THE
P RTAL
May 2012
Page 10
Here am I Lord
The Portal talks to
Mother Damian and Sister Juliana
of the Ty Mam Duw Poor Clares
Here At The Portal we receive lots of post. Some of it
is welcome, some is not. But when the package from the Poor
Clares in North Wales landed on the desk, we were intrigued.
It contained a DVD. Naturally, we watched the DVD, before
contacting Reverend Mother Damian. A contemplative and
enclosed Order, it seems they offer Vespers every Monday
evening for the Ordinariate. We had to delve deeper.
The Poor Clares
were founded in
1212 by Saint Clare,
obviously, and by
Saint Francis of
Assisi. Thus the
Poor Clares are
celebrating their
eighth centenary!
Saint Clare died
in 1253, but this
branch of the Order
was reformed by
Saint Collette in
the early fifteenth
century. Henry VII
was an enthusiastic
supporter of the
Order, but it was
not until 1853 that
the Collettine Poor
Clares came to London from Bruges at the invitation
of Mgr (later Cardinal) Manning.
from
various
backgrounds and
places of origin,
more than half of
them are converts
to
Catholicism.
Two have Jewish
backgrounds
and two have
been
members
of the Anglican
Communion; most
emerged
from
post-modern non-
belief.
the
Ordinariate
is wonderful
Mother Damian
thinks the Ordinariate is wonderful. “My Mother was
a Catholic, but Father was not, so there was many a
ruction over the Catholic Faith. Could The Ordinariate
Ty Mam Duw
be the re-birth of the Catholic Faith in the UK? When
Ty Mam Duw means “House of the Mother of God” the Holy Father spoke in Westminster Hall, it was so
and was founded in London in 1928 by Mother Felix moving, we felt the Anglicans and the Catholic Church
Clare Vaughan (niece of Cardinal Vaughan) before were getting together at their roots. Then the Holy
transferring to Hawarden in North Wales. Hawarden Father at Lambeth Palace and in Westminster Abbey
is just twelve miles from Chester and eighteen miles with the Archbishop of Canterbury; they seemed at
from Wrexham, the Monastery is in a beautiful setting. one.”
Strangely the road reminds one of many a suburban
street. But there, about half-way down is the gate and
The Order was clearly impressed with Benedict
the sign to the Poor Clare Monastery. There is a Guest XVI’s visit. Sister Juliana said, “We sat in front of the
House, and a beautiful Chapel of course.The first television and watched the lot. We lived on sandwiches
Abbess was Mother Cherubina Clare de Morla, who for three days!”
was born in Ecuador. The international element of the
Community continues to this day.
Mother Damian considered the historical context
when Pope Benedict XVI spoke in Westminster Hall.
At present there are thirteen in the Order. Coming “It was where all the splits had come, in that Hall. But