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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > C > St. Clare of Assisi


ST. CLARE OF ASSISI

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Cofoundress of the Order of Poor Ladies, or Clares, and first Abbess of San
Damiano; born at Assisi, 16 July, 1194; died there 11 August, 1253.

She was the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, the wealthy
representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in Assisi
and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio. Such at least is the traditional
account. Her mother, Bl. Ortolana, belonged to the noble family of Fiumi and was
conspicuous for her zeal and piety.

From her earliest years Clare seems to have been endowed with the rarest
virtues. As a child she was most devoted to prayer and to practices of
mortification, and as she passed into girlhood her distaste for the world and
her yearning for a more spiritual life increased. She was eighteen years of age
when St. Francis came to preach the Lenten course in the church of San Giorgio
at Assisi. The inspired words of the Poverello kindled a flame in the heart of
Clare; she sought him out secretly and begged him to help her that she too might
live "after the manner of the holy Gospel". St. Francis, who at once recognized
in Clare one of those chosen souls destined by God for great things, and who
also, doubtless, foresaw that many would follow her example, promised to assist
her. On Palm Sunday Clare, arrayed in all her finery, attended high Mass at the
cathedral, but when the others pressed forward to the altar-rail to receive a
branch of palm, she remained in her place as if rapt in a dream. All eyes were
upon the young girl as the bishop descended from the sanctuary and placed the
palm in her hand. That was the last time the world beheld Clare. On the night of
the same day she secretly left her father's house, by St. Francis's advice and,
accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion, proceeded to the humble
chapel of the Porziuncula, where St. Francis and his disciples met her with
lights in their hands. Clare then laid aside her rich dress, and St. Francis,
having cut off her hair, clothed her in a rough tunic and a thick veil, and in
this way the young heroine vowed herself to the service of Jesus Christ. This
was 20 March, 1212.



Clare was placed by St. Francis provisionally with the Benedictine nuns of San
Paolo, near Bastia, but her father, who had expected her to make a splendid
marriage, and who was furious at her secret flight, on discovering her retreat,
did his utmost to dissuade Clare from her heroic proposals, and even tried to
drag her home by force. But Clare held her own with a firmness above her years,
and Count Favorino was finally obliged to leave her in peace. A few days later
St. Francis, in order to secure Clare the greater solitude she desired,
transferred her to Sant' Angelo in Panzo, another monastery of the Benedictine
nuns on one of the flanks of Subasio. Here some sixteen days after her own
flight, Clare was joined by her younger sister Agnes, whom she was instrumental
in delivering from the persecution of their infuriated relatives. Clare and her
sister remained with the nuns at Sant' Angelo until they and the other fugitives
from the world who had followed them were established by St. Francis in a rude
dwelling adjoining the poor chapel of San Damiano, situated outside the town
which he had to a great extent rebuilt with his own hands, and which he now
obtained from the Benedictines as a permanent abode for his spiritual daughters.
Thus was founded the first community of the Order of Poor Ladies, or of Poor
Clares, as this second order of St. Francis came to be called.

The history of the Poor Clares will be dealt with in a separate article. Here it
suffices to note that we may distinguish, during the lifetime of St. Clare,
three stages in the complicated early history of the new order.

