Bl Elia of St Clement Fracasso – May 29 – Carmelite Saints

Summary:

Blessed Elia of St. Clement was born in Bari, January 17, 1901, to deeply Christian parents. At her baptism, she was given the name Theodora, ‘gift of God.’ In the brief course of her life on earth, she lived up to her name. On April 8, 1920 (then Feast of St. Albert, author of the Carmelite Rule), she entered the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari. She received the habit on November 24 of the same year, the feast of St John of the Cross. On December 8, 1924, she wrote in her own blood her act of total and definitive offering to the Lord with the vow to embrace the “most perfect”. She died on Christmas Day, 1927. On December 19, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI signed the Decree of Beatification. She was proclaimed Blessed in Bari Cathedral on March 18, 2006.

History:

Theodora Fracasso, whose name means ‘gift of God,’ was born in Bari, Apulia, Italy, on January 17, 1901. She was the third of nine children; four unfortunately died in infancy. Her parents were Giuseppe Fracasso and Pasqua Cianci. Theodora declared that her parents were “true saints.” Her father ran a small painting company. Both parents were sacristans of the Santa Maria del Pozzo confraternity at Saint Mark’s Church. Theodora’s parents were good practicing Catholics. They were concerned for the human and spiritual development of Theodora and her four sisters: Prudence, Anna, Domenica, and Nicola. Every day, the family recited the rosary. Pasqua taught her children about the soul, God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Heaven, and eternal life. Four days after Theodora’s birth, her paternal uncle, Carlo Fracasso, the cemetery chaplain, baptized her in the Church of San Giacomo.

At two, Theodora received Confirmation from the Archbishop of Bari, in accordance with the custom of the time. Every night before sleep, she placed a small flower at Our Lady’s feet. This symbolized her daily sacrifice in honor of Our Lady.

In Theodora's childhood, a series of premonitory dreams had a strong impact on her. The first occurred when she was four, featuring a garden and a lady.

“I dreamed there was a patch of fragrant lilies in front of our house, near the door. A very beautiful young lady in a white coat, with eyes that sparkled like stars, walked through the flowers with a golden sickle in her beautiful hands. With a heavenly smile on her lips, she delicately touched the white lilies on her left and on her right; so touched, they gently bent towards her. When she reached the end of this completely white field, the beautiful woman bent forward and, having laid down the sickle, picked a small lily. She looked at it, admired it a moment, and then pressing it to her heart, disappeared.”

The next morning, she eagerly recounted her dream to her mother. Her mother lifted her in her arms and covered her with kisses, saying, “My daughter, that was the Virgin Mary, who pressed your little soul against her heart in an act of kindness. You honor her every day, and she wanted to reward you by coming to you while you slept.” From this experience, the young girl promised Mary she would become a nun when she grew up. From that day on, she wrote, “My little heart felt an ardent thirst for God: the desire for God and the thought of being a nun never left my mind for a single moment.”

Theodora attended a school run by the Stigmata Sisters, a congregation dedicated to educating girls. She received a good religious education there until third grade. Theodora was lively and spontaneous. She was a good friend, attentive to others, and people described her as “healthy and intelligent.” She enjoyed playing with her younger sister, Domenica, who shared Theodora’s love for the Lord. Domenica eventually followed Theodora into Carmel and received the name Sr. Céline, after St. Thérèse’s sister.

Theodora enjoyed the open air, walks with her father in gardens, relished Bari’s intense sun, and adored the starry summer nights. She sewed eagerly, spent much time in the embroidery room, and worked closely with the Sisters. She joined parish groups for children and teenagers run by the Dominican Fathers. She devoted herself to the Eucharist and prayer, often practicing with friends. Even as a youth, she displayed surprising apostolic zeal. She cared for workers in her father's workshop, tended to the sick, made gifts for newborns, and taught catechism to younger children.

In 1911, at the age of 10, Theodora received her first Communion after being carefully prepared by her first Confession. The night before, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, whom she had never heard of until then, appeared to Theodora in a dream. In this dream, Saint Thérèse prophesied, "You will be a nun like me," called her "Sr. Elia," and foretold that her life would also be very short. From this moment forward, Theodora cherished Saint Thérèse as "my dearest Friend in Heaven." The following day, upon receiving the Eucharist for the first time, Theodora learned from Jesus that she would become "the little victim of his merciful love" and that she "was going to suffer a lot in her life here below." From then on, Theodora received Communion daily.

Afterward, she became active in the Association of Bl. Imelda Lambertini, a Dominican nun noted for her devotion to the Eucharist. Later, Theodora joined the "Angelic Army" of St. Thomas Aquinas. She gathered friends for meditation, prayer, and the reading of spiritual works, including The Eternal Maxim, The Imitation of Christ, the Fifteen Saturdays of Our Lady, the Lives of the Saints, and the Autobiography of St Thérèse. The Story of a Soul reignited her vocation.

The Dominican priest, Fr. Pietro Fiorillo, served as her spiritual director and confessor at this stage. He introduced her to the Third Order Dominicans as Theodora’s vocation became clearer. They accepted her as a novice on April 20, 1914. She chose the name “Agnes” and made her profession on May 14, 1915, with a special dispensation due to her young age.

In 1916, Theodora worked for the Stigmata Sisters. She contributed her salary to her family, as her father struggled to provide for them during World War I. During the war, anti-clericalism led to the persecution of the Church. The Dominican convent was shut down for allegedly spying for Austria. Bari was a large port across from Dalmatia, then part of Austria. The Stigmatines were banned, and blasphemers freely offended God.

