Damian, in these words: “Go, Francis, repair my house which is falling to ruin.” The new patriarch inaugurated his work, as Dominic had done, by preparing a dwelling for his future daughters, whose sacrifice might obtain every grace for the great Order he was about to found. The house of the Poor Ladies occupied the thoughts of the seraph of Assisi, even before St. Mary of the Portiuncula, the cradle of the Friars Minor. Thus, for a second time this month, Eternal Wisdom shows us that the fruit of salvation, though it may seem to proceed from the word and from action, springs first from silent contemplation.

Clare was to Francis the help like unto himself, who begot to the Lord that multitude of heroic virgins and illustrious penitents soon reckoned by the Order in all lands, coming from the humblest condition and from the steps of the throne. In the new chivalry of Christ, Poverty, the chosen Lady of St. Francis, was to be the queen also of her whom God had given him as a rival and a daughter. Following to the utmost limits the Man-God humbled and stripped of all things for us, she nevertheless felt that she and her sisters were already queens in the kingdom of heaven: (Regula Damianitarum, viii) “In the little nest of poverty,” she used to say, “what jewel could the bride esteem so much as conformity with a God possessing nothing, become a little One whom the poorest of mothers wrapped in humble swathing bands and laid in a narrow crib?” (Regula 2; Life of St Clare, coæva 2) And she bravely defended against the highest authorities the privilege of absolute poverty, which the great Pope Innocent III feared to grant. Its definitive confirmation, obtained two days before the Saint’s death, came as the long-desired reward of forty years of prayer and suffering for the Church of God.

This noble daughter of Assisi had justified the prophecy, whereby sixty years previously, her mother Hortulana had learned that the child would enlighten the world; the choice of the name given her at her birth had been well inspired. (Clara claris præclara meritis, magnæ in cœlo claritate gloriæ ac in terra splendore miraculorum, clare claret. – Bulla Canonizationis) “Oh! how powerful was the virgin’s light,” said the sovereign Pontiff in the Bull of her Canonization; “how penetrating were her rays! She hid herself in the depth of the cloister, and her brightness transpiring filled the house of God.” From her poor solitude which she never quitted, the very name of Clare seemed to carry grace and light everywhere, and made far-off cities yield fruit to God and to her father, St. Francis. (Bull of Canonization)

Embracing the whole world where her virginal family was being multiplied, her motherly heart overflowed with affection for the daughters she had never seen. Let those who think that austerity embraced for God’s sake dries up the soul read these lines from her correspondence with Blessed Agnes of Bohemia. Agnes, daughter of Ottacar I, had rejected the offer of an imperial marriage to take the religious Habit, and was renewing at Prague the wonders of St. Damian’s. “O my mother and my daughter,” said our Saint, “if I have not written to you as often as my soul and yours would wish, be not surprised: as your mother’s heart loved you, so do I cherish you; but messengers are scarce, and the roads full of danger. As an opportunity offers today, I am full of gladness, and I rejoice with you in the joy of the Holy Ghost. As the first Agnes united herself to the immaculate Lamb, so it is given to you, O fortunate one, to enjoy this union (the wonder of heaven) with him, the desire of whom ravishes every soul; whose goodness is all sweetness, whose vision is beatitude, who is the light of the eternal light, the mirror without spot! Look at yourself in this mirror, O queen! O bride! unceasingly by its reflection enhance your charms; without and within adorn yourself with virtues; clothe yourself as beseems the daughter and the spouse of the supreme King. O beloved, with your eyes on this mirror, what delight it will be given you to enjoy in the divine grace! … Remember, however, your poor Mother, and know that for my part your blessed memory is forever graven on my heart.” (St Clare ad Bl. Agnetem, 4th Epistle)

