Mysterious Heart of Saint Clare of Montefalco:

11 August 2019

Saint Clare of Montefalco was an Italian mystic of the Augustinian Order who lived during the period 1268 - 1308. Her life was blessed with extraordinary graces and gifts. When she was six years of age she joined the Secular Third Order of St. Francis. She served as its abbess for sixteen years till her death at the age of 40. She was canonized on December 8, 1881 by Pope Leo XIII.

During her lifetime, she reportedly had a vision of Jesus dressed as a poor traveller who was overwhelmed by the weight of the cross he carried. During the vision, Clare knelt before Him and asked him “My Lord, where art Thou going?” Jesus answered her, “I have looked all over the world for a strong place where to plant this Cross firmly, and I have not found any.” After she reached for the cross, making her desire known to help Him carry it, He said to her “Clare, I have found a place for my Cross here. I have finally found someone to whom I can trust My Cross” and he implanted it in her heart. After this vision, her life was spent in pain and suffering, yet she was always joyful and served as the Abbess in her monastery for sixteen years.

She often told the sisters in her Order, “If you seek the Cross of Christ, take my heart, there you will find the suffering Lord.” After her death, the Sisters remembered her words and had her heart extracted. The larger than average heart when opened revealed astonishing symbols of the Lord’s Passion, all composed of cardiac tissue.

The crucifix is about the size of a thumb. The head of the Crucifix is inclined toward the right arm. The clearly formed corpus is pallid white except for the tiny wound of the lance, which is a livid reddish color. White tissue covers the loins of the Crucified Lord as a loin cloth. The scourge is formed of a hard, whitish nerve which has knobbed ends representing the cruel instrument of the scourging. The column is formed of a round white nerve, hard as stone, and is entwined by a nerve representing the cord which fastened Christ to the pillar. The Crown of Thorns is composed of tiny sharp nerves. The three nails are formed of dark fibrous tissue, exceedingly sharp. A nerve represents the lance, while the sponge is formed of a single nerve with a tiny cluster of nerve endings resembling the sponge at its tip. These symbols are believed to have been imprinted on her heart during the vision of the Lord wherein He planted His Cross in her heart. Three pellets were found in her gall during the extraction of the heart. These pellets are the size of hazelnuts and are regarded as the symbols of the Holy Trinity.

Today her relics can be seen in her shrine in the Church of the Holy Cross in Montefalco. During the examination in 1968 her body was found to be completely flexible even after nearly 600 years of her death. One part of the incorrupt heart is enclosed in a bust of the Saint and can be viewed under a crystal which is located at the chest portion of the figure. The pellets can be seen under the circular crystal coverings in the jewelled cross that encloses under a similar crystal covering that holds the other half of the Saint’s heart on which even after so many centuries the distinct marks of the Passion of our Lord can be seen.