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 Life of St.
Clare of Assisi
Co-foundress of the Order of Poor Ladies, or Clares, and first Abbess of San Damiano; born at Assisi, 16 July, 1194; died there 11 August, 1253. She was the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, the wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in Assisi and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio. Such at least is the traditional account. Her mother, Bl. Ortolana, belonged to the noble family of Fiumi and was conspicuous for her zeal and piety. From her earliest years Clare seems to have been endowed with the rarest virtues. As a child she was most devoted to prayer and to practices of mortification, and as she passed into girlhood her distaste for the world and her yearning for a more spiritual life increased. She was eighteen years of age when St. Francis came to preach the Lenten course in the church of San Giorgio at Assisi. The inspired words of the Poverello kindled a flame in the heart of Clare; she sought him out secretly and begged him to help her that she too might live "after the manner of the holy Gospel". St. Francis, who at once recognized in Clare one of those chosen souls destined by God for great things, and who also, doubtless, foresaw that many would follow her example, promised to assist her. On Palm Sunday Clare, arrayed in all her finery, attended high Mass at the cathedral, but when the others pressed forward to the altar-rail to receive a branch of palm, she remained in her place as if rapt in a dream. All eyes were upon the young girl as the bishop descended from the sanctuary and placed the palm in her hand. That was the last time the world beheld Clare. On the night of the same day she secretly left her father's house, by St. Francis's advice and, accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion, proceeded to the humble chapel of the Porziuncula, where St. Francis and his disciples met her with lights in their hands. Clare then laid aside her rich dress, and St. Francis, having cut off her hair, clothed her in a rough tunic and a thick veil, and in this way the young heroine vowed herself to the service of Jesus Christ. This was 20 March, 1212. Clare was placed by St. Francis provisionally with the Benedictine nuns of San Paolo, near Bastia, but her father, who had expected her to make a splendid marriage, and who was furious at her secret flight, on discovering her retreat, did his utmost to dissuade Clare from her heroic proposals, and even tried to drag her home by force. But Clare held her own with a firmness above her years, and Count Favorino was finally obliged to leave her in peace. A few days later St. Francis, in order to secure Clare the greater solitude she desired, transferred her to Sant' Angelo in Panzo, another monastery of the Benedictine nuns on one of the flanks of Subasio. Here some sixteen days after her own flight, Clare was joined by her younger sister Agnes, whom she was instrumental in delivering from the persecution of their infuriated relatives. Clare and her sister remained with the nuns at Sant' Angelo until they and the other fugitives from the world who had followed them were established by St. Francis in a rude dwelling adjoining the poor chapel of San Damiano, situated outside the town which he had to a great extent rebuilt with his own hands, and which he now obtained from the Benedictines as a permanent abode for his spiritual daughters. Thus was founded the first community of the Order of Poor Ladies, or of Poor Clares, as this second order of St. Francis came to be called. St. Clare, who in 1215 had, much against her will been made superior at San Damiano by St. Francis, continued to rule there as abbess until her death, in 1253, nearly forty years later. There is no good reason to believe that she ever once went beyond the boundaries of San Damiano during all that time. It need not, therefore, be wondered at if so comparatively few details of St. Clare's life in the cloister "hidden with Christ in God", have come down to us. We know that she became a living copy of the poverty, the humility, and the mortification of St. Francis; that she had a special devotion to the Holy Eucharist, and that in order to increase her love for Christ crucified she learned by heart the Office of the Passion composed by St. Francis, and that during the time that remained to her after her devotional exercises she engaged in manual labour. Needless to add, that under St. Clare's guidance the community of San Damiano became the sanctuary of every virtue, a very nursery of saints. Clare had the consolation not only of seeing her younger sister Beatrix, her mother Ortolana, and her faithful aunt Bianca follow Agnes into the order, but also of witnessing the foundation of monasteries of Clares far and wide throughout Europe. It would be difficult, moreover, to estimate how much the silent influence of the gentle abbess did towards guiding the women of medieval Italy to higher aims. In particular, Clare threw around poverty that irresistible charm which only women can communicate to religious or civic heroism, and she became a most efficacious