History of Saint Clare of Assisi

Saint Clare of Assisi (July 16, 1194 August 11, 1253, born Chiara Offreduccio and sometimes spelled Clair,
Claire, etc.) is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of
Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life,[1]
the first set of monastic guidelines known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she
founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares.
Her feast day is on the 11th of August.
St. Clare was born in Assisi, the eldest daughter of Favorino Sciffi, Count of Sasso-Rosso and his wife
Ortolana. Traditional accounts say that Clare's father was a wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family,
who owned a large palace in Assisi and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio. Ortolana belonged to the noble
family of Fiumi, and was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de
Compostela and the Holy Land. Later in life, Ortolana entered Clare's monastery, as did Clare's sisters, Beatrix
and Catarina (who took the name Agnes).
As a child, Clare was devoted to prayer. Although there is no mention of this in any historical record, it is
assumed that Clare was to be married in line with the family tradition. However, at the age of 18 she heard
Francis preach during a Lenten service in the church of San Giorgio at Assisi and asked him to help her to live
after the manner of the Gospel. On the evening of Palm Sunday, March 20, 1212, she left her father's house and
accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion proceeded to the chapel of the Porziuncula to meet
Francis. There, her hair was cut, and she exchanged her rich gown for a plain robe and veil.]
Saint Clare intervenes to save a child from a wolf, in this panel by Giovanni di Paolo, 1455.
Francis placed Clare in the convent of the Benedictine nuns of San Paulo, near Bastia. Her father attempted to
force her to return home. She clung to the altar of the church and threw aside her veil to show her cropped hair.
She resisted any attempt, professing that she would have no other husband but Jesus Christ. In order to provide
the greater solitude Clare desired, a few days later Francis sent her to Sant' Angelo in Panzo, another monastery
of the Benedictine nuns on one of the flanks of Subasio. Clare was soon joined by her sister Catarina, who took
the name Agnes. They remained with the Benedictines until a small dwelling was built for them next to the
church of San Damiano, which Francis had repaired some years earlier.
Other women joined them, and they were known as the "Poor Ladies of San Damiano". They lived a simple life
of poverty, austerity and seclusion from the world, according to a Rule which Francis gave them as a Second
Order (Poor Clares).
San Damiano became the center of Clare's new religious order, which was known in her lifetime as the "Order
of Poor Ladies of San Damiano". San Damiano was long thought to be the first house of this order, however,
recent scholarship strongly suggests that San Damiano actually joined an existing network of women's religious
houses organized by Hugolino (who later became Pope Gregory IX). Hugolino wanted San Damiano as part of
the order he founded because of the prestige of Clare's monastery. San Damiano emerged as the most important
house in the order, and Clare became its undisputed leader. By 1263, just ten years after Clare's death, the order
had become known as the Order of Saint Clare.
In 1228, when Gregory IX offered Clare a dispensation from the vow of strict poverty, she replied. I need to be
absolved from my sins, but not from the obligation of following Christ.
Accordingly, the Pope granted them the Privilegium Pauperitatis that nobody could oblige them to accept
any possession.
Unlike the Franciscan friars, 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 and prayer. The nuns went barefoot, slept on the ground, ate no meat and observed almost complete
silence.
For a short period, the order was directed by Francis himself.Then in 1216, Clare accepted the role of abbess of
San Damiano. As abbess, Clare had more authority to lead the order than when she was the prioress and
required to follow the orders of a priest heading the community.Clare defended her order from the attempts of
prelates to impose a rule on them that more closely resembled the Rule of Saint Benedict than Francis' stricter
vows. Clare sought to imitate Francis' virtues and way of life so much so that she was sometimes titled alter
Franciscus, another Francis. She also played a significant role in encouraging and aiding Francis, whom she saw
as a spiritual father figure, and she took care of him during his final illness.
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
weakened the radical commitment to corporate poverty she had originally embraced. She did this despite
enduring a long period of poor health until her death. Clare's Franciscan theology of joyous poverty in imitation
of Christ is evident in the rule she wrote for her community and in her four letters to Agnes of Prague.
In 1224, the army of Frederick II came to plunder Assisi. Clare went out to meet them with the Blessed
Sacrament in her hands. Suddenly a mysterious terror seized the enemies, who fled without harming anybody in
the city.
