THE MIRACLE OF ST. CLARE: THE OIL

This witness also said the life of blessed Clare was filled with miracles. She learned once, when there was no oil in the monastery, the blessed mother called a certain brother of the Lesser Brothers, Brother Bentevenga, who used to beg alms for them. She told him to go seeking oil. He replied that they should prepare the jar for him. Then Lady Clare took a certain jar, washed it with her own hands, and placed it on a certain wall near the entrance of the house. There the brother would take it.

The jar remained there for about an hour. Then that brother, Bentevenga, went for it and found it filled with oil. After searching diligently, he did not find who had placed it there. Asked how she knew this, she replied since she was in the house she saw when the lady had taken out the empty jar and she had brought it back filled. She said she did not know who had filled it or how it had been filled. Brother Bentevenga said the same. Asked about the time of this event, she replied it was about the second year after they had come to live in the monastery of San Damiano. Asked about what month and what day, she replied she did not remember. Asked if it were in the Summer or Winter, she replied, Summer. Asked which sisters were present at that time, she said sister Agnes, Saint Clare’s sister, who just a little while ago had passed from this life, was present, as well as Sister Balvina, abbess of the monastery of Vallegloria, who had also died, and Sister Benvenuta of Perugia, still living.

And she swore about these things, and the witness also said she could not explain with her own tongue the miracles and virtues which the Lord had shown through blessed Clare.

Source: Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, by Regis Armstrong, OFMCap, pp.148

Home