page_title: Clare of Montefalco
section_title: Relics
hierarchical_section_title: Clare of Montefalco / Relics
caption_attribution_description: English: Saint Clare of Montefalco[1] inside Pulilan, Bulacan Museum
context_page_description: Saint Clare of Montefalco, also called Saint Clare of the Cross, was an Augustinian nun and abbess. Before becoming a nun, St. Clare was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis. She was canonized by Pope Leo XIII on December 8, 1881.
context_section_description: Immediately following Clare's death her heart was removed from her body, and upon inspection it was reported that symbols of Christ's passion, a crucifix and a scourge, were found within her heart. Other historians report that an "autopsy" was conducted and a small crucifix was found in her heart and three gallstones were found in her gallbladder, which were taken as a symbol of the Holy Trinity. Upon hearing the news of these signs, the vicar of the Bishop of Spoleto traveled to Montefalco "burning with indignation" suspecting that the nuns of the convent had planted the symbols. A commission consisting of physicians, jurists, and theologians was assembled to conduct an investigation, which subsequently "ruled out the possibility of fabrication or artifice". The vicar of the Bishop of Spoleto, who came to Montefalco as an inquisitor eager to punish those responsible for fraud, came to be convinced of the authenticity of the findings after personally verifying that the signs were not the result of trickery. However, doubts as to the veracity of the findings persisted even at the canonization proceedings, which were fraught with conflicts including a challenge from the Franciscans that Clare should not be canonized as a saint of the Order of Saint Augustine because she had been a Franciscan tertiary. During the proceedings Tommaso Boni, a Franciscan from Foligno and formerly chaplain to Clare's community, stated that he suspected that the "symbols in her heart were planted by a nun from Foligno"; furthermore that John Pulicinus, who had been chaplain at the time of Clare's death, had opposed the veneration of the symbols found in her heart.
  The crucifix reportedly found within Clare's heart is about the size of a thumb. Christ's head leans slightly towards the right arm of the crucifix, and his body is white, except for the "tiny aperture in the right side which is a livid reddish color." The scourge and crown of thorns are apparently formed by whitish nerve fibers, and the three nails are formed of a dark fibrous tissue.
  The body of Saint Clare is now reduced to bones. A statue of her body is on display to pilgrims in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Clare in Montefalco in a glass sarcophagus; the bones are on display in the rear of the sarcophagus but can only be seen by nuns who have access to the rear of the crypt. Her heart is displayed for veneration at the same church.
caption: Saint Clare of Montefalco's centuries-old image at Pulilan, Bulacan’s Church Museum
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