In the beginning St. Clare and her companions had no written rule to follow
beyond a very short formula vitae given them by St. Francis, and which may be
found among his works. Some years later, apparently in 1219, during St.
Francis's absence in the East, Cardinal Ugolino, then protector of the order,
afterwards Gregory IX, drew up a written rule for the Clares at Monticelli,
taking as a basis the Rule of St. Benedict, retaining the fundamental points of
the latter and adding some special constitutions. This new rule, which, in
effect if not in intention, took away from the Clares the Franciscan character
of absolute poverty so dear to the heart of St. Francis and made them for all
practical purposes a congregation of Benedictines, was approved by Honorius III
(Bull, "Sacrosancta", 9 Dec., 1219). When Clare found that the new rule, though
strict enough in other respects, allowed the holding of property in common, she
courageously and successfully resisted the innovations of Ugolino as being
entirely opposed to the intentions of St. Francis. The latter had forbidden the
Poor Ladies, just as he had forbidden his friars to possess any worldly goods
even in common. Owning nothing, they were to depend entirety upon what the
Friars Minor could beg for them. This complete renunciation of all property was
however regarded by Ugolino as unpractical for cloistered women. When,
therefore, in 1228, he came to Assisi for the canonization of St. Francis
(having meanwhile ascended the pontifical throne as Gregory IX), he visited St.
Clare at San Damiano and pressed her to so far deviate from the practice of
poverty which had up to this time obtained at San Damiano, as to accept some
provision for the unforeseen wants of the community. But Clare firmly refused.
Gregory, thinking that her refusal might be due to fear of violating the vow of
strict poverty she had taken, offered to absolve her from it. "Holy Father, I
crave for absolution from my sins", replied Clare, "but I desire not to be
absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ".

The heroic unworldliness of Clare filled the pope with admiration, as his
letters to her, still extant, bear eloquent witness, and he so far gave way to
her views as to grant her on 17 September, 1228, the celebrated Privilegium
Paupertatis which some regard in the light of a corrective of the Rule of 1219.
The original autograph copy of this unique "privilege"--the first one of its
kind ever sought for, or ever issued by the Holy See--is preserved in the
archive at Santa Chiara in Assisi. The text is as follows:

> Gregory Bishop Servant of the Servants of God. To our beloved daughters in
> Christ Clare and the other handmaids of Christ dwelling together at the Church
> of San Damiano in the Diocese of Assisi. Health and Apostolic benediction. It
> is evident that the desire of consecrating yourselves to God alone has led you
> to abandon every wish for temporal things. Wherefore, after having sold all
> your goods and having distributed them among the poor, you propose to have
> absolutely no possessions, in order to follow in all things the example of Him
> Who became poor and Who is the way, the truth, and the life. Neither does the
> want of necessary things deter you from such a proposal, for the left arm of
> your Celestial Spouse is beneath your head to sustain the infirmity of your
> body, which, according to the order of charity, you have subjected to the law
> of the spirit. Finally, He who feeds the birds of the air and who gives the
> lilies of the field their raiment and their nourishment, will not leave you in
> want of clothing or of food until He shall come Himself to minister to you in
> eternity when, namely, the right hand of His consolations shall embrace you in
> the plenitude of the Beatific Vision. Since, therefore, you have asked for it,
> we confirm by Apostolic favour your resolution of the loftiest poverty and by
> the authority of these present letters grant that you may not be constrained
> by anyone to receive possessions. To no one, therefore, be it allowed to
> infringe upon this page of our concession or to oppose it with rash temerity.
> But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, be it known to him that he shall
> incur the wrath of Almighty God and his Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.
> Given at Perugia on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October in the second year
> of our Pontificate."



That St. Clare may have solicited a "privilege" similar to the foregoing at an
earlier date and obtained it vivâ voce, is not improbable. Certain it is that
after the death of Gregory IX Clare had once more to contend for the principle
of absolute poverty prescribed by St. Francis, for Innocent IV would fain have
given the Clares a new and mitigated rule, and the firmness with which she held
to her way won over the pope. Finally, two days before her death, Innocent, no
doubt at the reiterated request of the dying abbess, solemnly confirmed the
definitive Rule of the Clares (Bull, "Solet Annuere", 9 August, 1253), and thus
secured to them the precious treasure of poverty which Clare, in imitation of
St. Francis, had taken for her portion from the beginning of her conversion. The
author of this latter rule, which is largely an adaptation mutatis mutandis, of
the rule which St. Francis composed for the Friars Minor in 1223, seems to have
been Cardinal Rainaldo, Bishop of Ostia, and protector of the order, afterwards
Alexander IV, though it is most likely that St. Clare herself had a hand in its
compilation. Be this as it may, it can no longer be maintained that St. Francis
was in any sense the author of this formal Rule of the Clares; he only gave to
St. Clare and her companions at the outset of their religious life the brief
formula vivendi already mentioned.