Not only did the Franciscan family benefit by a charity which extended to all the worthy interests of this world. Assisi, delivered from the lieutenants of the excommunicated Frederick II and from the Saracen horde in his pay, understood how a holy woman is a safeguard to her earthly city. But our Lord loved especially to make the princes of holy Church and the Vicar of Christ experience the humble power, the mysterious ascendancy, wherewith he had endowed his chosen one. St. Francis himself, the first of all, had in one of those critical moments known to the Saints, sought from her direction and light for his seraphic soul. From the ancients of Israel, there came to this virgin, not yet thirty years old, such messages as this: “To his very dear Sister in Jesus Christ, to his mother the Lady Clare, handmaid of Christ, Hugolin of Ostia, unworthy bishop and sinner. Ever since the hour when I had to deprive myself of your holy conversation, to snatch myself from that heavenly joy, such bitterness of heart causes my tears to flow, that if I did not find at the feet of Jesus the consolation which his love never refuses, my mind would fail and my soul would melt away. Where is the glorious joy of that Easter spent in your company and that of the other handmaids of Christ? … I knew that I was a sinner; but at the remembrance of your supereminent virtue, my misery overpowers me, and I believe myself unworthy ever to enjoy again that conversation of the Saints, unless your tears and prayers obtain pardon for my sins. I put my soul, then, into your hands; to you I entrust my mind, that you may answer for me on the Day of Judgment. The Lord Pope will soon be going to Assisi; Oh! that I may accompany him, and see you once more! Salute my sister Agnes (i.e. St. Clare’s own sister and first daughter in God); salute all your sisters in Christ.” (Wadding ad an. 1221)

The great Cardinal Hugolin, though more than eighty years of age, became soon after Gregory IX. During his fourteen years’ pontificate, which was one of the most brilliant as well as most laborious of the thirteenth century, he was always soliciting Clare’s interest in the perils of the Church, and the immense cares which threatened to crush his weakness. For, says the contemporaneous historian of our Saint, Luke Wadding: “He knew very well what love can do, and that virgins have free access to the sacred court: for what could the King of heaven refuse to those, to whom he has given himself?” (Life of St Clare, coæva iii)

At length her exile, which had been prolonged twenty-seven years after the death of Francis, was about to close. Her daughters beheld wings of fire over her head and covering her shoulders, indicating that she too had reached seraphic perfection. On hearing that a loss which so concerned the whole Church was imminent, the Pope, Innocent IV, came from Perugia with the Cardinals of his suite. He imposed a last trial on the Saint’s humility, by commanding her to bless, in his presence, the bread which had been presented for the blessing of the sovereign Pontiff; (Wadding ad an. 1253) heaven approved the invitation of the Pontiff and the obedience of the Saint, for no sooner had the virgin blessed the loaves than each was found to be marked with a cross.

A prediction that Clare was not to die without receiving a visit from the Lord surrounded by his disciples was now fulfilled. The Vicar of Jesus Christ presided at the solemn funeral rites paid by Assisi to her who was its second glory before God and men. When they were beginning the usual chants for the dead, Innocent would have had them substitute the Office for holy Virgins; but on being advised that such a canonization, before the body was interred, would be considered premature, the Pontiff allowed them to continue the accustomed chants. The insertion, however, of the Virgin’s name in the catalogue of the Saints was only deferred for two years.

The following lines are consecrated by the Church to her memory:

The noble virgin Clare was born at Assisi, in Umbria. Following the example of St. Francis, her fellow-citizen, she distributed all her goods in alms to the poor, and, fleeing from the noise of the world, she retired to a country church, where blessed Francis cut off her hair. Her relations attempted to bring her back to the world, but she bravely resisted all their endeavors; and then St. Francis took her to the church of St. Damian. Here our Lord gave her several companions, so that she founded a convent of consecrated virgins, and her reluctance being overcome by the earnest desire of her holy father, she undertook its government. For forty-two years she ruled her monastery with wonderful care and prudence, in the fear of God and the full observance of the Rule. Her own life was a lesson and an example to others, showing all how to live aright.

She subdued her body in order to grow strong in spirit. Her bed was the bare ground, or, at times, a few twigs, and for a pillow she used a piece of hard wood. Her dress consisted of a single tunic and a mantle of poor coarse stuff; and she often wore a rough hair-shirt next to her skin. So great was her abstinence, that for a long time she took absolutely no bodily nourishment for three days of the week, and on the remaining days restricted herself to so small a quantity of food, that the other religious wondered how she was able to live. Before her health gave way, it was her custom to keep two Lents in the year, fasting on bread and water. Moreover, she devoted herself to watching and prayer, and in these exercises especially she would spend whole days and nights. She suffered from frequent and long illnesses; but when she was unable to leave her bed in order to work, she would make her sisters raise and prop her up in a sitting position, so that she could work with her hands, and thus not be idle even in sickness. She had a very great love of poverty, never deviating from it on account of any necessity, and she firmly refused the possessions offered by Gregory IX for the support of the sisters.

