Another week in the books and we’re one holy showdown closer to the Elate Eight. Today’s matchup is giving family feud, but make it saintly.

It’s sister vs. brother, blessed vs. beloved, hospitalers vs. holiness heavyweights

Clare of Assisi vs Blessed Gerard

Will the founder of the Knights of St. John, yes those legends of Malta and the original ambulance crew 🚑, need to call in backup for Clare? Or will the Franciscan faithful and Clare’s cloistered crew quietly and prayerfully carry her straight into the Elate Eight?

Meanwhile, Archbishop Janani Luwum has already punched his ticket, sending Fr. Damien off to an early offseason with a final score of 69.75% to 30.25%. Somewhere, Damien is catching waves and wondering what could have been.

Only one spot left today. Only one advances.

Vote now. Choose wisely. Brag loudly.

Clare of Assisi

St. Clare of Assisi lived a life of extreme poverty in pursuit of closeness with Christ, but that didn’t stop her from living a rich and eventful life. Quite the contrary; her commitment to living out her faith in her way of extreme austerity made her a pioneer, as the first woman to write a set of monastic guidelines. Her order, known colloquially as the “Poor Clares” continues to this day. It was founded in 1212.

Through a few of her extant letters to St. Agnes of Prague (and the monastic rule itself), Clare has left us with some valuable (if challenging — when it came to life in general, Clare loved a challenge) wisdom.

“Love that does not know of suffering is not worthy of the name,” is one quote that simultaneously feels true, hard to swallow, and quintessential Clare.

St. Clare was a follower of Assisi’s other (more) famous saint, Francis, from a very young age, and became a nun in part as a way to put a firm end to her aristocrat father’s attempt to marry her off. She went on to take very seriously her role as the spouse of the crucified Christ, and her letters to St. Agnes reflect on the immense privilege of that role — one which they shared. In the closing of her first letter to Agnes she writes poetically,

“What a great laudable exchange
to leave the things of time for those of eternity,
to choose the things of heaven for the goods of earth,
to receive the hundred-fold in place of one,
and to possess a blessed and eternal life.”

In his book Franciscans at Prayer, author Timothy Johnson extrapolates on such observations of Clare to Agnes, and his words are frequently attributed to St. Clare herself on the internet. And no wonder; reflecting on Clare’s words, he sums up perhaps the greatest call and biggest challenge of life as a Christian in a society constantly calling us in a million directions.

“We become what we love,” Johnson writes, “and what we love shapes who we become.”

— Marissa Flaxbart

Blessed Gerard

One of the first songs I learned when I joined the Episcopal Church says, “For the Saints of God are just folk like me.” Blessed Gérard was blessedly human. He was at work building up the hospital of the Order of St. John in the Old City of Jersusalm at the start of the Crusades. As a lay Benedictine brother, we don’t know whether he had a choice to support this effort or not because of his vows. What we do know, however, is that how he supported the people in front of him was that those who came to the hospital, whom he insisted always be greeted with “Our Lords, the Sick,” regardless of disfigurement, religion, or gender and it became policy that the Hospital of St. John was radically hospitable in a truly violent time.

Not only was the Hospitaller of the Order of St. John known widely at the time because of the care which was given with such grace at the direction of Gérard, it was also granted a special Papal canonical consolidation in the solemn bull "Pie postulatio voluntatis" by Pope Paschal II in the year 1113. In it, not only is Gérard praised by name, he was also granted full control of all funds and possessions. The Church entrusts the funds to Gérard, but also to his legacy, “we confirm them to you and to your successors, who shall devote themselves with pious zeal to the cares of hospitality, and through you to the said Hospital in perpetuity,” the rare bull reads.

After his death, René Aubert Vertôt said of Gérard that he was a “father of the poor and pilgrims,” and that of his long, faithful life, “one can say he fell away like a fruit ripe for eternity.” To this day, Blessed Gérard’s impact is felt centuries later as the work of the Order of St. John continues, and its mission remains essentially unchanged from Gérard’s lips: “pro fide - pro utilitate hominum.” For the faith - In the service of humanity.

About 1,000 years later, the radical hospitality in another globally violent time is a powerful witness, because the saints of God are just folk like us. I’m deeply grateful for our Blessed Gérard and for the ongoing work of the St. John’s Ambulance.

May God grant us all the faith of Blessed Gérard.

— Becca Kello