Today we celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Clelia Barbieri.
She is the patron saint of those ridiculed for their piety. She could come in handy right now, eh, Senator Vitter and Representative Allen? What's that Clelia? True piety you say? Right. Wonder who the patron saint of hypocrisy is? I digress.
Saint Clelia died in 1870. She haunts her convent still.
Here is what my Saint A Day guide says:
Although her parents were simple hemp workers (blogger's note-whaaa hmmm?) they sensed that Clelia was special after seeing her conversing with invisible friends and levitating. Even as a small child, she expressed her wish to "leave the world" and was interested in the Saint-making process. Clelia became the youngest founder of a religious order (Minims of Our Lady of Sorrows) and died at the tender age of twenty-three, promising her sisters that she would always be with them. Not long afterward her voice was heard accompanying the nuns in prayer and hymns. Soon nuns in other convents also began to hear her high-pitched voice, singing, praying, and speaking the local dialect, sometimes preceded by a series of knocks.
Two things: 1) I have no idea what a Minim is. And 2) If Clelia were our contemporary, she would not be a saint, she would be Mackenzie Phillips.
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