The greatness of her sanctity was manifested by many different miracles. She restored the power of speech to one of the sisters of her monastery, to another the power of hearing. She healed one of a fever, one of dropsy, one of an ulcer, and many others of various maladies. She cured of insanity a brothers of the Order of Friars Minor. Once when all the oil in the monastery was spent, Clare took a vessel and washed it, and it was found filled with oil by the loving kindness of God. She multiplied half a loaf so that it sufficed for fifty sisters. When the Saracens attacked the town of Assisi and attempted to break into Clare’s monastery, she, though sick at the time, had herself carried to the gate, and also the vessel which contained the most Holy Eucharist, and there she prayed, saying, O Lord, deliver not unto beasts the souls of them that praise thee; but preserve thy handmaids whom Thou hast redeemed with thy precious Blood.” Whereupon a voice was heard, which said: “I will always preserve you.” Some of the Saracens took to flight, others who had already scaled the walls were struck blind and fell down headlong. At length, when the virgin Clare came to die, she was visited by a white-robed multitude of blessed virgins, amongst whom was one nobler and more resplendent than the rest. Having received the Holy Eucharist and a Plenary Indulgence from Innocent IV, she gave up her soul to God on the day before the Ides of August. After her death she became celebrated by numbers of miracles, and Alexander IV enrolled her among the holy virgins.

O Clare, the reflection of the Spouse which adorns the Church in this world no longer suffices thee; thou now beholdest the light with open face. The brightness of the Lord plays with delight in the pure crystal of thy soul, increasing the happiness of heaven, and giving joy this day to our valley of exile. Heavenly beacon, with thy gentle shining enlighten our darkness. May we, like thee, by purity of heart, by uprightness of thought, by simplicity of gaze, fix upon ourselves the divine ray, which flickers in a wavering soul, is dimmed by our waywardness, is interrupted or put out by a double life divided between God and the world.

Thy life, O Virgin, was never thus divided. The most high poverty, which was thy mistress and guide, preserved thy mind from that bewitching of vanity which takes off the bloom of all true goods for us mortals. Detachment from all passing things kept thine eye fixed upon eternal realities; it opened thy soul to that seraphic ardor wherein thou didst emulate thy father Francis. Like the Seraphim, whose gaze is ever fixed on God, thou hadst immense influence over the earth; and St. Damian’s, during thy lifetime, was a source of strength to the world.

Deign to continue giving us thine aid. Multiply thy daughters; keep them faithful in following their Mother’s example, so as to be a strong support to the Church. May the various branches of the Franciscan family be ever fostered by thy rays, and may all Religious Orders be enlightened by thy gentle brightness. Shine upon us all, O Clare, and show us the worth of this transitory life and of that which never ends.

St Clare of Assisi ~ Miracles, Faith, and the Founder of the Poor Clares

A sermon for today. Please remember to say 3 Hail Marys for the Priest.

St Muredach, 1st Bishop of Killala in Ireland: Butler's Lives of the Saints

St Clare, Virgin & Abbess: Butler's Lives of the Saints

St Muredach First Bishop of Killala in Ireland

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:

ST. PATRICK, in his progress through Connaught, coming to a pleasant place where the river Moy empties itself into the ocean, built on the south banks a noble church called Kill-Aladh, of which he made Muredach, one of his disciples, bishop, about the year 440. It is situated in the county of Mayo. The bishops of this see have been sometimes called bishops of Tiramalgaid, now corrupted into the barony of Tirawly; sometimes of O-Fiacra-Mui, i. e. O-Fiacra, on the river Moy, a small territory; but since the twelfth century of Killala, from Kill-Aladh. The festival of St. Muredach is observed on the 12th of August. See Ware, t. 1, p. 649.

St Clare, Virgin & Abbess

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:

From her authentic life, written soon after her death, by order of pope Alexander IV., who had pronounces her funeral panegyric whilst cardinal of Ostia, and who canonized her two years after. See also the annals of the Franciscan Order, compiled by the learned F. Luke Wading, her life published in English; F. Sbarala,& c.

