CHIARA da MONTEFALCO, saint. – Augustinian, born at Montefalco (province of Perugia) in 1268, died there on 17 August 1308. At the age of six she entered the reclusory founded and directed by her elder sister Giovanna under the Rule of St Augustine, received from the bishop of Spoleto in 1290. When Giovanna died in 1291, C. succeeded her as abbess. Endowed with supernatural charisms, she wisely governed the community, which she also preserved from the contagion of a Quietist sect, called that of the Spirit of Freedom, whose leaders were discovered and denounced by the Saint. After her death, the emblems of the Passion were found in her heart; her body is still preserved incorrupt. Once the diocesan process had been completed, Giovanni XXII in 1317 ordered the apostolic process for her canonization. But beatification followed only in 1742, and canonization on 8 December 1881. The Martirolgio romano commemorates her on 17 August.
Clare of Montefalco, Saint
BIBL.: Vita contemporanea di Berengario di s. Africano, edited by M. Falcoi Pulignani in Arch. storico per le Marche e l'Umbria, 1 (1884), pp. 557-625; 2 (1885), pp. 193-266; by P. F. Toth, Storia di s. C. da M., Siena 1908 (with Italian version); and in Analecta augustiniensis, 17 (1939-40), in seven instalments: Antonio da Montefalco in the 15th century recast it in dialogue form in the vernacular: Vita di s. C. da M., Perugia 1882. See also B. Piergili, Vita della b. C. da M., Foligno 1642; A. N. Merlin, S. te Claire de la Croix de Montefalco, Paris 1930; L. Oliger, De secta Spiritus libertatis, Rome 1943, pp. 9-27, 91-126 and passim; G. Abate, La casa paterna di s. C., Assisi 1946. Livario Oliger
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“CHIARA DA MONTEFALCO, SANTA.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 827. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/chiara-da-montefalco-santa.