coadjutrix of St. Francis in promoting that spirit of unworldliness which in the counsels of God, "was to bring about a restoration of discipline in the Church and of morals and civilization in the peoples of Western Europe". Not the least important part of Clare's work was the aid and encouragement she gave St. Francis. It was to her he turned when in doubt, and it was she who urged him to continue his mission to the people at a time when he thought his vocation lay rather in a life of contemplation. When in an attack of blindness and illness, St. Francis came for the last time to visit San Damiano, Clare erected a little wattle hut for him in an olive grove close to the monastery, and it was here that he composed his glorious "Canticle of the Sun". After St. Francis's death the procession which accompanied his remains from the Porziuncula to the town stopped on the way at San Damiano in order that Clare and her daughters might venerate the pierced hands and feet of him who had formed them to the love of Christ crucified--a pathetic scene which Giotto has commemorated in one of his loveliest frescoes. So far, however, as Clare was concerned, St. Francis was always living, and nothing is, perhaps, more striking in her after-life than her unswerving loyalty to the ideals of the Poverello, and the jealous care with which she clung to his rule and teaching. When at length she felt the day of her death approaching, Clare, calling her sorrowing religious around her, reminded them of the many benefits they had received from God and exhorted them to persevere faithfully in the observance of evangelical poverty. Pope Innocent IV came from Perugia to visit the dying saint, who had already received the last sacraments from the hands of Cardinal Rainaldo. Her own sister, St. Agnes, had returned from Florence to console Clare in her last illness; Leo, Angelo, and Juniper, three of the early companions of St. Francis, were also present at the saint's death-bed, and at St. Clare's request read aloud the Passion of Our Lord according to St. John, even as they had done twenty-seven years before, when Francis lay dying at the Porziuncula. At length before dawn on 11 August, 1253, the holy foundress of the Poor Ladies passed peacefully away amid scenes which her contemporary biographer has recorded with touching simplicity. The pope, with his court, came to San Damiano for the saint's funeral, which partook rather of the nature of a triumphal procession. The Clares desired to retain the body of their foundress among them at San Damiano, but the magistrates of Assisi interfered and took measures to secure for the town the venerated remains of her whose prayers, as they all believed, had on two occasions saved it from destruction. Clare's miracles too were talked of far and wide. It was not safe, the Assisians urged, to leave Clare's body in a lonely spot without the walls; it was only right, too, that Clare, "the chief rival of the Blessed Francis in the observance of Gospel perfection", should also have a church in Assisi built in her honour. Meanwhile, Clare's remains were placed in the chapel of San Giorgio, where St. Francis's preaching had first touched her young heart, and where his own body had likewise been interred pending the erection of the Basilica of San Francesco. Two years later, 26 September, 1255, Clare was solemnly canonized by Alexander IV, and not long afterwards the building of the church of Santa Chiara, in honour of Assisi's second great saint, was begun under the direction of Filippo Campello, one of the foremost architects of the time. On 3 October, 1260, Clare's remains were transferred from the chapel of San Giorgio and buried deep down in the earth, under the high altar in the new church, far out of sight and reach. After having remained hidden for six centuries--like the remains of St. Francis--and after much search had been made, Clare's tomb was found in 1850, to the great joy of the Assisians. On 23 September in that year the coffin was unearthed and opened, the flesh and clothing of the saint had been reduced to dust, but the skeleton was in a perfect state of preservation. Finally, on the 29th of September, 1872, the saint's bones were transferred, with much pomp, by Archbishop Pecci, afterwards Leo XIII, to the shrine, in the crypt at Santa Chiara, erected to receive them, and where they may now be seen. The feast of St. Clare is celebrated throughout the Church on 12 August; the feast of her first translation is kept in the order on 3 October, and that of the finding of her body on 23 September. - from New Advent' s Catholic Encyclopedia
Beginnings at San
Damiano
In the great Franciscan movement of the thirteenth century an
important part was played by this order of religious women, which had
its beginning in the convent of San Damiano, Assisi. When St. Clare
(q. v.) in 1212, following the advice of St. Francis (q. v.), withdrew
to San Damiano, she was soon surrounded by a number of ladies
attracted by the holiness of her life. Among the first to join her
were several immediate relatives, including her sister Agnes, her
mother, aunt, and niece. Thus was formed the nucleus of the new order.