A. D. 1253.

ST. CLARE was daughter to Phavorino Sciffo, a noble knight who had distinguished himself in the wars, and his virtuous spouse called Hortulana. These illustrious personages, who held the first rank at Assisium for their birth and riches, were still more eminent for their extraordinary piety. They had three daughters, Clare, Agnes, and Beatrice.* St. Clare was born in 1193 at Assisium, a city in Italy, built on a stony mountain called Assi; from her infancy she was extremely charitable and devout. It was her custom to count her task of Paters and Aves by a certain number of little stones in her lap, in imitation of some ancient anchorets in the East.† Her parents began to talk to her very early of marriage, which gave her great affliction; for it was her most ardent desire to have no other spouse but Jesus Christ. Hearing the great reputation of St. Francis, who set an example of perfection to the whole city, she found means to be conducted to him by a pious matron, and begged his instruction and advice. He spoke to her on the contempt of the world, the shortness of life, and the love of God and heavenly things in such a manner as warmed her tender breast; and, upon the spot, she formed a resolution of renouncing the world. St. Francis appointed Palm-Sunday for the day on which she should come to him. On that day Clare, dressed in her most sumptuous apparel, went with her mother and family to the divine office; but when all the rest went up to the altar to receive a palm-branch, bashfulness and modesty kept her in her place; which the bishop seeing, he went from the altar down to her and gave her the palm. She attended the procession; but, the evening following it being the 18th of March, 1212, she made her escape from home, accompanied with another devout young woman, and went a mile out of the town to the Portiuncula, where St. Francis lived with his little community. He and his religious brethren met her at the door of their church of our Lady with lighted tapers in their hands, singing the hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus. Before the altar of the Blessed Virgin she put off her fine clothes, and St. Francis cut off her hair, and gave her his penitential habit, which was no other than a piece of sackcloth, tied about her with a cord. The holy father not having yet any nunnery of his own, placed her for the present in the Benedictin nunnery of St. Paul, where she was affectionately received, being then eighteen years of age. The Poor Clares date from this epoch the foundation of their Order.

No sooner was this action of the holy virgin made public, but the world conspired unanimously to condemn it, and her friends and relations came in a body to draw her out of her retreat. Clare resisted their violence, and held the altar so fast as to pull the holy cloths half off it when they endeavored to drag her away; and, uncovering her head to show her hair cut, she said that Christ had called her to his service, and that she would have no other spouse of her soul; and that the more they should continue to persecute her, the more God would strengthen her to resist and overcome them. They reproached her that by embracing so poor and mean a life she disgraced her family; but she bore their insults, and God triumphed in her. St. Francis soon after removed her to another nunnery, that of St. Angelo of Panso near Assisium, which was also of St. Bennet’s Order. There her sister Agnes joined her in her undertaking; which drew on them both a fresh persecution, and twelve men abused Agnes both with words and blows, and dragged her on the ground to the door, whilst she cried out, “Help me, sister; permit me not to be separated from our Lord Jesus Christ, and your loving company.” Her constancy proved at last victorious, and St. Francis gave her also the habit, though she was only fourteen years of age. He placed them in a new mean house contiguous to the church of St. Damian, situated on the skirts of the city Assisium, and appointed Clare the superior. She was soon after joined by her mother Hortulana and several ladies of her kindred and others to the number of sixteen, among whom three were of the illustrious family of the Ubaldini in Florence. Many noble princesses held for truer greatness the sackcloth and poverty of St. Clare than the estates, delights, and riches which they possessed, seeing they left them all to become humble disciples of so holy and admirable a mistress. St. Clare founded, within a few years, monasteries at Perugia, Arezzo, Padua, that of SS. Cosmas and Damian in Rome; at Venice, Mantua, Bologna, Spoletto, Milan, Sienna, Pisa, &c., also in many principal towns in Germany. Agnes, daughter to the king of Bohemia, founded a nunnery of her Order in Prague, in which herself took the habit.

