CLARE of Assisi, St. — Foundress, together with St. Francis, of the Order of the Poor Clares, known as the Second Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in 1194 to a noble family (but not of the counts of Sasso Rosso nor of the Scifi), died on 1 August 1253 at S. Damiano outside the walls of the city. The example of complete renunciation and the preaching of St. Francis made a profound impression upon the noble young woman; she approached the Saint, who instructed and confirmed her in the new ideal of the perfect following of the poor life of Christ.
On the night after Palm Sunday, 18 March 1212 (not 1211), Clare secretly left her father’s house with a relative and went to the Porziuncola in the plain below Assisi, where St. Francis and his companions received her, clothed her in the Franciscan habit, and placed her in the care of the Benedictine nuns at S. Paolo della Bastia. Fifteen days later, she was moved to the monastery of S. Angelo in Panso at the foot of the Subasio. When her younger sister, St. Agnes (q.v.), joined her, St. Francis placed them near the rural church of S. Damiano, a few steps from the walls of Assisi, whence the nuns of the Second Franciscan Order were initially called the “poor recluses of S. Damiano,” or also “of the Spoletan valley,” and only after the Saint’s death were they called Clarisses.
As the number of nuns grew, Clare was appointed abbess in 1215, and St. Francis drafted a rule (Formula Vitae) for them, of which some fragments are preserved in the rule of St. Clare of 1252–53. The founding of the first monasteries of the Damianites outside Assisi (Florence, Lucca, Siena, Perugia) was chiefly the work of Cardinal Ugolino, sent in 1217 as papal legate to Tuscany, who also composed a rule for the new monasteries (1218–19), perhaps not entirely accepted by Clare. Having embraced the entire program of St. Francis—absolute poverty even in common—she obtained from Gregory IX (Perugia, 17 September 1228) the Privilege of Poverty (Seraph. legislationis textus originales, Quaracchi 1897, p. 97), a document more unique than rare, by which the Pope declared that Clare could not be compelled by anyone to accept possessions. Clare may already have obtained the same privilege from Innocent III.
She governed her community, into which her own mother, Ortolana, and another sister named Beatrice had entered, with the greatest charity and prudence. With courageous resolve, she expelled the Saracen soldiery that Vitale d’Aversa, in the service of Frederick II, led to besiege Assisi (1243).
St. Francis did not forget the tender plant he had nurtured; in a hut built in the garden of S. Damiano, he composed the Canticle of the Sun. After the Saint’s death, his body was brought past S. Damiano, where Clare and her disciples were able to gaze for the last time upon the beloved features of their father.
Often in poor health, she was frequently absent from choir. One Christmas night, complaining gently to the Lord, she was transported in spirit to the basilica of St. Francis and attended the sacred services. She remained devoted to the memory of the Saint who had won her for Christ, and when she saw that various monasteries were accepting possessions and revenues, she grew alarmed and sought to preserve the highest poverty for her monastery. She therefore composed (after 1247) her own rule, modeled on that of the Friars Minor of 1223, and had it approved by Cardinal Protector Rainaldo (later Pope Alexander IV) in 1252, and three days before her death (9 August 1253) by Innocent IV, who had come from Perugia to Assisi. Assisted by the faithful companions of St. Francis—Junípero, Angelo, and Leo—and consoled by a heavenly vision, she breathed her last.
She was provisionally buried in S. Giorgio until the completion of the church that bears her name, in which her body, reduced to a skeleton, was rediscovered in 1850. Alexander IV canonized her at Anagni in 1255. Her feast is celebrated on 12 August.
Four letters of Clare to Blessed Agnes of Prague are preserved; their authenticity has been beyond doubt since the most recent edition (Arch. franc. hist., 17 [1924], pp. 509–19). Doubtful are the Testament (Seraph. legis. textus orig., Quaracchi 1897, pp. 272–80) and the Blessing (op. cit., pp. 281–82).