Alone at the feet of my Crucified Lord, I looked at him for a long time, and in that gaze, I saw that He was my whole life.
Blessed Elia of Saint Clement
Note: Blessed Elia of St. Clement, a Discalced Carmelite nun, received her First Communion on 8 May 1911 after a long preparation. The night before, she dreamed of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus who predicted: “You will be a nun like me.” Thereafter. she attended sewing and embroidery workshops at the Institute-Asylum of the Stigmatine nuns, and there she continued her studies until her third year of elementary school.
Blessed Elia was the third child of Joseph Fracasso and Pasqua Cianci. At the age of four days, she was baptized with the name of Teodora in the Church of St. James by her uncle Don Carlos Fracasso, chaplain of the cemetery. She was confirmed in 1903 by Monsignor Julio Vaccari, archbishop of the diocese.
She was admitted as a novice in the Dominican Third Order on 20 April 1914 under the name of Agnes and made her profession on 14 May 1915, with special dispensation because of her young age.
Then her confessor, the Jesuit Father Sergio Di Gioia, decided to send her to the Carmel of St. Joseph in Via De Rossi in Bari, Italy, where she went in December 1918.
She entered the Carmelite community on 8 April 1920, and took the habit on the 24th of November of the same year, assuming the name of Sister Elia of St. Clement. She professed her first simple vows on 4 December 1921.
In addition to St. Teresa of Jesus, Blessed Elia took Thérèse of the Child Jesus as her guide, following the “little path of spiritual childhood where I felt called by the Lord.” She made her solemn profession on 11 February 1925.
After a holy life, she succumbed to a fatal illness in the Carmelite monastery of St. Joseph in Via De Rossi, Bari, on 25 December 1927. The young Carmelite left a firm impression upon everyone; she also bequeathed to them a great teaching: it is necessary to walk with joy towards Paradise because it is the “omega point” of every believer.
Source: Efemérides Carmelitanas
Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Carmelite Quotes 
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