St. Clare and her community practised austerities, which, till then, had scarce ever been known among the tender sex. They wore neither stockings, shoes, sandals, nor any other covering on their feet; they lay on the ground, observed a perpetual abstinence, and never spoke but when they were obliged to it by the indispensable duties of necessity and charity. The foundress in her rule extremely recommends this holy silence as the means to retrench innumerable sins of the tongue, and to preserve the mind always recollected in God, and free from the dissipation of the world, which, without this guard, penetrates the walls of cloisters. Not content with the four Lents, and the other general mortifications of her rule, she always wore next her skin a rough shift of horse-hair or of hog’s bristles cut short; she fasted church vigils and all Lent on bread and water: and from the 11th of November to Christmas-day, and during these times on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, ate nothing at all. She sometimes strewed the ground on which she lay with twigs, having a block for her bolster. Her disciplines, watchings, and other austerities were incredible, especially in a person of so tender a constitution. Being reduced to great weakness, and to a very sickly state of health, St. Francis and the bishop of Assisium obliged her to lie upon a little chaff, and never pass one day without taking at least some bread for nourishment. Under her greatest corporal austerities her countenance was always mild and cheerful, demonstrating that true love makes penance sweet and easy. Her esteem of holy poverty was most admirable. She looked upon it as the retrenchment of the most dangerous objects of the passions and self-love, and as the great school of patience and mortification, by the perpetual inconveniences and sufferings which it lays persons under, and which the spirit of Christ crucified teaches us to bear with patience and joy. It carries along with it the perfect disengagement of the heart from the world, in which the essence of true devotion consists. The saint considered in what degree Christ, having for our sakes relinquished the riches of his glory, practised holy poverty, in his birth, without house or other temporal conveniency; and during his holy ministry, without a place to lay his head in, and living on voluntary contributions; but, above all, his poverty, nakedness, and humiliation on the cross and at his sacred death, were deeply imprinted on her mind, and she ardently sought to bear for his sake some resemblance of that state which he had assumed for us to apply a proper remedy to our spiritual wounds, and heal the corruption of our nature.

St. Francis instituted that his Order should never possess any rents, even in common, subsisting on daily contributions. St. Clare possessed this spirit in such perfection, that when her large fortune fell to her, by the death of her father, after her profession, she gave the whole to the poor, without reserving one single farthing for the monastery. Pope Gregory IX. desired to mitigate this part of her rule, and offered to settle a yearly revenue on her monastery of St. Damian’s; but she in the most pressing manner persuaded him by many reasons, in which her love of evangelical poverty made her eloquent, to leave her Order in its first rigorous establishment. Whilst others asked riches, Clare presented again her most humble request to pope Innocent IV., that he would confirm to her Order the singular privilege of holy poverty, which he did, in 1251, by a bull written with his own hand, which he watered at the same nine with tears of devotion.* So dear was poverty to St. Clare chiefly for her great love of humility. Though superior, she would never allow herself any privilege or distinction. It was her highest ambition to be the servant of servants, always beneath all, washing the feet of the lay-sisters, and kissing them when they returned from begging, serving at table, attending the sick, and removing the most loathsome filth. When she prayed for the sick, she sent them to her other sisters, that their miraculous recovery might not be imputed to her prayers or merits. She was so true a daughter of obedience, that she had always, as it were, wings to fly wherever St. Francis directed her, and was always ready to execute anything, or to put her shoulders under any burden that was enjoined her; she was so crucified to her own will, as to seem entirely divested of it. This she expressed to her holy father as follows; “Dispose of me as you please; I am yours by having consecrated my will to God. It is no longer my own.”

Prayer was her spiritual comfort and strength, and she seemed scarce ever to interrupt that holy exercise. She often prostrated herself on the ground, kissed it, and watered it with many tears. Whilst her sisters took their rest she watched long in prayer, and was always the first that rose, rung the bell in the choir, and lighted the candles. She came from prayer with her face so ought and inflamed (like that of Moses descending from conversing with God) that it often dazzled the eyes of those who beheld her; and every one perceived by her words that she came from her devotions; for she spoke with such a spirit and fervor as enkindled a flame in all who did but hear her voice, and diffused into their souls a great esteem of heavenly things. She communicated very often, and had a wonderful devotion towards the blessed sacrament. Even when she was sick in bed, she spun with her own hands fine linen for corporals, and for the service of the altar, which she distributed through all the churches of Assisium. In prayer she was often so absorbed in divine love as to forget herself and her corporal necessities. She on many occasions experienced the all-powerful force and efficacy of her holy prayer. A remarkable instance is mentioned in her life. The impious emperor Frederick II. cruelly ravaged the valley of Spoletto, because it was the patrimony of the holy see. He had in his army many Saracens and other barbarous infidels, and left in that country a colony of twenty thousand of these enemies of the church in a place still called Noura des Moros. These banditti came once in a great body to plunder Assisium, and as St. Damian’s convent stood without the walls, they first assaulted it. Whilst they were busy in scaling the walls, St. Clare, though very sick, caused herself to be carried and seated at the gate of the monastery, and the blessed sacrament to be placed there in a pix in the very sight of the enemies, and, prostrating herself before it, prayed with many tears, saying to her beloved spouse, “Is it possible, my God, that thou shouldst have here assembled these thy servants, and nurtured them up in thy holy love, that they should now fall into the power of these infidels, Moors. Preserve them, O my God, and me in their holy company.” At the end of her prayer she seemed to hear a sweet voice, which said, “I will always protect you.” A sudden terror, at the same time, seized the assailants, and they all fled with such precipitation that several were hurt without being wounded by any enemy. Another time, Vitalis Aversa, a great general of the same emperor, a cruel and proud man, laid siege to Assisium for many days. St. Clare said to her nuns, that they who had received corporal necessaries from that city, owed to it all assistance in their power in its extreme necessity. She therefore bid them cover their heads with ashes, and in this most suppliant posture beg of Christ the deliverance of the town. They continued pressing their request with many tears a whole day and night, till powerful succors arriving, the besiegers silently raised the siege, and retired without noise, and their general was soon after slain.