Before breathing her last in 1253, Clare said, Blessed be You, O God, for having created me.
On August 9, 1253, the papal bull Solet annuere of Pope Innocent IV confirmed that Clare's rule would serve as
the governing rule for Clare's Order of Poor Ladies. Two days later, on August 11, Clare died at the age of 59.
Her remains were interred at the chapel of San Giorgio while a church to hold her remains was being
constructed. At her funeral, Pope Innocent IV insisted the friars perform the Office for the Virgin Saints as
opposed to the Office for the Dead (Bartoli, 1993). This move by Pope Innocent ensured that the canonization
process for Clare would begin shortly after her funeral. Pope Innocent was cautioned by multiple advisors
against having the Office for the Virgin Saints performed at Clare's funeral (Bartoli, 1993). The most vocal of
these advisors was Cardinal Raynaldus who would later become Pope Alexander IV, who in two years time
would canonize Clare (Pattenden, 2008). At Pope Innocent's request the canonization process for Clare began
immediately. While the whole process took two years, the examination of Clare's miracles took just six days.
On September 26, 1255, Pope Alexander IV canonized Clare as Saint Clare of Assisi. Construction of the
Basilica of Saint Clare was completed in 1260, and on October 3 of that year Clare's remains were transferred to
the newly completed basilica where they were buried beneath the high altar. In further recognition of the saint,
Pope Urban IV officially changed the name of the Order of Poor Ladies to the Order of Saint Clare in 1263.
Some 600 years later in 1872, Saint Clare's relics were transferred to a newly constructed shrine in the crypt of
the Basilica of Saint Clare, where her relics can still be venerated today.
Clare was canonized on August 15, 1255 by Pope Alexander IV, and her feast day was immediately inserted in
the General Roman Calendar for celebration on August 12, the day following her death, as August 11 was
already assigned to Saints Tiburtius and Susanna, two 3rd-century Roman martyrs. The celebration was ranked
as a Double (as in the Tridentine Calendar) or, in the terminology adopted in 1960, a Third-Class Feast (as in
the General Roman Calendar of 1960). The 1969 calendar revision removed the feast of Tiburtius and Susanna
from the calendar, finally allowing the memorial of Saint Clare to be celebrated on August 11, the day of her
death.
The Basilica di Santa Chiara began construction a year after Clare's canonization, and her remains were
transferred there on October 3, 1260 from the church of St George, also in Assisi. Her bones are now in the
crypt at the Basilica, having been rediscovered in 1850.
In art, Clare is often shown carrying a monstrance or pyx, in commemoration of the occasion when she warded
away the soldiers of Frederick II at the gates of her convent by displaying the Blessed Sacrament and kneeling
in prayer.
Pope Pius XII designated Clare as the patron saint of television in 1958 on the basis that when she was too ill to
attend Mass, she had reportedly been able to see and hear it on the wall of her room.
There are traditions of bringing offerings of eggs to the Poor Clares for their intercessions for good weather,
particularly for weddings.This tradition remains popular in the Philippines, particularly at the Real Monasterio
de Santa Clara in Quezon City. According to the Filipino essayist Alejandro Roces, the practice arose because
of Clare's name. In Castilian clara refers to an interval of fair weather, and in Spanish, it also refers to the white
or albumen of the egg.
Many places, including churches, convents, schools, hospitals, towns, and counties are named for St Clare. Lake
Saint Clair between Ontario and Michigan was navigated and named on her feast day in 1679. The Saint Clair
River and St. Clair County, Michigan were also consequently named for her. Mission Santa Clara, founded by
Spanish missionaries in northern California in 1777, has given its name to the university, city, county and valley
in which it sits. Southern California's Santa Clara River is hundreds of miles to the south and gave its name to
the nearby city of Santa Clarita. Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico celebrates its Santa Clara Feast Day annually
on August 12, as the feast was celebrated before the 1969 calendar change. It may be noted that the early
California missions were founded by Franciscan Friars, who had a special devotion to Saint Clare.
A glow-in-the-dark plastic figurine of Saint Clare of Assisi, with television screen in background.
Clare is one of five characters in the oratorio Laudato si', composed in 2016 by Peter Reulein on a libretto by
Helmut Schlegel, the others being an angel, Mary, Francis of Assisi and Pope Francis.