The House-Museum
At the home of Father Clemente at 58, GM Ferrario way, Agrate Brianza, you can
visit the small museum which houses the personal belongings of the Servant of
God, Father Clemente Vismara, collected and preserved after his death by the
then bishop of Kengtung, Mgr. Than Abraham.
The interior of the house generally
maintains the original materials and structures, renovations are only the wall
on the lefthand side as you enter and the floor of the first room. The wall
paint is similar to the one in use from the late nineteenth century to the
mid-twentieth century. The basic furnishings and neutral colours, bring out by
contrast the characteristics of the environment, with no pretence at being
authentic, and respect the atmosphere of simplicity and dignified poverty of
the whole.
Almost all of the items on display come directly from Mongping. The modest
size of the house led to the exclusion of the most recent sacred garmen and
some bed linen, which would add very little to the message of the museum.
Visits to the birthplace of Father Clemente can be booked at the following address:
AMICI DI PADRE CLEMENTE
Piazza s. Eusebio 1
20864 AGRATE BRIANZA (MB)
e-mail: p.clemente.vismara@katamail.com
The Dates of His Lifetime
To understand the life of Father Clemente it is essential to know the context in
which he lived and worked.
The vicissitudes of his family, the war, social
upheaval, poverty, endemic diseases and the persecutions that are the background
of his experience, help us understand his extraordinary character.
His love of
life and inner happiness are surprising!
A missionary who shared his experience
said: “Father Clemente is certainly a saint and he has already done one miracle:
having lived so long in those places and in those situations”.
From the diary to the book
Two textbooks (an atlas and a geography book) and a diary are the only
traces of Clemente as a boy: the first two are evidence of his desire to travel far,
whereas the second shows the spontaneity of his communication.
His journal reveals that father Clemente as a boy was lively and sensitive, thoughtful,
devoted, and already had an open heart ready to accept everyone, especially the
playfellows who annoyed him the most or were unpleasing. We can say then that
what father Clemente became as an adult, is not due to improvisation, but it is
the result of a construction of himself, not without sacrifice and self discipline.
The densely written pages seem to anticipate the brilliant collection of missionary
adventures that he published later, of which the first edition of “I am the pearl”
is proof.
The photo album of his sister Mariolina is a demonstration of how Father Clement,
despite being far from home, was always present in different ways, both at home and in
Agrate, in Italy and other countries, thanks to his many epistolary contacts (over 2,000
letters have been collected) and especially to his articles and books.
The walking stick
A walking stick, the finest of the three that we received, along with his prayer
books, takes on a deeper meaning: as the stick helps us support the body, so
prayers help us support the spirit.
The secret of the strength of Father
Clemente lays here: he “prayed much”, he prayed well and asked for prayers: “The
one and only help I await from you is that of prayers”.
Among his personal
effects the breviaries (recent editions), “which he always had in his hands”
and also two books on the liturgy of the hours could not be left out.
Father Clemente recited many rosaries, so next to the books were placed a few beads
of one of his rosaries.
Inside the books were found commemorative cards of the death of
Father Cesare Colombo, founder of the leper colony in Kengtung and of the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the priesthood of Father Clement APHA, one of his
orphans.
Beside these images are those of his ordination in a single copy, two
(face and back) of his return to Agrate; four of his fiftieth aniversary (one
with a portrait, the others with verses hand-written in Latin and in Burmese,
with a dedication by an unknown person in Italian).
Two missionaries in one
The display case is close to an enlargment of Father Clemente sitting in a
raft, holding his gun: the most emblematic image of him in full maturity, which
best sums up the adventurous aspects of the life of a missionary.
He had two
ways of being a missioner: one classical one, which made him leave his land to
bring the light of the Gospel to people of different faiths, and the other was
to evangelise his readers through his writings especially those who consider
themselves Christians, but are not sufficiently so.
The first way of being a missioner is symbolised by: the suitcase which
was the companion of his first voyage, by the typical shoulder bag of
the Burmese tribes, by the wooden stick, similar to that of a shepherd,
that he certainly used to climb mountains, ford rivers, untangle the branches
of the forest, to reach his flock. The radical choice to be a missioner with no
limits of time or committment, forced him, when his strength started to weaken,
to replace the stick with a tripod. The combination of the two supports
is a sure sign of the desire of Father Clement to guide his people until the
end.
