Stained Glass Tour
  - Joseph the Patriarch
  - St. Therese of Liseux
  - St. Claire of Assisi
  - St. Francis of Assisi
  - St. Paul of Tarsus
  - Bl. Pedro Calungsod
  - St. Maria Goretti
  - Bl. Miguel Pro
  - St. Maximilian Kolbe
  - St. Gianna Molla
  - Bl. Teresa of Calcutta
  - Ven. John Paul II, Pope
  - St. John Vianney
  - Christ the King with St. Michael
the Archangel
 - Ven. Fr. Michael McGivney

The stained glass in the main section of St. Joseph's Church that is featured in this section was designed and created by parishioner Mary Mullins and all images are subject to copyright, 2007-2010, Valley Rose Designer Glass.  Descriptive text copyright Mary Mullins, 2007-2010.
You may contact them by calling (209) 238-3236.

St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)

St. Clare was a beautiful Italian noblewoman, one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi and the founder of the Order of Poor Ladies, known today as the Poor Clares.

She grew up in a privileged home with a devout, loving mother. She heard St. Francis preaching in the town of Assisi, and her tender heart was moved by his words. In the course of time, Clare rejected a proposal of marriage to a wealthy young man and decided instead to follow St. Francis
in a life of prayer, poverty and service of the poor. On Palm Sunday, she received the Blessed Palm from the hand of the Bishop. She took this as a sign from God that she should leave her father’s house and follow St.
Francis as her spiritual father.

When she presented herself before St. Francis and the brothers, he cut off her beautiful blonde hair and clothed her in rough robes. For a little while, Clare lived at the Benedictine Monastery of Sisters and then with a group of women penitents on Monte Subasio.

In a short time, Clare’s sister, Agnes, joined her and St. Francis set up a permanent home for the new order at his beloved San Damiano. Like the order of Friars Minor, St. Clare’s Poor Ladies grew in number and later in years, St. Clare’s mother joined her and one of her brothers joined St. Francis. The sisters lived an austere life of manual labor, prayer and fasting, wearing no shoes and eating no meat.

St. Clare and St. Francis were true, faithful friends, encouraging and supporting each other. St. Clare regarded St. Francis as her spiritual father. Towards the end of his life when St. Francis was suffering from numerous ailments and losing his sight, St. Clare took care of him in a little room built especially for him outside the cloister. It was there
that he composed “The Canticle of the Sun”.

According to legend, renegade soldiers from the army of Frederick II were on the verge of attacking the convent.  Knowing she could not protect her sisters, she put all her trust in God’s help and prayerfully displayed the Blessed Sacrament to the approaching army. When they saw the Blessed Sacrament, the soldiers fled.

Like St. Francis, St. Clare loved animals as God’s fellow creatures and had a little cat of which she was particularly fond. St. Clare’s cat had an uncanny ability to sense when she needed something. Once when she was ill, her cat brought her a napkin before the sisters even realized she needed one. Gentle little miracles seemed to happen when St. Clare was around. Several stories relate that when she blessed flour and oil jars, the jars filled of their own accord and her sisters always seemed to have just enough to make bread for themselves and the poor they served.

St. Clare is shown holding a small monstrance displaying the Blessed Sacrament. The monstrance is patterned after the monstrance in St. Joseph’s Blessed Sacrament Chapel. A palm branch is tucked under her arm commemorating the palm she received from the Bishop on the Palm Sunday before she joined St. Francis.

A small cat is curled up at her feet and a flour jar and an oil jug are beside her on the tile floor. She is surrounded by small flowers, a reference to “The Little Flowers of St. Francis” a collection of stories about St. Francis, St. Clare and the early Franciscans.