Clara Fey
founder of the Roman Catholic congregation of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus(1815-1894)
Feast: 8 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 4 May 2017 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2017)
Who they were
Clara Fey was born on 11 April 1815 into a well-off, devout family, two of whose sons became priests; she was a pupil of the convert poet Luise Hensel. At eleven she dreamed of a poor young boy who asked her to care for his many brothers and sisters in the city.
She founded the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus to educate deprived young people. Exiled, she was too old to return to Germany when the storm passed in 1891, and died in the Netherlands three years later. Her remains now rest in Aachen.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
She saw the Child Jesus in poor children and built her life around caring for them.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Clara Fey
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q76701 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Clara Fey (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.