St. Francis was affected with the most singular and tender devotion towards the mysteries of Christ’s nativity and sacred passion. He used to assemble incredible numbers of the people to pass the whole Christmas night in the church in fervent prayer; and, at midnight, once preached with such fervor and tenderness, that he was not able to pronounce the name Jesus, but called him the little child of Bethlehem; and, in repeating these words, always melted away with tender love. St. Clare inherited this same devotion and tenderness to this holy mystery, and received many special favors from God in her prayers on that festival. As to the passion of Christ, St. Francis called it his perpetual book, and said he never desired to open any other but the history of it in the gospels, though he were to live to the world’s end. The like were the sentiments of St. Clare towards it; nor could she call to mind this adorable mystery without streams of tears, and the warmest emotions of tender love. In sickness particularly it was her constant entertainment. She was afflicted with continual diseases and pains for eight-and-twenty years, yet was always joyful, allowing herself no other indulgence than a little straw to lie on. Reginald, cardinal of Ostia, afterward pope Alexander IV., both visited her and wrote to her in the most humble manner. Pope Innocent IV. paid her a visit a little before her death, going from Perugia to Assisium on purpose, and conferring with her a long time on spiritual matters with wonderful comfort.

St. Clare bore her sickness and great pains without so much as speaking of them, and when brother Reginald exhorted her to patience, she said, “How much am I obliged to my sweet Redeemer! for since, by means of his servant Francis, I have tasted the bitterness of his holy passion, I have never in my whole life found any pain or sickness that could afflict me There is nothing insupportal le to a heart that loveth God, and to him that loveth not, everything is insupportable.” Agnes, seeing her dear sister and spiritual mother draw near her end, besought her with great affection and many tears, that she would take her along with her, and not leave her hero on earth, seeing they had been such faithful companions, and so united in the same spirit and desire of serving our Lord. The holy virgin comforted her, telling her it was the will of God she should not at present go along with her; but bade her be assured that she should shortly come to her, and so it happened. St. Clare seeing all her spiritual children weep, comforted them, and tenderly exhorted them to be constant lovers and faithful observers of holy poverty, and gave them her blessing, calling herself the little plant of her holy father St. Francis. The passion of Christ, at her request, was read to her in her agony, and she sweetly expired amidst the prayers and tears of her community, on the 11th of August, 1253, in the forty-second year after her religious profession, and the sixtieth of her age. She was buried on the day following, on which the Church keeps her festival. Pope Innocent IV. came again from Perugia, and assisted in person with the sacred college at her funeral. Alexander IV. canonized her at Anagnia in 1255. Her body was first buried at St. Damian’s; but the pope ordered a new monastery to be built for her nuns at the church of St. George within the walls, which was finished in 1260, when her relics were translated thither with great pomp. A new church was built here afterward which bears her name; in which, in 1265, pope Clement V. consecrated the high altar under her name, and her body lies under it. The body of St. Francis had lain in this church of St. George four years, when, in 1230, it was removed to that erected in his honor, in which it still remains. Camden remarks that the family name Sinclair among us is derived from St. Clare.