Here St. Clare became the counsellor of St. Francis and after his
death remained the supreme exponent of the Franciscan ideal of
poverty. "This ideal was the exaltation of the beggar's estate into a
condition of spiritual liberty, wherein man would live in conscious
dependence upon the providence of God and the good will of his
fellowmen" (Cuthbert, "The Life and Legend of the Lady St. Clare", p.
4). At the outset St. Clare received from St. Francis a "formula vitæ"
for the growing community. This was not a formal rule, but simply a
direction to practise the counsels of the Gospel (Seraphicæ
legislationis textus originales, p. 62). "Vivere secundum perfectionem
sancti Evangelii" was the keynote of St. Francis's message. On behalf
of the sisters, St. Clare petitioned Innocent III for the "privilege"
of absolute poverty, not merely for the individual members but for the
community as a whole. Highly pleased with the unusual request he
granted it, says the saint's biographer, with his own hand "cum
hilaritate magna" ("Röm. Quartalschrift", 1902, p. 97; see, however,
Robinson, "Life of St. Clare", note 114); Rule of
Ugolino In 1217 an
event occurred which proved to be of first importance in the
development of the new community. In that year Ugolino,
Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, was sent to Tuscany as Apostolic delegate;
he formed a warm attachment for St. Francis, and soon became the
confidant and adviser of the seraphic doctor in all things relating to
the second Order ("Analecta Franciscana", III, p. 686). Concerning the
manner of life of the religious who gathered in various places
imitating the example of the community at San Damiano we have only the
account given by Jacques de Vitry in 1216 and the letters of Ugolino
to Honorius III in 1218. The former speaks of women who dwell in
hospices in community life and support themselves by their own labour.
Ugolino writes that many women have renounced the world and desired to
establish monasteries where they would live in total poverty with no
possessions except their houses. For this purpose estates were often
donated, but the administration of these presented difficulties. The
pope decided that Ugolino should accept these estates in the name of
the Church and that the houses established thereon should be
immediately subject to the pope. About 1219 Ugolino drew up a rule for
these groups of women, taking the Rule of St. Benedict as a ground
work, with severe regulations having, however, no distinctively
Franciscan element in them. His first foundation was the monastery of
Monticello near Florence (1219). This rule was soon adopted by the
monasteries at Perugia, Siena, Gattajola, and elsewhere. There is no
evidence that it was ever accepted at San Damiano. It is noteworthy
that it does not raise the question of the ownership of property by
the various monasteries. This was a point on which St. Francis and
Ugolino did not agree. The subsequent modifications which this rule
underwent at the hands of Innocent IV in 1247, and of Urban IV in
1263, resulted in the triumph of Ugolino's view, while St. Francis's
ideal of utter poverty found expression in a definitive rule, the
confirmation of which St. Clare secured in 1253. The opening words of
Ugolino's Rule, "Regulam beatissimi Benedicti vobis tradimus
observandam", have been taken to indicate that the Poor Clares were an
offshoot of the Benedictines. This conclusion, however, is
unwarranted. The Lateran Council, a few years earlier, had decreed
that new orders should adopt a rule already approved. The new order
was not bound to the observance of the older rule, except in regard to
the three customary vows. This was Ugolino's intention in drawing up
the rule, and it is confirmed by a letter of Innocent IV to Agnes of
Bohemia, in which he explains the meaning of the words in question
