For the Franciscan family, the liturgical memory of Saint Clare of Assisi is a special moment. The woman who chose to follow Saint Francis, to share his ideal of radical poverty, to live in enclosure and contemplation, and to give life to the Poor Ladies, represents a pillar of the whole community linked to the Poverello of Assisi. And on Tuesday, August 11, the Custody of the Holy Land wanted to celebrate the feast that remembers the Saint in the monastery of the Poor Clares of Jerusalem with the Holy Mass presided over by Msgr. William Shomali, vicar general of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Together with the sisters of the convent, in the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (dedicated last July 18) were present the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, religious men, religious women, and faithful from all over the Church of Jerusalem. And the celebration was also the opportunity to retrace the long history of the Clarian presence in the Holy Land, whose roots sink already in the first decades of the Franciscan movement. The presence of the Poor Clares, in fact, is attested already in the XIII century in Saint John of Acre, ancient capital of the crusader kingdom. Once the city fell in 1291, the community of the Poor Clares also disappeared, who, according to tradition, suffered martyrdom, sharing the fate of the entire Christian population. For centuries, the Order wanted by Saint Clare and Saint Francis disappeared from the Holy Land, to return instead permanently only at the end of the XIX century, with the return also of the Latin Patriarchate. In 1884 some French Poor Clares arrived in the Holy Land and within a few years founded the monastery of Jerusalem. A place immersed in the Talpiot neighborhood, between the Old City and the road leading to Bethlehem, and where even today the Poor Clares lead a life of contemplation forged on the Franciscan charism.

A testimony made of silence and prayer that remembers how mission and contemplation are both expressions of the Gospel and of the life of Francis and Clare. While the friars of the Custody Custos the Holy Places, welcome pilgrims, and accompany local Christians and those from all over the world, the Poor Clares support this work through prayer, adoration, and intercession. A silent but constant presence, which for centuries has accompanied the faithful in a land wounded by violence but also built on hope. And for this reason, on the day of Saint Clare, the Custody gave thanks to the Poor Clares, emphasizing the contribution of the sisters as part of the one Franciscan family. Living and praying memory of an Order that arrived in the Holy Land with a few dozen sisters and that for centuries has been watching in prayer over the pilgrims and Christians of Jerusalem.