Pope Leo XIV Receives a Warm Welcome on Visit to Augustinian Nuns' Convent He has Known for Over 40 Years - VIDEO

 After meeting with the Italian bishops in Assisi, Pope Leo XIV visited the monastic community that preserves the memory of Saint Clare, known as the Congregation of the Cross. The Pope spent some time with the nuns, then celebrated Mass and finally had lunch with them. Sister Maria Cristina Daguati: "We have known him for years; it was a moment of familiarity. He has a calming personality."

He had been there as a professed priest, then several times as Father General of the Order of Saint Augustine. On November 20,  the 267th Pontiff of the Universal Church, returned to the Augustinian monastery of Santa Chiara da Montefalco for a private visit. It was a moment of communion with the cloistered nuns of the Augustinian family, which Leo XIV chose as the second stop on his brief visit to Umbria, after going to Assisi to meet with the Italian Episcopal Conference, which is concluding its 81st General Assembly today. "A moment of great familiarity" with a person "we have known for years," Abbess Maria Cristina Daguati commented to Vatican media. "Pope Leo XIV brought with him a great atmosphere of prayer. It was truly beautiful. Beautiful." "It's a great friendship, because obviously we've known him for many years and so I'd say that everything took place in the spirit of great familiarity," adds the nun, "a very simple day" with "a disarming and disarming man" with a "pacifying personality."

The Pope left Assisi around 10:00 a.m. He arrived by helicopter at approximately 8:30 a.m. at the Migaghelli Stadium, then drove to the Basilica of Saint Francis and paused in prayer before the tomb of the Poverello in the crypt. He then traveled to Santa Maria degli Angeli, where he spoke to the bishops of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), before returning by helicopter to Montefalco. In this small town in the province of Perugia, there was great excitement over the arrival of Leo XIV, the first Pope to visit these lands. Mayor Alfredo Gentili welcomed him at the Artemio Franchi Sports Field. Many people crowded along the medieval streets to greet him. Several children joyfully awaited him near the monastery, and the Pontiff waved to them from his car before entering the ancient monastery of Santa Chiara, whose origins date back to the 13th century.

In the monastic community that has observed the Rule of Saint Augustine since June 10, 1290, and which today numbers 13 nuns, St. Clare's testimony lives on. She was six years old when she expressed the desire to consecrate herself to God, dedicating herself to prayer and practicing penance, like her sister Giovanna. Having become abbess at just twenty-three, she gave new impetus to the religious community, better organizing common life, requiring all the nuns to perform manual labor, but granting ample freedom to those more inclined to a contemplative style. She distinguished herself as a woman of enlightened firmness. Many poor and needy people approached her grate, and Clare was always ready to offer them something to eat or a word of comfort. For learned men, priests, and the higher clergy, she was a wise counselor, capable as she was of reading others' hearts and foreseeing events. All this despite a difficult ordeal of spiritual aridity that plagued her for 11 years. "My Jesus is within my heart," she repeated after Christ appeared to her in the monastery garden as a pilgrim and sufferer, telling her: "I seek a strong place where I can plant the cross, and here I find the right place." Tradition has it that the wayfaring Jesus gave her his staff, and when planted, it gave birth to a tree, still thriving today. It is the Melia Azedarach, native to the Himalayas, or "Saint Clare's tree," whose woody seeds have been used for centuries to make rosaries. Clare died on August 17, 1308, and her fellow nuns decided to preserve her body. Her organs were removed, and the signs of Christ's Passion were discovered in her heart: "in the form of hard sinews of flesh, on one side the cross, three nails, the sponge, and the reed; and on the other side the column, the whip... and the crown... In the gall sac... there were three round stones, all identical... which likely represented the Trinity." Clare's fame for sanctity spread quickly, and several miracles were documented through her intercession. She was canonized by Leo XIII on December 8, 1881.

The Pope spent a moment conversing with the Augustinian nuns, then presided over Mass—concelebrated by Monsignor Francesco Lambiasi, who is currently leading the cloistered nuns' spiritual exercises—in the beautiful 17th-century church designed by Perugian architect Valentino Martelli. In the right transept, behind a railing, lies a silver urn containing the remains of Saint Clare. The altar dedicated to her has a grand stucco façade, adorned with columns, cornices, decorative friezes, and two statues in the two side niches, representing Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome. Two other railing-covered niches hold further relics of Clare, including her heart, the Mysteries of Christ's Passion discovered there, placed on a cross, and the three stones found in her gallbladder. But the most evocative place connected to Clare in the monastery complex is the Chapel of Santa Croce, decorated with splendid 14th-century frescoes. Originally the presbytery of the small church she had built and the place chosen for her final days, it is said that the numerous miracles recounted in the canonization processes occurred here.

The nuns offered the Pope a traditional Umbrian lunch. The abbess, Mother Cristina Daguati, and her fellow nuns presented the 2026 calendar, "Towards a Disarmed and Disarming Peace," with texts from his speeches and homilies and those of Saint Augustine, accompanied by drawings by Sister Maria Rosa Guerrini, vicar, elected president of the Federation of Augustinian Monasteries of Italy, "Mother of Good Counsel," on November 12th. They also presented holy cards, a Mass outfit with the Augustinian coat of arms, Sagrantino wine donated by the Montefalco wineries, and some products packaged by the nuns. 

"Pope Leo XIV brings with him a great atmosphere of prayer. Everything took place in a spirit of great familiarity; it was a very simple and beautiful day. What struck us all was the person," the abbess of the monastery of Santa Chiara told Vatican media. "We have known him for many years; some of us even had several personal conversations with him when he was Father General. Now, as Holy Father, you can see that he has a truly peaceful personality. He is a disarming and disarming man. This is precisely what emerges from his sermons since then and in his meetings. Having him here has given us so much peace and joy. We had the opportunity to talk, celebrate Mass, and have lunch together."

The nuns explained that with the Augustinian Fathers, there's always this family bond; they often come to visit us, we share beautiful moments of fraternity, so we're somewhat accustomed to this practical approach to the Rule, which asks us to be of one heart and soul in God, but precisely in the simplest, most beautiful dimension. From the celebration to the lunch together, we shared beautiful, simple moments with the Pope. This is our rule, this is our style: when we go to an Augustinian monastery or convent, or, for example, to the Curia or the College of Santa Monica, we feel at home. I think this is the actualization of the Rule of Saint Augustine: that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. This is something you can feel from experience. And undoubtedly this was the case with the Pope, also because he is familiar with Santa Chiara. He was here for the first time in 1981, so the older nuns remembered him. It's the style of the Augustinian fraternity, so when you go to a monastery you feel at home; this is the updated rule. We also spoke with the Pope about synodality, about our experience with the Days of Consecrated Life. Since he was elected to the papacy, we told ourselves that we had to be at the forefront of prayer, and we added a specific prayer every day for the Pope after the Angelus. We saw how he brightened when we told him we were at his side with prayer and friendship.

Source: Edited from Vatican News Italian