Clare of Assisi
Saint Clare of Assisi is patroness of television because of an event late in her life: too ill on Christmas night to rise and go to the church of San Francesco, she lay in her cell and was granted to see and hear the Midnight Mass on the wall before her, as though projected there — for which reason Pope Pius XII in 1958 named her patroness of the new medium. She is invoked for eye diseases by a play on her name (Chiara, “clear,” the gift of clear sight), and is the natural protectress of those whose sight fails. Goldsmiths and embroiderers honor her, and laundry workers too, recalling the labor of her cloistered Poor Ladies; her feast also bids the faithful invoke her for good weather.
Saint Clare of Assisi was an Italian saint and follower of Saint Francis of Assisi who founded the Order of Poor Ladies (now Poor Clares) in 1212. Born into a noble family, she renounced her wealth to embrace radical poverty. She is the patron saint of television because, when too ill to attend Mass, she reportedly saw and heard it on the wall of her room.
