Catholic Fire

August 17 is the feast of St. Clare of Montefalco (1268-1308), an Augustinian nun noted for her devotion to the Passion of Christ. For that reason, she is sometimes called St. Clare of the Cross. In her community of sisters, she was a model of religious life according to the ideals of Augustine. As superior of her convent, she constantly urged her sisters to practice self-denial and to seek holiness. She was given the gift of knowledge, which she used to defend the Faith. Clare was born in Montefalco, Italy, around 1268. While still young, she went to live with her sister Joan, who had established a community of cloistered nuns. Together they would spend long hours in prayer. As a young woman she became a member of that community, professing religious vows under the Rule of Saint Augustine. Soon after, she experienced a great trial. Her heart was filled daily with spiritual turmoil. She lost any sense of pleasure in prayer. Temptations assaulted her. She wondered if God had a...

Today, February 1 is the feast of St. Brigid of Ireland, a fifth century convert to Christianity, who was inspired by the preaching of St Patrick. As an abbess and Catholic nun, she founded a double monastery, of monks and nuns, at Kildare, the first women’s monastic community in Ireland. St. Brigid is the patron saint of: babies, children whose parents are not married, dairy workers, midwives, nuns, poets, poultry farmers, printing presses, sailors, scholars, and travelers. Brigid is often called the Mary of the Gael. Around 453 AD, a child was born out of wedlock between Dubhtach and one of his Christian slaves named Brocessa. The slave girl was sent to a cabin at the foot of the Cooley Mountains near Dundalk, Co Louth, to have the child. The baby was a healthy girl which was no great joy to Dubhtach who wanted a son. The mother was sold to a Chieftain in Connaught, and the child was given to a Druid to be raised and educated. As a child, Brigid vomited when the Druid tried t...

Saint Hildegard, Benedictine abbess, mystic and visionary, lived from 1098 to 1179. She was born at Bermersheim, south of Mainz in present day Germany. She was the tenth child born to a noble family. As was customary with the tenth child, which the family could not count on feeding, she was offered to God by her parents as a child oblate. A very gifted young woman, Hildegard began to have visions of luminous objects at the age of three, which she kept to herself. At the age of eight, Hildegard was placed under the care of the anchoress, Jutta, a relative, who lived in a nearby hermitage. In time this developed into a full Benedictine community which was subject to the male abbey of Saint Disibod. Hildegard received the habit at the age of fifteen and for the next seventeen years lived a strictly enclosed contemplative life. Her visions were later written down in a book called Scivias (an abbreviation of Scito vias Domini, ‘Know the ways of the Lord’). In 1136 she was elected abbess of...