Relic of St. Clare of Assisi to visit Dumaguete, Siquijor

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – The Diocese of Dumaguete has been chosen as one of the few dioceses to be visited by the Relic of St. Clare of Assisi this month.

It would be the first in 800 years that the Relic of St. Clare of Assisi would have a pilgrimage in a place outside of Italy, according to outgoing Dumaguete bishop and now Archbishop-elect John Du of the Archdiocese of Palo, Leyte.

Archbishop Du said the relic, upon arrival at 7 a.m. on April 18 (Wednesday) via Cebu Pacific Air from Cebu, will be brought to the Diocese of Dumaguete where it will stay for a few hours before its slated 8 a.m. departure and visit to the Monastery of the Poor Clare Sisters in Maria town of nearby Siquijor island-province.

At 10 a.m. a welcome Mass will be held at the Our Lady of Divine Providence Parish, in Maria, Siquijor, then at 11 a.m. a Procession of the Relic to the Monastery where an Exposition/Veneration of the Relic will be held 30 minutes after.

From Siquijor, the Relic will return to Dumaguete at 3 p.m. where a Welcome Mass will be held at the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral at 5 p.m. and a 2nd Mass at the same venue at 6 p.m. An hour later, an Exposition/Veneration of the Relic will be held also at the Cathedral.

On April 19 (Thursday), a Departure Mass at the Cathedral has been set at 5 a.m. before its departure at the airport by 7:25 a.m.

Archbishop Du has called on the Dumaguete clergy to prepare for the visit of the Relic of St. Clare of Assisi. Father Jess Dajac, a Filipino priest based in Rome, has been appointed as an official guardian of the Relic while in the Philippines, he said.

St. Clare was born in Assisi in Italy on July 16, 1194 and died there on August 11, 1253. Her father was a wealthy Count who owned a large palace and a castle. Her mother belonged to a noble family. From early childhood, the rarest of virtues were already seen on her: most devoted to prayer and to practices of mortification; had distaste for the world but yearning for a more spiritual life. Finally, she left a life of privilege to become a nun.

The saint is the patron of navigators, couples who are childless and want to have children, of life and of families. Pope Pius XII designated her as the patron saint of television in 1958, 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. St. Clare is the patron of Europe and of many places in the Philippines. - THE FREEMAN