Twenty-five years ago, a small group of Poor Clare Sisters arrived in Chicago from Roswell, New Mexico. They were answering a request from Cardinal Francis George to establish a monastery in Palos Hills.
It was a homecoming of sorts, because the Poor Clares, who live a cloistered life of poverty, first came to Chicago in 1893 and resided in a monastery on Laflin Street. In the 1960s, they moved to a location in Hickory Hills. However, in 1992 that monastery closed because of dwindling numbers and the remaining sisters moved to a monastery in Roswell.
When the sisters returned to Chicago on Corpus Christi in 2000, they took up temporary residence in a convent on the grounds of St. Symphorosa Church, 6135 S. Austin Ave., until their new monastery in Palos Park was completed. Cardinal George dedicated the new Immaculate Conception monastery in 2003.
Today, seven women live a life of simple poverty, dedicated to prayer and penance, in an enclosed world inside the monastery. They follow the rule of their founder, St. Clare — a young woman from Assisi, Italy, who left her wealthy family in 1212 and began a community of religious women under the guidance of St. Francis.
There are believed to be over 20,000 Poor Clares, also known as the Poor Ladies, living lives of prayer in over 70 countries. The women take vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and enclosure, living in a cloister and shutting themselves off from the rest of the world to pray and work.
The sisters wear full habits, which they make themselves, and go barefoot in a spirit of poverty. They have a garden where they grow their own food, and they also rely on the aid and generosity of friends and benefactors to obtain other food staples and support.
Once a sister enters the monastery, she usually stays in that same place for the remainder of her life — not leaving except for medical purposes or if she is asked to help start a monastery in another location.
Poor Clare Sister Miriam recalls the first years of living at St. Symphorosa, which is located close to Midway Airport.
“We were grateful for that time because it gave us a taste of the city and the neighborhoods,” Sister Miriam said during an interview with two other sisters from behind a screen in the monastery parlor on Aug. 10.
Being in a neighborhood is not the ideal for a contemplative monastery, however because they need space away from the physical world, she said.
“But at the same time, we could see from the rooftop the Sears Tower and downtown and we would pray our stations on the roof,” Sister Miriam said. “I could see the big buildings downtown and I always thought, ‘That’s my charge.’ It was a representation of the city. It was very special to have those few years in the city.”
Mother Paul Marie remembers the planes flying over the church and praying for the travelers. On their way into the airport, the planes would frequently make a turn that she realized was over the site of where their new monastery would be.
“Sure enough, when we came out here, the planes were all turning directly over the monastery,” she said.
Cardinal George, who the sisters consider a spiritual father, would visit several times a year. He also made a point to visit following the elections of Pope Benedict XIV and Pope Francis to share the experience with them.
Bishop John Gorman was also a good friend to the sisters. Archdiocesan and religious priests celebrate Mass for the sisters and help with adoration on Sundays, along with deacons.
The sisters have very little contact with the outside world, which includes current news. During midday meal, which is the community’s largest meal, a sister will read from periodicals like the Chicago Catholic. When Pope Leo was elected on May 8, they listened to the announcement on the radio, but that was a special occasion.
They limit their consumption of media, because it is part of their calling and because for those who don’t regularly consume media, it is easy to become overwhelmed, the sisters explained.
“We don’t need the details of worldly news,” Mother Paul Marie said. “There’s a lot of things that we just don’t need to know. We know enough to be able to pray for the needs of the world.”
Sister Miriam agreed, noting the occasion of seeing a recent photo of an emaciated child in Gaza that was shared around the world.
“That was enough to keep me going in prayer for months,” she said. “We don’t need a lot to get us spurred on to prayer.”
“Even the Holy See said that we should make very limited use of the media because contemplatives are so greatly, much more affected by images than laypeople would be or people who are constantly immersed in the world,” Mother Paul Marie said. “It doesn’t affect them as much as it affects us.”
The sisters welcome the public to visit the monastery. People can attend daily Mass and weekly adoration with the sisters in the public portion of the chapel. The chapel is divided by a wall topped by a metal grill painted light green. A double-sided crucifix hangs over the tabernacle in the center.
The sisters, whom visitors can hear singing, pray on one side and the public on the other. There is a small door to the right of the altar that opens to the sisters for Communion. Many people visit the monastery in August each year for the novena to St. Clare.
Since the sisters’ primary purpose is to pray for others and the world, they receive prayer requests daily by mail and by phone, and accept prayer requests left in the chapel.
People can make an appointment to visit with Mother Paul Marie or the sisters by calling the monastery in advance and talking to the portress sister.
“We have people coming for prayers, asking for prayers, calling for prayers, and also bringing us gifts,” Poor Clare Sister Collette said. “We are always saying ‘Our God-inspired benefactors,’ because they really are.”
Since the sisters take a vow of complete poverty and enclosure, they rely on donations for the upkeep of the monastery and for people to go out shopping for them. Mother Paul Marie takes care of the monastery garden, where the sisters grow many of their vegetables. The sisters fast from meat, but do eat dairy and fish.
When people ask what food they need, the portress sister asks them to call before they go to the store so the sisters can tell them what they need.
“That way they aren’t bringing us things that we can’t use,” Mother Paul Marie explained. “If people can go out shopping for us, that’s wonderful.”
Often people make that their gift to the sisters and decline reimbursement, she said.
God always provides for the sisters, Sister Miriam said.
For example, on a regular basis, when she is cutting vegetables she will notice that they monastery is about to run out of a particular kind, and within hours someone will show up at their door with more of that vegetable, she said.
“That happens time and again. I can’t say how many times that happens,” Sister Miriam said. “It’s as if God is saying, ‘I know what you need. You don’t even have to ask.’ It’s amazing. It always brings a smile to us.”
After 800 years, women are still being called to join the Poor Clares. The sisters have started a monthly time for vocational discernment for women on Sundays, with adoration from noon to 3 p.m. that is open to the public. Women aged 18-35 are invited to come and pray in the public chapel, and they can ring the doorbell to speak with the portress or request to speak to Mother Paul Marie.
Unlike other religious communities that may have sisters serving in different parts of the U.S. or the world, each Poor Clare monastery is autonomous, so a woman must feel called to life at that monastery in particular, Mother Paul Marie said.
A call to be a Poor Clare should fit like a glove, she said, quoting what Cardinal George told the sisters when he visited them in Roswell over 25 years ago and asked them to consider establishing a monastery here.
“It’s not like ‘I’m a round peg in a square hole.’ It really should fit,” Mother Paul Marie said. “And it should correspond with all of the things that are going on inside of you that the Lord has inspired and that you are looking for.”
Discernment takes time and continues for several years after a woman enters the community, she said.
Often women who are discerning a vocation will ask what makes Poor Clares different from other communities such as the Carmelites, who also have cloistered women’s monasteries, including the Discalced Carmelites in Des Plaines.
“I was just thinking about it,” Mother Paul Marie said. “The radicality consists in her self-emptying. The following of Christ like St. Francis did, but particularly the self-emptying as expressed in holy poverty.”
St. Clare had everything the world could ask for, she said. She lived in a castle, was rich and beautiful.
“But she put all of that aside, almost with a laugh, because what God was offering her was greater,” Mother Paul Marie said. “The joy that she had — you never hear about St. Clare worrying about how much she’s given up.”
To send prayer requests or contact the Poor Clares, write to Poor Clare Sisters, 12210 South Will Cook Road, Palos Park, IL 60464 or call 708-361-1810. For more information on their monastery and life, visit chicagopoorclares.org.