The example of this tender virgin, who renounced all the softness, superfluity, and vanity of her education, and engaged and persevered in a life of so much severity, is a reproach of our sloth and sensuality. Such extraordinary rigors are not required of us; but a constant practice of self-denial is indispensably enjoined us by the sacred rule of the gospel, which we all have most solemnly professed. Our backwardness in complying with this duty is owing to our lukewarmness, which creates in everything imaginary difficulties, and magnifies shadows. St. Clare, notwithstanding her continual extraordinary austerities, the grievous persecutions she had suffered and the pains of a sharp and tedious distemper with which she was afflicted, was surprised when she lay on her death-bed, to hear any one speak of her patience, saying, that from the time she had first given her heart to God, she had never met with anything to suffer, or to exercise her patience. This was the effect of her ardent charity. Let none embrace her holy institute without a fervor which inspires a cheerful eagerness to comply, in the most perfect manner, with all its rules and exercises; and without seriously studying to obtain, and daily improve, in their souls, her eminen spirit of poverty, humility, obedience, love of silence, mortification, recollection, prayer, and divine love. In this consists their sanctification; is this they will find all present and future blessings and happiness.

Collect of St Muiredach Mac Echdach of Killala ~ Bishop & Confessor (See Note)

According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, a partial indulgence is granted to those who, on the feast of any Saint, recite in his honour the oration of the Missal or any other approved by legitimate Authority.

V. O Lord, hear my prayer.

R. And let my cry come unto thee.
Let us pray.

O Lord, we beseech Thee, hear the prayers which we offer Thee on the solemnity of Blessed Muiredach, Thy Bishop & Confessor and by the interceding merits of him who worthily attained to serve Thee, absolve us from all our sins.

Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

R. Amen.  

Nota bene ~ St Muiredach is not celebrated on the Universal Calendar, but according to the Martyrology, today is his Feast Day. The Collect is taken from the Common of Confessor Bishops. 

Collect of St Clare of Assisi, Virgin ~ Indulgenced on the Saint's Feast

According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, a partial indulgence is granted to those who, on the feast of any Saint, recite in his honour the oration of the Missal or any other approved by legitimate Authority.

V. O Lord, hear my prayer.

R. And let my cry come unto thee.
Let us pray.
Graciously hear us, O God of our salvation; that as we rejoice in the festivity of blessed Clare Thy Virgin, we may be instructed in the affections of a loving devotion.
Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

R. Amen

SSPX is Actually More Faithful to Vatican II Than the Vatican Itself

"Leo XIV and his Vatican actually reject certain key portions of Vatican II — on doctrinal development and ecumenism — that the SSPX accepts."

From LifeSiteNews

By Robert T. Morrison

Leo XIV and his Vatican actually reject certain key portions of Vatican II — on doctrinal development and ecumenism — that the SSPX accepts.

When Leo XIV condemned the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) for refusing “to accept certain fundamental elements of the Church, beginning with various points of the Second Vatican Council,” most Catholics might have inferred that the pope considered complete acceptance of the teachings of Vatican II to be an essential requirement of the Faith. As such, it could come as a surprise to many Catholics to learn that Leo XIV and his Vatican actually reject certain key portions of Vatican II that the SSPX accepts. The analysis that follows looks at two of the most important concepts in the Church today — doctrinal development and ecumenism — to demonstrate that Vatican II condemns Leo’s Vatican, not the SSPX.

Doctrinal development

Perhaps the clearest way to see the Vatican’s position on doctrinal development is to look at John Paul II’s Ecclesia Dei, regarding the 1988 excommunications of the SSPX. John Paul II cited Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, to highlight the “schismatic” roots of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s decision to consecrate bishops without papal approval: 

The root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition. Incomplete, because it does not take sufficiently into account the living character of Tradition, which, as the Second Vatican Council clearly taught, ‘comes from the apostles and progresses in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. There is a growth in insight into the realities and words that are being passed on. This comes about in various ways. It comes through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts. It comes from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which they experience. And it comes from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth.’

This is a relatively standard explanation of “living tradition.” Later in Ecclesia Dei, the pope encouraged theologians to engage in studies to reveal how Vatican II’s new doctrines comport with Tradition: 

Moreover, I should like to remind theologians and other experts in the ecclesiastical sciences that they should feel themselves called upon to answer in the present circumstances. Indeed, the extent and depth of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council call for a renewed commitment to deeper study in order to reveal clearly the Council’s continuity with Tradition, especially in points of doctrine which, perhaps because they are new, have not yet been well understood by some sections of the Church.