(Sbarales, I, p. 315). After the
death of St. Francis (1226) and the elevation of Ugolino to the papal
chair as Gregory IX (1227), certain changes were introduced in the
practical direction of conventual life. The pope offered to bestow
possessions on the convent of San Damiano over which St. Clare
presided. She firmly refused the offer and petitioned to be permitted
to continue in the spirit of St. Francis. In response to this request,
Gregory granted her (17 September, 1228) the "privilege of most high
poverty", namely," ut recipere possessiones a nullo compelli
possitis". The convents of Perugia and Florence followed the example
of San Damiano. Other convents, however, gladly availed themselves of
the possessions which the pope offered them, "propter eventus temporum
et pericula sæculorum". Thus were laid the foundation of the two
observances which obtain among the daughters of St. Clare. The plea of
Agnes of Bohemia for a new rule was rejected by Gregory IX in 1238,
and again by Innocent IV in 1243. In 1247 Innocent IV, to secure unity
of observance and peace of conscience for the sisters, modified the
original rule in two points. In place of the reference to the Rule of
St. Benedict he inserted a reference to the Rule of St. Francis,
which, in the meantime, had been approved, and he embodied in the rule
regulations covering certain changes already introduced in various
convents by his predecessor or by himself. Thus, the direction of the
communities of the order was placed in the hands of the general and
provincial of the Franciscans. The sisters were directed to recite the
Divine Office according to the custom of the Friars Minor. The
regulations concerning silence and abstinence were modified. The
length of novitiate was fixed at one year. The most notable change is
to be found in the express permission granted to every convent to hold
possessions, for the administration of which a prudent procurator was
to be secured by each house. In the year 1263 the original rule
underwent a final modification at the hands of Urban IV. On 18 October
of that year the sovereign pontiff issued the rule which is in the
most general observance among the Poor Clares and which has given the
name "Urbanist" to a large division of the order. It is noteworthy
that in Urban's Rule the new community
received for the first time the official title of "Order of St.
Clare". In a few particulars the new regulations were less severe than
in the rule of 1247. For instance, the abbess was empowered to
dispense with the obligation of silence during certain hours of the
day at her good pleasure. The sections of the rule are arranged in a
new order and are divided into twenty-six chapters. For the most part
the very words of the previous rule are employed. One important change
must be noted. Innocent IV had left the Second Order in charge of the
general and provincial of the Friars Minor. Urban IV withdrew from
these officials practically all their authority over the Second Order
and bestowed it on the cardinal protector.
Definitive Rule of St. Clare Meanwhile,
St. Clare had secured from innocent IV the confirmation of a new rule
differing widely from the original rule drawn up by Ugolino, and
modified by his successors on the papal throne. For forty years she
had been the living rule from which the community at San Damiano had
imbibed the spirit of St. Francis. A few days before her death she
placed the convent under a rule which embodied that spirit more
perfectly than did Ugolino's Rule. The Bull "Solet annuere", 9 August,
1253, confirming St. Clare's Rule, was directed to the Sisters of San
Damiano alone. The new rule was soon adopted by other convents and
forms the basis of the second grand division of the Poor Clares. It is
an adaptation of the Franciscan Rule to the needs of the Second Order.
