Category: St Francis Of Assisi

St Clare of Assisi (2025)

3/7/2025

This portrait of St Clare of Assisi was painted on 5 June 2025, but as with most important artworks it took roughly a month of researching, thinking through, planning, and revising initial ideas before I finally started on the actual painting part—two days before the self-imposed deadline. I wanted it to be ready for to give as a birthday prayer card to a fellow pilgrim to WYD Lisbon, 2023.

St Clare is the first spiritual daughter of St Francis of Assisi, having seen him renounce himself of his father and his family’s wealth when she was twelve-years old. She later joined him and the minor friars at the age of eighteen, and co-founder of the Order of Poor Ladies, more commonly known today as the “Poor Clares”. The Rule incorporates much of the original vision of St Francis, as well as a little Benedictine wisdom.

In this painting she is seated with her lap open to all who are finding life difficult and seek her intercession. With one hand she is holding aloft a golden Monstrance containing the Eucharistic presence of Christ, representing when she held aloft the same Eucharistic presence when various marauding armies came to lay siege to Assisi during the 13th Century and from which shone so bright a light of heaven from the Monstrance that those same armies fled, leaving the city and convent of the Poor Clares safe from harm and destruction.

Outside the Church of San Damiano, Assisi, during the 2023 WYD Lisbon pilgrimage through Italy. (Photo: by Author)

On the top left of the painting is an image of the San Damiano cross from which St Francis received the vision of Christ speaking to him, ‘… go and rebuild my church …’

The original San Damiano cross was the altarpiece inside the Church of San Damiano (depicted on the top right of the painting), it was moved when the Poor Clares left the San Damiano monastery in 1257 AD to the Basilica of St Clare in Assisi and they have to this day continued to guard it with great solitude because it St Francis had gifted San Damiano to St Clare and her companions for use as a convent in 1212 AD.

In recent times there have been social media testimonies of women being visited by St Clare when in deep difficulty, and saying, ‘here are my soft hands, here is my soft lap’. These graces have resulted in significant conversions.

Vincent Cavanagh
3 July 2025

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more work from the 52 week illustration challenge

20/7/2017

Here's the #illo52weeks report from Week's 26 to 29:

The theme for Week 26 was San Francisco, so I decided to go for the holy man himself and not the city.

Week 27's theme was Bush Countryside and came straight from my imagination. For this one I decided to keep it Black & White and use some ink wash.

Week 28's theme was Growth, something that every child knows about:

Week 29's theme was Swing. For this one I went for ink and ink wash again, with just a smidgen of colour:

I am now a Facebook newbie, having had a page for just on 2 weeks.
It was necessary for taking part in a short course with The Oatley Academy called 'First Flight'. Gradually I am getting through the hours and hours of podcasts and hopefully will get to the drawing part soon.

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St Clare of Assisi (2025)

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St Clare of Assisi (2025)

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more work from the 52 week illustration challenge

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