One would have thought that this intellectual exercise would have been completed during the Council, prior to promulgating the new teachings. In any case, the most telling aspect of this condemnation of Archbishop Lefebvre’s incomplete notion of Tradition was the omission of the paragraph from Dei Verbum immediately preceding the one cited:

And so the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until the end of time. Therefore the Apostles, handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to hold fast to the traditions which they have learned either by word of mouth or by letter (see 2 Thess. 2:15), and to fight in defense of the faith handed on once and for all (see Jude 1:3). Now what was handed on by the Apostles includes everything which contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God; and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes. (Dei Verbum, 8)

The reason that Archbishop Lefebvre resisted the novelties of false ecumenism, for example, was because he adhered to this section of Vatican II that places definite limits on living tradition. If the Vatican had also adhered to it, it would not have thought it possible to radically alter the Church’s teaching on “no salvation outside the Church.” 

Dei Verbum also required the teaching office of the Church to scrupulously guard the Faith: 

Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain always steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers, so that holding to, practicing and professing the heritage of the faith, it becomes on the part of the bishops and faithful a single common effort. But the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This teaching office is not above the word of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in accord with a divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as divinely revealed. (Dei Verbum, 10)

This is entirely opposed to the ongoing Synod on Synodality in which the teaching office of the Church has been replaced, at least in part, by a synodal structure in which truths are discerned through a process of listening to the People of God to find a consensus about matters of faith and morals. 

Even beyond ecumenism and the Synod on Synodality, we can see the Vatican’s stance on doctrinal evolution in various matters, including the following:

• Communion for the divorced and remarried; 
• Blessings for same-sex unions and overall promotion of immorality; and 
• The death penalty. 

If the Leo XIV and the Vatican followed Dei Verbum’s requirement of holding fast to Tradition, they would have to reject all of these unholy innovations. The only way that can proceed, then, is by rejecting this all-important guardrail of Vatican II.

False ecumenism

Most Catholics with some familiarity with Vatican II may believe that it unambiguously supports the false ecumenism that we see today. However, a few key passages actually align with the SSPX resistance to false ecumenism. For example, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, teaches that the Catholic Church is “ the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation”: 

This Sacred Council wishes to turn its attention firstly to the Catholic faithful. Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved. (Lumen Gentium, 14)

This repudiates the Vatican’s constant overtures to non-Catholics that assure them that their religions are also means of salvation, such that they have no need to convert to Catholicism. Non-Catholics may, of course, dispute this teaching from Lumen Gentium, but it is not the Vatican’s role to do so. 

The Council’s Decree on Missionary Activity of the Church, Ad Gentes, further emphasizes that the possibility of God saving those who are invincibly ignorant in no way detracts from the necessity of trying to bring souls to the Catholic Church. 

This missionary activity derives its reason from the will of God, ‘who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, Himself a man, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all’ (1 Tim. 2:45), ‘neither is there salvation in any other’ (Acts 4:12). Therefore, all must be converted to Him, made known by the Church’s preaching, and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body. For Christ Himself ‘by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door. Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it.’ Therefore though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (1 Cor. 9:16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the Gospel. And hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity. (Ad Gentes, 7)

This is completely foreign to what we have seen from the Vatican, especially since Francis’s tenure. Far from attempting to lead souls to the “unique way of salvation,” today’s Vatican perpetually signals to the world that there is no need to be Catholic. 

These matters of doctrinal evolution and false ecumenism are not minor. If doctrine can evolve in a way that violates the requirements of Dei Verbum, then the Faith of tomorrow may contradict what it is today. This upends the entire religion. 

False ecumenism attacks the Faith in a different way. The ecumenists have retained the notion that the Church is necessary for salvation but have emptied it of all real significance. Yes, the Church is “necessary”; but false ecumenism tells us this really just means that non-Catholic religions gain their salvific value from the Church, so you can be saved through those non-Catholic religions. No amount of sophistry can hide the fact that countless souls have taken this seriously and concluded that they no longer needed to be Catholic; countless others have understandably decided that there was no reason to convert to Catholicism. 

So if we look at the greatest problems in the Church today, they relate directly to Rome’s refusal to follow the explicit teachings of Vatican II. As such, Leo XIV’s condemnation of the SSPX seems to run afoul of Our Lord’s teaching about beams and motes (Matthew 7:3-5). May God grant him the grace to accept these key portions of Vatican II, and then perhaps he would realize why the SSPX adheres to Tradition rather than chasing unholy novelties. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!