by Corrado Vari
The monastery of the Poor Clares in Anagni unites Saint Clare with Saint Joseph.
Their protection is manifested in vocational vitality and fidelity
to the Franciscan charism.
"Chiara, luminous for clear merits, shines in heaven for clarity of glory and on earth it shines with the splendor of sublime miracles. […] It could not happen that a lamp so vivid, so bright could remain hidden without spreading light and emanating clear light in the house of the Lord." It is a passage from the bull with which Pope Alexander IV elevated Clare of Assisi to the glory of the altars in the cathedral of Anagni in September 1255, just two years after her death.
The foundation date of the monastery is not known, but it cannot be ruled out that at the time of Chiara's canonization her followers were already present in the Lazio city: only a few months after the event, in fact, Alexander IV himself gave them the church of St. Peter in vineis, built in the 12th century on a hill outside the city walls and today in fact in the urban centre, while in medieval times it was precisely in vineis, that is, in the middle of the vineyards.
In the second half of the sixteenth century the nuns moved within the city walls, to the church of San Pancrazio. A new elegant baroque church, dedicated to Saint Clare, was built in the 1754th century, together with other structures, and consecrated in June XNUMX.
The figure of Mother Serafica Colacicchi shines in the history of the monastery, in that same 1797th century, whose life was accompanied by mystical experiences, including the vision of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as of Saint Clare who in XNUMX assured her of her protection over the Anagni monastery. Mother Colacicchi was the abbess of the community at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Napoleon's soldiers sacked the monastery: it was the beginning of a period of decline and impoverishment that lasted until the end of the century, also the effect of the political upheavals that they marked Italy and Europe.
Between ups and downs, the community reached the following century. During the two World Wars, it was a haven of prayer and charity for the local population and beyond: several Jews and persecuted people, and the heroic bishop of Anagni Attilio Adinolfi himself, found refuge within the walls of the monastery during the German occupation in Second World War.
The Poor Clares of Anagni continued their journey amidst the great economic, social and cultural changes of the second half of the twentieth century, but vocations decreased to the point of completely drying up for about thirty years. Only in 1993, an aging and reduced community welcomed, with the name of Sister Cristiana, Mirella Graziani, a thirty-eight-year-old nurse from nearby Alatri who in 2001 would later become the new Mother Abbess. It was also through her guidance that Saint Clare kept the ancient promise to protect and preserve the Anagni monastery. With commitment, fidelity to the charism of the Order and trust in divine Providence, Mother Cristiana worked not only to bring the large complex back to life, renovating and enhancing various environments, but also to lay the foundations of its future: in fact, she multiplied vocational initiatives and contacts in Italy and abroad, which were the foundations for a community today made up of 19 sisters of various nationalities, from different parts of Italy and some Latin American countries. The current mother Maria Chiara Fedele Subillaga comes from Honduras, who succeeded mother Cristiana, who returned to the Father in June 2020 and whose memory continues to accompany the lives of the sisters.
It was Mother Cristiana herself who revived the devotion to Saint Joseph, as the special protector of the community alongside Chiara and Francesco. Together with the image of the founding saints, that of Saint Joseph with the Child in his arms is present in many places of the monastery: in the church, where every week a lady who lives nearby provides fresh flowers for the statue of the saint; in the center of the cloister, where another large statue - placed in the open air - seems to signify the union between earth and sky through the intercession of the saint. It is precisely here that during the summer the sisters use to gather to have lunch outdoors and thank divine Providence, because with the help of Saint Joseph it always grants what is necessary. He is also represented on the walls of the internal chapel, recently built in memory of Mother Cristiana in the place of her death, and in various other places of the large monastery, almost as if to indicate his gaze present in the life of the contemplatives.
The invocation to Saint Joseph marks the moments of prayer that mark the lives of the sisters throughout the day and the year: in particular, the well-known prayer of Leo XIII To you, oh blessed Joseph... accompanies morning praise every day, while the request for his intercession concludes Eucharistic adoration. Finally, a novena to Saint Joseph precedes the great feast of March 19th.
The saint is also present in the personal devotion of the sisters: each invokes him with their own history and sensitivity, according to particular intentions linked to the different titles with which he is venerated; according to the great "responsibilities" that these titles imply for him, protector of the Holy Church, of various categories of faithful and also of this religious community, which for almost eight hundred years has offered its testimony of faith and charity and supports the hope of Christian people with their incessant prayer.