Most of us have heard of St. Francis of Assisi, but have you ever heard of St. Clare of Assisi? Clare was born in 1194 to a rich Italian family who wished her to marry well, but instead on Palm Sunday of 1212 Clare attended a service of the Blessing of the palms in the cathedral of Assisi, and that evening decided to aid Francis in rebuilding the church at San Damiano. She took the vows of poverty of the Franciscan order.
Three years later Clare was appointed the abbess of a small community, where she began her work in the Franciscan movement along with her widowed mother, her aunt and her two sisters, Agnes and Beatrice. The women renounced all their worldly wealth and rejected any yearly revenues offered from Pope Gregory IX, so that they could be allowed the privilege of poverty or privilegium paupertatis; this meant that they were not obliged to accept rents or possessions.
The sisters would travel from city to city; begging money to give to the poor, nursing the sick, visiting the old and disabled, celebrating Mass, living off the work of their hands and praying in silent devotion in the evenings. The popularity and consequent development of the Order spread to other parts of Italy, Germany and France, chiefly because it offered women an unusual degree of freedom of movement and autonomy in a time when women were considered weak, and in need of confinement and masculine authority .
The Sisters became known as the Poor Ladies of St. Clare, which was later shortened to the Poor Clares. Clare of Assisi died in 1253 and was canonized two years after her death. Her Order still exists today at the Convent of Santa Chiara, near the town of Assisi, Italy.
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Source cited:
Women Saints- Lives of Faith and Courage. Jones, Kathleen. Orbis Books. Maryknoll, New York.1999. pg 91-96.
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Ever wonder “Where Are Women in History?”
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