Saint Clare: Patron Saint of Silicon Valley

"Saint Clare holding a Lily," from a 1325 fresco by Giotto, Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy

The place most people nowadays think of as Silicon Valley is actually Santa Clara Valley, which is located in the south San Francisco Bay Area. The valley was dedicated to Saint Clare of Assisi when Mission Santa Clara was founded in 1777, and the county still bears her name. Some say Silicon Valley is only a concept, while Santa Clara Valley is an actual place.

The borders of the Diocese of San José are the borders of Santa Clara County, and so Saint Clare is also the patron of the diocese, along with Saint Joseph. She is also the patron of Santa Clara University and of the city of Santa Clara.

During the early 20th century, when the valley was full of orchards whose fruit trees flowered with intoxicating fragrance in the spring, it was also known as the Valley of Heart's Delight.

But then, in the 1950s, computer component manufacturing companies followed by other computer-related businesses moved in, the valley was covered with business parks, mostly one-story family homes, townhouses, and shopping malls, criss-crossed by roads, intersected by freeways, and the orchards pretty much disappeared.

Because silicon is the main ingredient in computer chips, Ralph Vaerst, who was the founder of a company called Ion Equipment Corporation, came up with the nickname of Silicon Valley in 1971, and after he suggested it to journalist Dan Hoefler, Hoefler wrote a series of articles in Electronic News that popularized the term.

Saint Clare Portrayed in the City Called By Her Name

In the early 60s, the city of Santa Clara asked for bids for a statue of St. Clare. The statue was erected by the winner, who was lowest bidder.

The first photo below shows a pigeon on the statue's head and gives an idea how bleak the statue looks nowadays.

Medium Close Up of Saint Clare Statue in Santa Clara

I asked on Facebook today, "Who knows what the 'iconography' of this rough statue holding some twiggy things was supposed to mean?" And a friend told me the twiggy things are supposed to be the palm branch that the local bishop gave Clare on Palm Sunday, just before she ran off to meet up with St. Francis. See more about the iconography here. Really though, I don't think I can be blamed for not being able to recognize the twiggy thing as a palm branch.

In this 1966 snapshot, the statue was surrounded by water and potted flowers

The water was drained during a drought and never refilled, the flowers are gone, and the current plaza looks stark.

In this old postcard maybe from the 1970, although the water was drained away, the plantings were more abundant, and the scene was much more inviting than it is now.

Saint Clare's Garden in the University Named for Her

At Santa Clara University, a project was conceived in 2001 to develop a medieval garden, and the president donated a plot of land for the project on condition that it be dedicated to Saint Clare.

The description of Saint Clare on the webpage was written by Nancy Lucid, Ph.D., the garden's designer and the author of the website. The saint is portrayed with a definite radical feminist slant, as a girl who saw following Francis as an escape from the oppression of the male-dominated society.

"Clare, a beautiful young girl from a wealthy and powerful family, was expected to function as a financial and social asset for that family. She should marry well, bear many children, and thus create more wealth and power for the Favorone clan." According to Lucet, nineteen-year-old Clare escaped that oppressive male dominated society, marriage, and the mothering of many children by running away to follow Francis. "Her sister soon ran away from home and joined her, as did many other well-born women of the town, and eventually her widowed mother. . . .These women left their proud and violent male relatives to live with each other and for each other and God, forsaking earthly riches, comforts, and power."

As the politically adept often say, no further comment at this time. :-(

Anguished Saint Clare statue in the medieval garden on the campus of the
university that bears her name

Sometimes by the grace of God mistaken artistic choices of the past are remedied.  Two beautiful statues of St. Clare and St. Joseph, which are described in the linked Liturgical Arts Journal article, were created as replacements for two ill-chosen statues added during a renovation during the 1980s of St. Joseph Cathedral in San José.

New Saint Clare Statue Holding a Gilded Monstrance Carved to Resemble the Cathedral

When the writer of the article stated that the earlier statues were "ill suited to the scale of the cathedral," he was being more tactful than I could be. When I first visited the newly renovated cathedral when it reopened in 1990, soon after I was recruited to move to Santa Clara valley to work at Sun Microsystems computer company, I was horrified by the ugliness of the statues, and I wondered who could have commissioned or approved them. They were rough hewn and monstrous, and even the iconography of St. Clare's statue was capricious, with her holding a gilded cup instead of the more traditional monstrance. Did I say those statues were ugly? Yes. Yes. They were.

See this story written by Tommaso da Celano, a Franciscan friar who lived at the time of St. Francis, of how Saint Clare turned away Saracen invaders with the help of the Blessed Sacrament. And see the snide caption on this photo I took of the St. Clare statue, which I am grateful is no longer there.

If Saint Clare looked like this, she could have scared away the Saracens without supernatural help

Dear Saint Clare, pray for the people in this valley that is called by your name.

Close-up of the new statue

From Matins on the Feast of St. Clare, Virgin, August 12 (Traditional Calendar)
Clare was a virgin of noble birth, born at Assisi in Umbria. Imitating St. Francis, her fellow-citizen, she gave all her goods in alms to aid the poor. Fleeing from the noise of the world, she went to a country chapel and there received the tonsure from St. Francis, strongly resisting her kindred who were trying to bring her back. Then he led her to the church of St. Damian, where she founded an Order of nuns, the government of which she undertook, yielding to the repeated requests of St. Francis. She governed her monastery with care and prudence for forty-two years. When the Saracens tried to invade it, she commanded that the Blessed Sacrament be brought and prayed most humbly, and they at once took to flight. She went to heaven on the 12th day of August, and was enrolled among the holy Virgins by Pope Alexander IV.