Clare of Assisi

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Saint Clare of Assisi
Simone Martini, detail depicting Saint Clare from a fresco (1312–20) in the Lower basilica of San Francesco, Assisi
Confessor
Born	July 16, 1194, Assisi, Italy
Died	August 11, 1253, Assisi, Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church
Canonized	September 26, 1255 by Pope Alexander IV
Major shrine	Basilica of St. Claire
Feast	August 11 (alternates: August 12, September 23, October 3)
Attributes	monstrance, pyx
Patronage	clairvoyance, eyes, gilders, gold, good weather, needleworkers, Santa Clara Pueblo, telephones, telegraphs, television
Saints Portal

Saint Clare of Assisi, born Chiara Offreduccio, (July 16, 1194 – August 11, 1253) was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi and founded the Order of Poor Ladies to organize the women who chose to embrace monastic life in the Franciscan vision.

Clare was born in Assisi, Italy, in 1194 as the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso and his wife Ortolana. Ortolana was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land. Later on in her life, Ortolana entered Chiara's monastery.^[1] In 1210, Clare heard Francis preaching in the streets of Assisi about his new mendicant order (then newly-approved by Pope Innocent III) and was moved by his words. On March 20, 1212, Clare fled her home to follow Francis, who received her into religious life. She had their hair cut short and put on rough tunics to indicate her acceptance of the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and stayed first with a nearby monastery of Benedictine nuns, San Paolo delle Abadesse and then into the community of Sant'Angelo in Panza on Mont Subasio. Her sister Saint Agnes also fled her home. Her sister Agnes of Assisi also fled her parents and followed her to Sant'Angelo. ^[2] Later, Clare and Agnes moved to San Damiano, where they founded the Order of Poor Ladies (also then known as the Order of San Damiano).

Unlike the Franciscan order, whose members moved around the country to preach, Saint Clare's sisters lived in enclosure, since an itinerant life was hardly conceivable at the time for women. Their life consisted of manual labour ^[3] and prayer.

After a time when the order was directed by Francis himself ^[4], in 1216, Clare accepted the role of abbess at San Damiano which gave her order greater autonomy than the title of a prioress, who had to follow the orders of a priest heading the community. ^[5] As abbess, she defended her order from the attempts of prelates to impose a rule on them that more closely resembled the Rule of St Benedict than Francis' stricter vows. Clare also played a significant role in encouraging and aiding Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure: she took care of him during his illnesses at the end of his life, until his death in 1226.

After Francis's death, Clare continued to promote the growth of her order, writing letters to abbesses in other parts of Europe and thwarting every attempt by each successive Pope to impose a Rule on her order which watered down the radical commitment to corporate poverty she had originally embraced. She did this despite the fact that she had endured a long period of poor health until her death.

She is known for her loyalty to Saint Francis, so much so that she was sometimes titled alter Franciscus, another Francis. ^[6]

On August 9, 1253, the Papal bull Solet annure of Pope Innocent IV confirmed that Clare's Rule would serve as the governing rule for the Order of Poor Ladies. Two days later, on August 11, Clare died at the age of 59.

On August 15, 1255, Pope Alexander IV canonized Clare as St Clare of Assisi. In 1263, Pope Urban IV officially changed the name of the Order of Poor Ladies to the Order of Saint Clare.

On February 17, 1958, Pope Pius XII designated her as the patron saint of television, on the basis that, when she was too ill to attend a Mass, she had been miraculously able to see and hear it on the wall of her room. The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) was founded by Mother Angelica, a Poor Clare.

In art, she is shown carrying a monstrance or pyx, in commemoration of the time when she warded away attackers at the gates of her convent by raising the Blessed Sacrament over the wall.

Lake Saint Clair and the Saint Clair River in the Great Lakes region of North America were named on her feast day August 12, 1679. Since 1970, her feast day has been the date of her death August 11 in the revised liturgical calendar. Although her body is no longer incorrupt, her skeleton was found to be in a perfect state of preservation and is displayed in Assisi.

[edit] References

^ Bartoli, p. 34-5; in the sources, there is no exact year when Ortolana entered the monastery, according to Bartoli.
^ Bartoli p. 80
^ Bartoli p. 92ff
^ Bartoli 95
^ Bartoli p. 96
^ Bartoli p. 171ff