After learning about a newly founded Carmelite convent dedicated to St. Joseph in Bari, she met a Jesuit priest, Fr. Sergio Di Gioia, near the end of 1917, who became her new confessor and spiritual director. A year later, he guided her and her friend, Clare Bellomi, toward the Carmel. In December 1918, the two young women visited the order for the first time. Throughout 1919, Theodora, under Fr. Di Gioia’s prudent and enlightened guidance, intently prepared to join the convent.

In 1920, Theodora entered the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari, which became a haven of contemplation amidst the frenetic pace of the city. She took the name Sr. Elia of St. Clement, which Saint Thérèse had revealed to her in a dream. She chose Carmel as a second family, not as an escape or refuge but as a choice of love. Nevertheless, her filial love for her roots remained intact, and she wrote many letters to her family.

Elia recognized Carmel as a mountain to climb with the sweat of her brow. She wrote: "I came to the Carmel to bury myself, to live hidden in God, forgetting everything, including myself." Her heart was full of consolation at first. Then, desolation overwhelmed her. She wrote, "Everything was profound darkness for my spirit." Carmel felt like a desert. She refrained from confiding in the Prioress, who misunderstood her and told her, "Your vocation was a mistake." A veil separated her from the other sisters. In her poem, she wrote: "When I entered the Carmel, I sensed a very thick veil and experienced exile. Deprived of affection, I could not find a refuge for my heart. I passed many hours without being understood, with no other defense than to keep quiet." Nevertheless, Sr. Elia continued to raise her song of love to the Lord. And then she began to feel God’s consolation again. She wrote, "As though to purify me, love gently engulfed me; this merciful love penetrated me, purified me, renewed me, and I felt that it consumed me."

On December 4, 1921, she pronounced her first vows at the age of 20. She wrote: "Alone at the feet of my Crucified Lord, I looked at him for a long time, and as I looked I saw that he was my whole life."

In addition to St. Teresa of Jesus, she took St. Thérèse as her guide, following the "little way of spiritual childhood" to which she "felt called by the Lord". Thérèse and Elia, during the few years they spent at the Carmelite convent, reached the heights of union with God. They both left behind hundreds of pages filled with memories, thoughts, compositions, and letters. All this material has allowed us to follow the journey of their deepest intimacy: the true story of two living souls.

On December 8, 1924, after her spiritual director gave permission, she wrote in her own blood the offering of her "most perfect vow," which required her to choose at every moment that which she believed to be most pleasing to God. Following this, she wrote out the Act of Oblation to Merciful Love by St. Thérèse.

From 1923 to 1925, Sr. Elia served as a schoolteacher and machine embroidery instructor. She shared her radiant love for Christ, which was met with the enthusiasm of her young students. However, she also endured misunderstandings caused by mistrust, jealousy, envy, and blindness. The director was stern and authoritarian and disapproved of Sr. Elia’s kindness toward students. After two years, due to these tensions, she was removed from her position and sent back to the convent.

During this trial, she was comforted by Fr. Elia di San Ambrogio, Procurer-General for the Carmelite Order. He first met her in 1922 after a visit to St. Joseph's Carmel. The young Carmelite kept up an exchange of edifying letters with him from which she drew great benefit.

After being sent back to the convent, always closely observant of the Rule and community practices, Sr. Elia spent much of her day in her cell, dedicating herself to the embroidery given to her. Throughout all of this, the Mother Prioress, after a change of heart, held her in high esteem. On February 11, 1925, Sr. Elia made her solemn profession.

In 1926, she began suffering from an acute and persistent headache. She wrote to her director that her headache “does not allow me to speak at length, much less listen. As you see, it all leads me to isolate myself more and more from everything and live a life solely in God. Nothing troubles the peace of my soul… No, dear Father, I do not regret having consecrated myself to the Lord as a victim.” Her headache was actually the beginning of encephalitis.

In January 1927, she became very ill with the flu, and her illness became worse over a rapid period of time, compounded by frequent headaches. She never complained and suffered with them without taking any medication. Made sacristan in 1927, Sr. Elia spent the last months of her life composing poems for her Spouse present in the Eucharist. She wrote to those who worried about her that pleasing her Beloved made her happy.

On December 21, 1927, she began to experience a high fever and other ailments. It was dismissed as one of her usual illnesses, but the situation worsened day by day. On the 24th, a doctor was summoned who diagnosed her with possible meningitis or encephalitis, but did not consider it to be serious. The next morning, however, on Christmas Day, two other doctors were called to her bedside and declared her condition irreversible. Sr. Elia died at noon on December 25, 1927, as the Angelus rang out, fulfilling her promise that she would die on a feast day. Her funeral was celebrated the following day by the Archbishop of Bari, Monsignor Augusto Curi, in the presence of her family and a large crowd.

On October 27, 1953, the beatification process opened, and theologians collected and examined her spiritual writings. They approved them all on July 1, 1964, as being in line with official doctrine. Elia was titled as Venerable on December 11, 1987, after Pope St. John Paul II confirmed that the late religious had led a life of heroic virtue.

A miracle was investigated and approved by Pope Benedict XVI on December 19, 2005. Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, who represented the pope, and Archbishop Francesco Cacucci presided over the beatification on March 18, 2006, in the Bari Cathedral. The city of Bari saw for the first time one of its daughters raised to the honors of the altars.

Prayer:

O Lord,
who were pleased to accept the self-offering
of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement, virgin;
grant through her intercession,
that, sustained by the Eucharist
we may be able faithfully to do your will.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you,
and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.