Relic of Saint Clare of Assisi travels to Puerto Princesa from Italy

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, April 24 (PNA) –- The cranium relic of Saint Clare of Assisi is in this city for a two-day pilgrimage from Italy, and can be viewed by devotees at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral.

After 800 years, the Catholic Church was able to save the cranium relic of Saint Clare.

Father Juan Felipe Torrecampo, rector of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, said the relic will stay in the cathedral for an overnight vigil before it is transferred to the Sisters of Poor Convent at Mount Calvary in Barangay Sta. Lourdes.

The relic of Saint Clare was brought to the country in February, Fr. Torrecampo said, adding that Filipinos are lucky because the Philippines is the country it first visited from Rome.

Clare of Assisi, or sometimes spelled Clair, or Claire, was born Chiara Offreduccio, and is an Italian saint who was one of the followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded “the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life, the first monastic rule known to have been written by a woman”.

“In 1255, Pope Alexander IV consecrated Clare as Saint Clare of Assisi; and in 1958, Pope Pius XII designated her as the patron saint of television, on the basis that when she was too ill to attend Mass, she had reportedly been able to see and hear it on the wall of her room”. (PNA)
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