St. Clare, who in 1215 had, much against her will been made superior at San
Damiano by St. Francis, continued to rule there as abbess until her death, in
1253, nearly forty years later. There is no good reason to believe that she ever
once went beyond the boundaries of San Damiano during all that time. It need
not, therefore, be wondered at if so comparatively few details of St. Clare's
life in the cloister "hidden with Christ in God", have come down to us. We know
that she became a living copy of the poverty, the humility, and the
mortification of St. Francis; that she had a special devotion to the Holy
Eucharist, and that in order to increase her love for Christ crucified she
learned by heart the Office of the Passion composed by St. Francis, and that
during the time that remained to her after her devotional exercises she engaged
in manual labour. Needless to add, that under St. Clare's guidance the community
of San Damiano became the sanctuary of every virtue, a very nursery of saints.
Clare had the consolation not only of seeing her younger sister Beatrix, her
mother Ortolana, and her faithful aunt Bianca follow Agnes into the order, but
also of witnessing the foundation of monasteries of Clares far and wide
throughout Europe. It would be difficult, moreover, to estimate how much the
silent influence of the gentle abbess did towards guiding the women of medieval
Italy to higher aims. In particular, Clare threw around poverty that
irresistible charm which only women can communicate to religious or civic
heroism, and she became a most efficacious coadjutrix of St. Francis in
promoting that spirit of unworldliness which in the counsels of God, "was to
bring about a restoration of discipline in the Church and of morals and
civilization in the peoples of Western Europe". Not the least important part of
Clare's work was the aid and encouragement she gave St. Francis. It was to her
he turned when in doubt, and it was she who urged him to continue his mission to
the people at a time when he thought his vocation lay rather in a life of
contemplation. When in an attack of blindness and illness, St. Francis came for
the last time to visit San Damiano, Clare erected a little wattle hut for him in
an olive grove close to the monastery, and it was here that he composed his
glorious "Canticle of the Sun". After St. Francis's death the procession which
accompanied his remains from the Porziuncula to the town stopped on the way at
San Damiano in order that Clare and her daughters might venerate the pierced
hands and feet of him who had formed them to the love of Christ crucified--a
pathetic scene which Giotto has commemorated in one of his loveliest frescoes.
So far, however, as Clare was concerned, St. Francis was always living, and
nothing is, perhaps, more striking in her after-life than her unswerving loyalty
to the ideals of the Poverello, and the jealous care with which she clung to his
rule and teaching.

When, in 1234, the army of Frederick II was devastating the valley of Spoleto,
the soldiers, preparatory to an assault upon Assisi, scaled the walls of San
Damiano by night, spreading terror among the community. Clare, calmly rising
from her sick bed, and taking the ciborium from the little chapel adjoining her
cell, proceeded to face the invaders at an open window against which they had
already placed a ladder. It is related that, as she raised the Blessed Sacrament
on high, the soldiers who were about to enter the monastery fell backward as if
dazzled, and the others who were ready to follow them took flight. It is with
reference to this incident that St. Clare is generally represented in art
bearing a ciborium.

