– Optional Memorial of Saint Louis of Toulouse, Friar and Bishop (the nephew of King Saint Louis) Saint Charles of Sezze recounts: “When I was in Naples in 1662 in the monastery of St. Clare on the feast of St. Louis the bishop, August 19th, I thanked our Lord after Holy Communion for the many graces He had bestowed on this glorious saint who had merited them in giving up a kingdom to serve His divine Majesty.”
August 19, 1532, was the death of Mother Caritas Pirkheimer, the great Nuremberg Poor Clare Abbess who led her Sisters in resisting their forced conversion to the Lutheran faith. The city of Nuremberg had become an Evangelical city. There was no preaching by Catholic priests, the Mass was outlawed, and some nuns – including three Poor Clares – were forcibly dragged from their convents. The Poor Clares were made to attend Lutheran services for over sixty years. This did not deter them, however, from praying the Mass every day. Since no priests were allowed in the building, the Sisters all made a spiritual communion, going up in single file before the Abbess for her blessing.