Feast day: 11 August
Saint Clare of Assisi
Sancta Clara Assisiensis
The noblewoman of Assisi who fled her family on Palm Sunday night to follow Francis in radical poverty and founded the contemplative Poor Clares.
- Born
- 16 July 1194, Assisi (Italy)
- Died
- 11 August 1253, San Damiano, Assisi
- Canonization
- Canonized 15 August 1255 by Pope Alexander IV.
- Religious order
- Order of Saint Clare (Poor Clares)
- Country
- Italy
Biography
Flight to the Portiuncula
Born to the noble Offreduccio family, Clare heard Francis preach during Lent of 1212. On the night of Palm Sunday she left home, received a rough habit at the Portiuncula and had her hair cut by Francis himself. Her sister Agnes and later her mother Ortolana joined her at San Damiano.
The Privilege of Poverty
For forty years Clare governed San Damiano, fighting to keep her sisters free of property. Innocent III granted her the unprecedented Privilege of Poverty, and two days before her death Innocent IV approved her own Rule — the first religious rule written by a woman for women. In 1240 and 1241, tradition recounts, she drove imperial troops from the monastery by holding up the Blessed Sacrament.
Timeline
- 1194 — Born at Assisi
- 1212 — Consecrated by Francis at the Portiuncula
- 1216 — Receives the Privilege of Poverty
- 1253 — Her Rule approved; dies at San Damiano
- 1255 — Canonized by Alexander IV
- 1958 — Declared patroness of television by Pius XII
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Monstrance — Her defence of the monastery with the Blessed Sacrament.
Lamp — Her name, Chiara, means 'light'.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Poverty, contemplative prayer, gentleness in governing and joyful endurance of long illness. Clare teaches Catholics to 'gaze upon Christ, consider him, contemplate him, and desire to imitate him'.
Importance in the Church
Clare gave the Franciscan movement its contemplative heart and secured for women in the Church the right to live absolute evangelical poverty under their own written rule.
Quotes
“Gaze upon him, consider him, contemplate him, as you desire to imitate him.”
Second Letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 1235
“Blessed be you, O God, for having created me.”
Words at her death, Legend of Saint Clare
Writings
Rule of Saint Clare (1253) — The first monastic rule composed by a woman and approved by the Holy See.
Letters to Saint Agnes of Prague — Four luminous letters on poverty and contemplation of the Crucified.
Prayers
Blessing of Saint Clare
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he show his face to you and be merciful to you. May he turn his countenance to you and give you peace. Amen.
Blessing dictated by Clare to her sisters shortly before her death, 1253.
Places
Basilica of Santa Chiara, Assisi — Holds her body and the San Damiano crucifix.
Monastery of San Damiano, Assisi — Where she lived for forty years.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)