When, some time later, a larger force returned to storm Assisi, headed by the
General Vitale di Aversa who had not been present at the first attack, Clare,
gathering her daughters about her, knelt with them in earnest prayer that the
town might be spared. Presently a furious storm arose, scattering the tents of
the soldiers in every direction, and causing such a panic that they again took
refuge in flight. The gratitude of the Assisians, who with one accord attributed
their deliverance to Clare's intercession, increased their love for the
"Seraphic Mother". Clare had long been enshrined in the hearts of the people,
and their veneration became more apparent as, wasted by illness and austerities,
she drew towards her end. Brave and cheerful to the last, in spite of her long
and painful infirmities, Clare caused herself to be raised in bed and, thus
reclining, says her contemporary biographer "she spun the finest thread for the
purpose of having it woven into the most delicate material from which she
afterwards made more than one hundred corporals, and, enclosing them in a silken
burse, ordered them to be given to the churches in the plain and on the
mountains of Assisi". When at length she felt the day of her death approaching,
Clare, calling her sorrowing religious around her, reminded them of the many
benefits they had received from God and exhorted them to persevere faithfully in
the observance of evangelical poverty. Pope Innocent IV came from Perugia to
visit the dying saint, who had already received the last sacraments from the
hands of Cardinal Rainaldo. Her own sister, St. Agnes, had returned from
Florence to console Clare in her last illness; Leo, Angelo, and Juniper, three
of the early companions of St. Francis, were also present at the saint's
death-bed, and at St. Clare's request read aloud the Passion of Our Lord
according to St. John, even as they had done twenty-seven years before, when
Francis lay dying at the Porziuncula. At length before dawn on 11 August, 1253,
the holy foundress of the Poor Ladies passed peacefully away amid scenes which
her contemporary biographer has recorded with touching simplicity. The pope,
with his court, came to San Damiano for the saint's funeral, which partook
rather of the nature of a triumphal procession.

The Clares desired to retain the body of their foundress among them at San
Damiano, but the magistrates of Assisi interfered and took measures to secure
for the town the venerated remains of her whose prayers, as they all believed,
had on two occasions saved it from destruction. Clare's miracles too were talked
of far and wide. It was not safe, the Assisians urged, to leave Clare's body in
a lonely spot without the walls; it was only right, too, that Clare, "the chief
rival of the Blessed Francis in the observance of Gospel perfection", should
also have a church in Assisi built in her honour. Meanwhile, Clare's remains
were placed in the chapel of San Giorgio, where St. Francis's preaching had
first touched her young heart, and where his own body had likewise been interred
pending the erection of the Basilica of San Francesco. Two years later, 26
September, 1255, Clare was solemnly canonized by Alexander IV, and not long
afterwards the building of the church of Santa Chiara, in honour of Assisi's
second great saint, was begun under the direction of Filippo Campello, one of
the foremost architects of the time. On 3 October, 1260, Clare's remains were
transferred from the chapel of San Giorgio and buried deep down in the earth,
under the high altar in the new church, far out of sight and reach. After having
remained hidden for six centuries--like the remains of St. Francis--and after
much search had been made, Clare's tomb was found in 1850, to the great joy of
the Assisians. On 23 September in that year the coffin was unearthed and opened,
the flesh and clothing of the saint had been reduced to dust, but the skeleton
was in a perfect state of preservation. Finally, on the 29th of September, 1872,
the saint's bones were transferred, with much pomp, by Archbishop Pecci,
afterwards Leo XIII, to the shrine, in the crypt at Santa Chiara, erected to
receive them, and where they may now be seen. The feast of St. Clare is
celebrated throughout the Church on 12 August later changed to 11 August — Ed.;
the feast of her first translation is kept in the order on 3 October, and that
of the finding of her body on 23 September.




SOURCES

The sources of the history of St. Clare at our disposal are few in number. They
include (1) a Testament attributed to the saint and some charming Letters
written by her to Blessed Agnes, Princess of Bohemia; (2) the Rule of the
Clares, and a certain number of early Pontifical Bulls relating to the Order;
(3) a contemporary Biography, written in 1256 by order of Alexander IV. This
life, which is now generally ascribed to Thomas of Celano, is the source from
which St. Clare's subsequent biographers have derived most of their information.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Robinson, P. (1908). St. Clare of Assisi. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04004a.htm

MLA citation. Robinson, Paschal. "St. Clare of Assisi." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04004a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Rick McCarty.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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