Its twelve chapters correspond substantially to those of the
Franciscan Rule, and in large sections there is a verbal agreement
between the two rules. In a few instances it borrows regulations from
the original rule and from the modified form of that rule published by
Innocent IV. The most important characteristic of St. Clare's Rule is
its express declaration that the sisters are to possess no property,
either as individuals or as a community. In this regulation the new
rule clearly breathes the spirit of the seraphic founder. It is
improbable, however, that St. Francis was the author of it or that it
was approved by Gregory IX, as is sometimes asserted. With the data
obtainable no categorical answer can be given to the question of
authorship, though the compiler may well have been St. Clare herself
(Lemmens in "Röm. Quartalschr.", I, page 118). The original Bull of
Innocent IV confirming the Rule of St. Clare was discovered in 1893 in
a mantle of the saint which had been preserved, among other relics, at
the monastery of St. Clare at Assisi (Robinson, "Inventarium
documentorum", 1908). Spread
of the Order
Colettine Reform
For a century after the death of St. Clare comparatively few of the convents had adopted the Rule of 1253. Most of them had availed themselves of the permission to hold property in the name of the community. Moreover, in the fourteenth century the order suffered very much during the Great Western Schism, which was responsible for the general decline of discipline (Manuale Historiæ Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, p. 586). At the beginning of the fifteenth century, however, the spirit of utter poverty was revived through the instrumentality of St. Colette (died 1447) who instituted the most vigorous reform the Second Order has ever experienced. Her desire to restore or introduce the practice of absolute poverty was put on a fair way to realization when, in 1406, Benedict XIII appointed her reformer of the whole order and gave her the office of Abbess General over all convents she should establish or reform. In 1412 St. Colette established a monastery at Besançon. Before her death (1447) she had founded 17 new monasteries, to which, in addition to the Rule of St. Clare, she gave constitutions and regulations of her own. These Constitutions of St. Colette were confirmed by Pius II (Seraphicæ Legislationis Textus Originales, 99-175). After the death of St. Colette her reform continued to spread and by the end of the fifteenth century reformed convents were to be found throughout France, Flanders, Brabant, Savoy, Spain, and Portugal. The number of sisters at that time exceeded 35,000 and they were everywhere commended by the austerity of their lives (Pidoux, "Sainte Colette", p.158). From the year 1517 the spiritual direction of the Poor Clares, the Colettines not excepted, was given to the Observants. This was a return to the condition existing before the year 1263, at which time the Friars Minor, under the leadership of St. Bonaventure, at the General Chapter of Pisa sought to resign the spiritual care of the Second Order (Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, October, 1910, 664-79). The first quarter of the sixteenth century witnessed a widespread revival of the Urbanist Rule. Towards the end of the same century, though the religious wars had destroyed many monasteries, there were about six hundred houses in existence. Subsequently the order experienced a rapid growth and the external development of the Poor Clares appears to have reached its culmination about 1630 in 925 monasteries with 34,000 sisters under the direction of the minister general. If we can credit contemporary chroniclers, there were still more sisters under the direction of the bishops, making the entire number about 70,000. After the opening years of the eighteenth century the order declined and the French Revolution and the subsequent policy of secularization almost totally destroyed it, except in Spain, where the monasteries were undisturbed.
Mode of Life
The daily life of the Poor Clares is occupied with both work and prayer. It is a life of penance and contemplation. The rule says that the sisters shall fast at all times except on the Feast of the Nativity. The constitutions explain that meat may not be used even on Christmas. The "great silence" is from Compline until after the conventual Mass. During the day there is one hour of recreation except on Friday. Meals are taken in silence. The Divine Office is recited, not sung. The Franciscan breviary is used. The habit is a loose fitting garment of gray frieze; the cord is of linen rope about one-half inch in thickness having four knots representing the four vows; the sandals are of cloth.
Saints and Blessed of the Order
Among the saints of the order may be mentioned: the founder, Clare of Assisi (died 1253); Agnes of Assisi (died 1253); Collette of Corbie (died 1447); Catharine of Bologna (died 1463); Veronica Giuliani (died 1727). Holzapfel enumerates seventeen Blessed of the order (Manuale, 638), of whom the following are the more important: Agnes of Bohemia (died 1280); Isabel of France (died 1270); Margaret Colonna (died 1284); Cunegundis of Hungary (died 1292); Antonia of Florence (died 1472).
- from New Advent' s Catholic Encyclopedia
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