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August 11 - Saint Clare
of Assisi
 “ O
wondrous blessed clarity of Clare! In life she shone to a few; after death
she shines on the whole world! On earth she was a clear light, now in heaven
she is a brilliant sun.
O how great
the vehemence of the brilliance of this clarity! On earth this light was
indeed kept within cloistered walls, yet spread itself through the whole
world.”
With these words Pope Innocent IV
(1253-54) eulogized Chiara Offreduccio; eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi,
Count of Sasso-Rosso and his wife Ortalana. Soon she would be known forever
as St. Clare of Assisi.
Meaning of her name: bright,
clear, brilliant.
Representation: holding a monstrance.
Patroness of: embroiderers, goldsmiths, eye disease, needle workers,
television, good weather, gilders, and laundry workers.
Clare was born into the nobility of
Assisi on July 16, 1194. As a little girl she was known by members of her
household to be a sensitive child, gentle, prayerful and kind. She would
sometimes hide food from her plate so as to later give it to the poor.
After hearing a young man (St.
Francis) preach, she became determined to live the gospel in a more radical
way. On the evening of Palm Sunday, March 20, 1212 she secretly left her
paternal home with her cousin Pacifica, never to return. In the dead of
night lit only by torches, Clare met Francis and his friars at the ‘Portiuncola’. There,
in the little chapel of ‘Mary of the Angels’, she laid aside her rich
clothes and Francis, after cutting off her long blonde hair, clothed her in
a rough tunic and a thick veil. From that moment she vowed to live her life
entirely in the service of Jesus, her heavenly spouse.
She was placed by Francis temporarily
with the Benedictine nuns of San Palos near Bastia, then to San Angelo in
Panzo until finally to San Damiano, which Francis had rebuilt with his own
hands. Thus was founded the first community of the Order of Poor Ladies or
Poor Clares.
In the beginning, most of the young
girls who joined her in this life of radical poverty were from the noble
families of Assisi and the surrounding area. At first they had no written
rule to follow except for a very short ‘formula vitae.’ Over the years
prelates tried to draw up a rule for the Poor Ladies based largely on the
Rule of St. Benedict, however, Clare would reject these attempts in favor of
the ‘privilege of poverty’, wishing to own nothing in this world and
depending entirely on the providence of God and the generosity of the people
for their livelihood.
The Form of Life given by St. Francis to St. Clare
“Because you have by divine
inspiration made yourselves daughters and handmaids of the Most High and
Highest King, the Heavenly Father, and have espoused yourselves to the
Holy Spirit by choosing to live according to the perfection of the Holy
Gospels, I want and promise that I and my Friars will always exercise a
diligent care and special solicitude concerning yourselves just as for
them”.
When Pope Gregory IX visited Clare at
San Damiano and tried to persuade her to accept a less strict vow of poverty
she told him: “ Holy Father, I crave absolution from my sins but I desire
not to be absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ”.
Comparatively little is known of St.
Clare’s life in the cloister. We know that she became a living example of
the poverty, humility and the mortification expounded by St. Francis. She
had a special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to increase her love for
Christ crucified, she learned by heart the Office of the Passion composed by
St. Francis. Under her guidance the community of San Damiano became a very
nursery of saints.
Clare had the joy not only of seeing
her younger sister, Agnes ( St. Agnes of Assisi) join the Order but also her
youngest sister Beatrix (Blessed), her mother Ortolana (Blessed) and her
faithful Aunt Bianca. She lived to see the foundation of monasteries
spread wide throughout Europe.
Not the least important part of
Clare’s work was the help and encouragement she gave to her spiritual
father, Francis. It was to her that he turned when in doubt and it was she
who urged him to continue his mission in preaching when he thought his
vocation lay in becoming a hermit. After receiving the Stigmata, blind, ill
and dying, Francis came for the last time to San Damiano. Clare built a
little reed hut for him outside the cloister and tended him. It was there
that he composed his magnificent “Canticle of the Creatures”, in the spring
of 1225. After his death at the Portiuncola the procession with his body
stopped at San Damiano in order that Clare and her daughters might pay their
respects to their father, mentor, brother and friend.
Last Will and Testament of St. Francis written for St. Clare:
“I, Friar Francis, the tiny
one, want to follow the life and poverty of Our Most High Lord Jesus
Christ and of His Most Holy Mother and to persevere in this even to the
end; and I beg you, my ladies and I give you counsel, that you live in
this most holy life and poverty always. And guard yourselves very much,
lest by the doctrine or counsel of anyone you retreat from this in any
manner forever.”
When at length Clare felt the day of
her death approaching, she called her religious community around her,
reminded them of the many benefits they had received from God and encouraged
them to persevere faithfully in the observance of evangelical poverty. Pope
Innocent IV came from Perugia to visit the dying saint. Her own sister St.
Agnes had returned from Florence to console Clare in her last illness.
Brothers Leo, Angelo and Juniper, three of the first companions of St.
Francis were also present at her deathbed and at her request, read aloud the
Passion of Our Lord from St. John’s Gospel.
On August 11, 1253, just before dawn,
Clare, foundress of the Poor Ladies passed peacefully away.
The Poor Ladies wanted to keep the
body of their foundress with them at San Damiano outside the walls of the
city, however the magistrates of Assisi interfered and took measures to take
the remains into the city to be buried in the chapel of San Georgio where
St. Francis’ preaching had first touched her heart and where his own body
had been interned until the Basilica of San Francesco had been built.
Two years later, on September 26,
1255, Clare was solemnly canonized by Pope Alexander IV. Not long after,
the building of the church of Santa Chiara in honor of Assisi’s second great
saint was begun. On October 3, 1260 Clare’s remains were transferred from
the chapel of San Georgio and buried deep down under the high altar of the
new church. After having remained hidden for six centuries and after an
extensive search was made, Clare’s tomb was found in 1850. On September 23
of that year, the coffin was unearthed and opened. Her body was found
intact. Finally on September 29, 1872, the saint’s body was transferred by
Archbishop Pecci (the future Pope Leo XIII) to the crypt where it lays
today.
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