Saint Clare of Assisi

Saint Clare of Assisi

1194–1253 · Medieval · Poor Clares

Feast day: August 11

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Biography

Chiara Offreduccio (16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253), known as Clare of Assisi (sometimes spelled Clara, Clair or Claire; Italian: Chiara d'Assisi), is an Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi. Inspired by the teachings of St. Francis, St. Clare founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition. The Order of Poor Ladies was different from any other order or convent because it followed a rule of strict poverty. Clare wrote their Rule of Life, the first set of monastic guidelines known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares. Her feast day is on the 11th of August every year. Clare was born in Assisi to the Offreduccio household during the High Middle Ages, the eldest daughter of Favarone or Favorino Sciffi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, and his wife Ortolana. Traditional accounts say that Clare's father was a wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in Assisi and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio. Ortolana belonged to the noble family of Fiumi, and was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and the Holy Land. Later in life, after being widowed, Ortolana entered Clare's monastery. Clare's younger sisters, Beatrix and Catarina, followed her into religious life. (The latter took the name Agnes and became an early abbess in the order. She established it in additional communities, and was declared a saint herself in the mid-18th century.) As children, Clare and her sisters were taught the ways of Christianity by their mother; they all became very religious and devoted to prayer. When Clare was 12 years old, her parents wanted her to marry a wealthy young man; however, she protested and said that she did not want to marry until she turned 18.

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Prayers

  • Novena to Saint Clare

    novena

    1. By that spirit of penance which made you take delight in the most rigorous fasts, in the most rigid poverty, and in the most severe mortifications in divesting yourself of all your wealth, and enduring the greatest sufferings that you might live for Jesus Christ alone: obtain for us, O admirable St. Clara, the grace to prefer at all times abjection to glory, poverty to riches, and mortifications to pleasures, that we may become not in name only, but in deed, true disciples of Jesus Christ. Glory be to the Father, etc. 2. By that ardent charity and lively faith which were your characteristics, and by the wonderful miracles which you performed for the sake of charity: obtain for us all, O admirable St. Clara, that we may at all times put our trust in God alone, and thus be made worthy to receive from His bountiful Providence all that we may need for soul and body. Glory be to the Father, etc. 3. By that especial devotion which you had to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and which caused you to be ravished into ecstasies in His presence, by the fervent prayer which your society made before the sacramental Host, when you were forced to make a precipitate flight before the barbarous Saracens; obtain for us, O admirable St. Clara, the grace to take our delight in frequenting the sacraments, assisting at the holy mysteries, and in paying the most fervent devotion to the most blessed Eucharist: that we may receive consolation during the present life, and attain to the possession of eternal beatitude in heaven. Glory be to the Father, etc.

    — Blessed Sacrament Book (F.X. Lasance), 1913 edition, p. 1141 (Novena to St. Clara; attr. Pagani)

Patronages

Sources: Wikidata (12) · Wikipedia (11). Wikipedia content used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related saints

  • MentorSaint Francis of Assisi

    Inspired by Francis's preaching, Clare founded the Poor Clares as the female counterpart to the Franciscans.

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