Pope Leo XIV visits cloistered nuns in Montefalco, prays at St. Clare of the Cross’s relics, and shares meal in atmosphere of simplicity and fraternity.
Newsroom (20/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a poignant display of personal and spiritual continuity, Pope Leo XIV on Thursday visited the cloistered Augustinian monastery of Santa Chiara in the medieval hill town of Montefalco, central Italy, where he celebrated Mass, prayed at the relics of St. Clare of the Cross, and shared a simple Umbrian meal with the community’s thirteen nuns.
The November 20 visit came one day after the Pope met with Italy’s bishops and prayed at the tomb of St. Francis in nearby Assisi. Arriving by helicopter, Leo XIV was welcomed by local officials and crowds lining Montefalco’s narrow stone streets before entering the 13th-century monastery that has followed the Rule of St. Augustine since 1290.
Inside the enclosure normally closed to the public, the Pope spent several hours in conversation with the nuns, discussing Augustinian spirituality, the centrality of contemplative prayer, and the ongoing synodal process in the Church. He celebrated Mass in the monastery chapel and venerated the incorrupt heart of St. Clare of Montefalco (1268–1308), which, according to tradition, was found after her death to contain miniature images of the instruments of Christ’s Passion, including a crucifix formed in the cardiac tissue.
Abbess Maria Cristina Daguati, speaking afterward to Vatican News, described the encounter as marked by “familiarity and simplicity.” She called the Pope “unarmed and disarming” and praised his “peacemaking personality,” attributes she said echoed the longstanding relationship between the pontiff and the Augustinian family from his years as Prior General of the Order.
“His presence among us highlighted the enduring witness of St. Clare,” Mother Daguati said. “She shows that life with Christ is beautiful, and we seek to share that beauty through prayer and fraternity – exactly what we experienced today with the Holy Father.”
The nuns presented Leo XIV with a 2026 wall calendar pairing quotations from his own speeches with texts from St. Augustine, along with bottles of the region’s renowned Sagrantino wine and handmade monastic products.
St. Clare, canonized in 1881 by Pope Leo XIII, entered religious life as a child alongside her sister Joan and eventually became abbess at age 23. Known for her profound mystical experiences and rigorous counsel sought by bishops, priests, and laypeople alike, she endured an eleven-year “dark night” of spiritual desolation before embracing leadership of the community with wisdom and charity until her death on August 17, 1308.
Thursday’s visit underscored Pope Leo XIV’s frequent emphasis on contemplative life as the “lung” of the Church and his personal devotion to the Augustinian charism of interiority, community, and restless seeking of God.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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