Tuesday 7 June – Today we went to San Damiano for the day, an amazing privilege given by the generosity of the guardian, Br Claudio. We began with a special Morning Prayer which honoured Franciscan Women through the ages and had a chance to mention any who had been significant in our own lives as well. This threatened to go on for ever but Andre chipped in firmly with ‘Let us Pray’!!!Then we had breakfast and those who wished to walk set off for San Damiano and the less agile waited for taxis. I phoned Br Claudio to let him know we were coming and he was there in the forecourt as we arrived, welcoming us and ushering us into the church. We had Mass in the actual church of San Damiano itself, the first of his gifts to us, very rarely granted, and also early in the day so there were no tourists there. That was a powerful Mass after which Claudio gave us a tour of the monastery and also of much of the friary backstage. So we walked in the Garden of the Canticle (where it was written which you normally only see through the window) and saw up into the old dormitory probably dating back to Clare’s life time, because the most recent thinking is that Francis did less than had been thought but that some building and changes were made in the time of Clare. It makes sense is you think how the community grew. After this tour we had a free run of the place, friary part and the ‘tourist’ part and probably went everywhere. The friars kept an exemplary silence but always smiled when they saw is, sitting around on walls and benches. It was a most powerful experience. But the highlight, for me at least, and I think for many of us, was when we took our picnic lunches into Clare’s refectory and ate our lunch there. Assumpta said grace before and Lillian after the meal. We had talked about it first and decided we wanted to eat in silence, and so we did, sitting round at the refectory tables exactly as if we were her community. I felt that any minute she would say: Dear Sisters, there are a few things to give out before you go.
At about 3.30 the friars unexpectedly brought us coffee, tea and a huge Panettone which we demolished with gratitude, it was such a nice brotherly gesture. At 5.00 we met in a little room Claudio had shown us, to share together anything people wanted to say about what this day had meant. This was very powerful, there were lots of tears and people had clearly been deeply moved. I think some lives were changed. Then at 6.00 when the tourists had gone, we all went upstairs to the dormitory and had a short liturgy and an anointing for healing, there beside the place where Clare died. I asked her to heal my knee which has been getting steadily more painful, but since then it got incredibly worse until, by the time we were in the Protomonastery, I could hardly walk. But that is another story. Perhaps it is getting better, we shall see.
Wednesday 8 June – This was the day for Santa Chiara. We made our way there early and went straight down to the tomb where we had Mass at 8.00 am. After that the sacristan (an extern sister) opened up the steps to the sarcophagus of Clare which lay up above the altar in the little arched chapel which had been built for it when it was first placed underground some 15 feet, back in the 1260s. This is very moving, more than the ‘body’ really, since the body is little more than a plaster frame with some bones underneath it. Then we had the historical visit, saw the dossal showing Clare and scenes from her life, painted in the 1280s, also the tombs of Ortolana, Agnes and other sisters, including Benedetta who built the basilica, all buried in the little Agnes Chapel. I told them anything I knew about the frescoes and whatever details came to mind and also saw the relics, including the alb Clare made. There was some personal time after that and then back at the Casa for a lecture on the finding of Clare’s tomb, followed by Andre on the finding of Francis’ tomb, although chronologically that came first. Then back for pranzo and a rest. 5.00 pm saw us gathering outside the gate of the Protomonastery waiting ages for the bell to be answered. Finally the enclosure door opened and we were welcome by the Abbess Chiara Damiana, the previous abbess Chiara Daniela, Chiara Anastasia and a couple of others. These spent all the time with us, accompanied us when we went to the relics – and saw the actual privilege of poverty (I have an emailed photo if anyone wants it) as well as the actual parchment of Innocent IV’s approval, the one on show is a copy while the real one lives in air conditioned circumstances on a bed of Japanese rice paper, apparently the latest thing in document preservation. We saw some of Francis’ hair (black as black) and the plank he lay on when dead and were told definitively that the story of discovering the Rule in the fold of Clare’s cloak when they opened the coffin, is Not True. It seems the parchment was kept for a long time in a reliquary wrapped in a piece of habit material. What a come down. It is true that there was no mention of it in the contemporary account of finding her body. That all took quite a while, and then we were taken upstairs to the cloister garden where there were refreshments all laid out for us, peach tea, carrot and apricot tea, ‘ordinary’ tea and several plates of biscotti. By now it was 6.30 and so we went to the San Damiano Cross chapel and said evening prayer with them and so made our way back to the casa after two very wonderful days. I am sure there is more to say but I will stop there and send this off in the morning.
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