St. Clare of Assisi with a Sackcloth Tunic Tied and Those Who Followed with a Cord

BORN 1194; DIED 1253 the Angels chapel (also called “The Portiun- VIRGIN, RELIGIOUS, AND FOUNDER cula”) a mile outside Assisi. St. Francis and FEAST DAY: AUGUST 11 the members of his community met �t. Clare o� Assisiher at the door with lighted can- HE CALL OF RADICAL POV- dles. Once inside, her com- ERTY is demanding, but panions helped her remove Tonly in relative terms. her fine dress and replace it For St. Clare of Assisi with a sackcloth tunic tied and those who followed with a cord. Francis cut her, they gave up noth- her hair and covered her ing, and gained every- head with a heavy veil. thing, as St. Paul said: He then sent her to a con- “But whatever gain I had, I vent near Assisi. In this counted as loss for the sake of manner, she began a life of Christ” (Phil 3:7). radical poverty, prayer, and The oldest of three girls, penance. Clare was born of the aristo- When they learned of Clare’s cratic and wealthy Favorino Scifi, “elopement,” some of her family count of Sasso-Rosso and a member came to remove her from the convent. of an ancient Roman family, in Assisi She showed them her cut hair and told them (in the modern Umbrian region that Christ had called her to serve of central Italy). Her mother him and that she would have Ortolana Fuimi was well- no other spouse. A few days known for her piety and later, St. Francis sent her to zeal and, even as a child, a different convent near As- Clare was unusually devout and sisi. Shortly afterward she was had begun practicing self-denial. joined by her fifteen-year-old sister She grew up in a city already trans- Agnes. With other relatives, all armed, fixed by its other native son, St. Fran- their uncle went to retrieve Agnes. He cis. When she was seventeen, she was was on the point of striking Agnes with a so inspired by St. Francis’ Lenten ser- sword when his arm withered. The others mons that she immediately and quietly then dragged her out, hitting and kicking sought him out. She told him that she her. Her body, however, became so heavy ardently desired to live “after the man- PHOTOGRAPHY CHARLES DAVID that she could not be carried and was left ner of the holy Gospel.” St. Francis, half-dead in a field. (Agnes is also a can- responding to her fervor, worked onized saint.) out her next steps. St. Francis eventually found a On Palm Sunday, Clare at- small house for the little communi- tended Mass as usual. That ty next door to the church of San night, accompanied by one or Damiano, a church important in the beginning of his own call- two companions, she A reliquary cast as a statue of St. Francis of Assisi stole from home and containing a relic, a small fragment of bone, ing. Much against Clare’s went to Our Lady of of St. Clare of Assisi will, he appointed her ab- The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (parish, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. bess, a position she held until her nal rule) with as many abbreviations death. There she was joined by her to identify each observance. Alto- mother (now Bl. Orolana), her sis- gether, there are about twenty thou- ter Beatrice and aunt Bianca, three sand Poor Clare nuns.) women of a noble Florentine family, To Clare is attributed the protec- and others. They became the Second tion of Assisi from the army of Fred- Order of St. Francis, the Order of erick II of Swabia, a man bent on the Poor Ladies, popularly called the gaining territory. Assisi was first at- Poor Clares, living a cloistered (en- tacked by Saracen mercenaries in closed) life. Within a few years, Poor his army. San Damiano, outside the Clare convents were founded in sev- walls, was their first target. As the eral locations in Italy, and in France attackers were scaling the convent’s and Germany. Clare inspired numer- walls, a very ill Clare was helped out ous women, many of them from high- of bed by her sisters. She took a ci- ranking families, to renounce every- borium with the Blessed Sacrament thing to enter upon this new way of from a chapel next to her cell, faced life. an open window, and raised the ciborium. The The community owned no property, went bare- Saracens fell backward and fled. Soon thereafter, foot, never ate meat, slept on the ground, and kept a larger force laid siege to Assisi. For a day and silence except when necessary or charity demand- a night, the nuns covered their heads with ashes ed. Clare herself wore a hair shirt, fasted often and and begged God for deliverance of the town. A all through Lent, living only on bread and water, fearful storm broke over the army; it panicked and and did not eat at all some days. St. Francis had to again fled. moderate the community’s, and especially Clare’s, Even though Clare was ill for most of the last thir- ascetic practices, and she accepted that this mod- ty years of her life, she lived a life of complete ser- eration was desirable — “sacrifice seasoned with vice to her community. She was devoted to the Eu- the salt of prudence.” Yet she was St. Francis’ best charist. When she would complete her prayers, her disciple in living a call to poverty. She fought pa- face, like Moses’, was so radiant it dazzled the eyes of pal permission for the community to own proper- anyone who saw her. She was a spiritual support to ty even in common. (Today there are two major St. Francis, advising and encouraging him. Togeth- kinds of Poor Clares, er with St. Francis, her those that observe this “When she would complete unworldliness helped strictly, and those that elevate the moral life own property in com- her prayers, her face, like Moses’, of their contemporaries mon, divided among was so radiant it dazzled the eyes throughout Europe and sixteen observances to rebuild the Church’s (variations of the origi- of anyone who saw her.” spiritual vigor. St. Clare of Assisi ~ Page 2.

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