His second way of being a missioner was the use of the typewriter in which
we have left one of the many letters written to the missionary group of Agrate.
Companion in many of his travels was his coat, the same he wore in the
streets of Agrate in 1957 and the only garment left of Father Clemente.
Sister Battistina Sironi reported that after his death they had “trouble finding
clothes to dress him in. He gave everything to others and no one came out of his
house without having something in his hand”.
The white stole used for baptisms, laid on the suitcase, stands for his motivation
to be a missioner: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mathew. 28:19).
The exaltation of Poverty
The people of our time love possessions and are valued for what they own, this
display case exalts non-possession and the most absolute poverty: food for
reflection for us who desire everything.
The few things displayed in the showcase were the only things belonging to Father
Clemente: a lamp, a pot with a lid, a small brass pot, a jar
for coffee, a glass and cutlery. We can add the pendulum clock
hanging in the middle of the wall.
Affection and Interests
That Father Clemente had a tender heart as he himself owned when he claimed to
have “the heart of a Blackbird” and that he knew how to love in deeds and not
only in words is confirmed by his life dedicated to orphans and widows, to the
poor and destitute.
His heart though used to beat also for his country, for
the unification of which he was at the forefront in World War I earning medals
and a cross of war. He always kept them proudly and occasionally made a show
of them in some photographs.
The bowl made of Burmese clay expresses love for
this nation where he spent almost his entire life, promoting social and moral
growth of the population and teaching the values of Christian brotherhood.
Father Clemente loved his name so much that he often used it to baptise many new
Christians, but he also must have had a particular devotion to his patron, St.
Clement, Pope and Martyr (co-patron of the parish of Agrate) and whose relic,
now displayed in the show case, he preserved all his life.
Precious to us, next
to the relic of St. Clement is Father Clemente’s beard, cut off by Mgr. Than
Abraham, before our missioner was buried.
His passion for painting, evidenced by the picture displayed, was a surprise
to us. That Father Clement had an artistic disposition is quite probable, because
this talent is present in his family and the churches he designed show a well-defined
taste.
To become a Priest is to love
The space between the last two show cases is dominated by a close-up portrait
of Father Clemente, with a smiling and fatherly expression.
Prior to being a missioner, Father Clemente chose to be a priest (he attended
the diocesan seminary).
A priest is he who renders Christ present during the celebration of the Holy
Mass, this is why the vestments used by Father Clemente for this purpose, are
displayed in the show case.
The white vestment of his first Mass is special both for its fabric and
hand-made lace. Finely made, it still bears the label with his initials and
identification number (13).
The red planet and stole are made in the style in use before
Vatican II, and bear the signs of age and wear. Under the vestment, in the neck
area, you can see the amice, while the white maniple is on the
bottom left hand side.
A priest is he who gives the grace of regeneration and forgiveness, for this at
the bottom right hand side we placed a two coloured stole: white for
ceremonies such as baptism, the administration of the Eucharist, and purple for
confessions and for penitential ceremonies.
Living his priesthood, living Christ was the sense of Father Clemente’s life:
as Christ gives himself, he gave himself, as Christ forgives, he understood,
loved and forgave in his name.
The Center of Life
Being a priest has no sense without the Eucharist, the last display is therefore
reserved for the chalice and paten, used in the consecration of
bread and wine.
The Eucharist is the heart of a priest's life, it is from this that he obtains
the faith, strength and courage necessary to continue his difficult choice, it
is the guiding reference of every day, it is the guiding reference for all the
faithful.
When the sisters of Mongping wondered where father Clemente was: “there he was
in church” before the Eucharist, “he visited the church at four o'clock” and
“returned to church even up to seven times a day”.
The red veil is a reminder of the ritual of the Mass before Vatican II.
Next to the paten a pyx reminds us of the many times when Father Clemente
celebrated outdoors in a clearing in the forest or high up in the mountains in the
great temple of nature, because “all creation should be able to attend and see the
divine Sacrifice: men, birds, insects, mountains, rivers, no one should be
excluded. When a priest celebrates silence should reign, the only permitted
sound should be the murmur of the brook, the soft hiss of leaves and man, the
king of nature, should stand silent and thoughtful, bowing his head before his
God”.
