clare of assisi
Free from the Love of the World
Clare Offreduccio was the eldest daughter of a wealthy Italian count living in the tiny town of Assisi near the dawn of the thirteenth century. Her family owned a large palace in Assisi and maintained a castle on the slope of nearby Mount Subasio. Clare’s mother was a noblewoman known for her piety and love of the church, and tradition teaches that Clare followed her mother’s godly example from a very young age.
Clare was barely eighteen when she heard, perhaps not for the first time, the teaching of another young Assisian named Francis Bernardone. Drawing from traditions established a few centuries earlier by Saint Jerome of Egypt, Saint Augustine of Hippo, and Saint Benedict of Umbria, Francis denounced his family’s wealth and adopted a monk’s life of poverty. Putting his carefree days as a singer, merchant, and soldier aside, he one day stripped himself naked in the city square, leaving his robes behind as a symbol of the determination with which he was bound to follow Jesus Christ. “I desire no other wealth,” he said, “than the poverty of Christ.”
Francis’s aim was to become a friend of the poor and a lover of the unlovely. He spent many of his days living in caves and shelters and a nearby Benedictine monastery. Other young men followed him into the “Brothers Minor,” and they served God together. Francis’s work was restoring churches fallen into disrepair and begging alms for the poor and for himself.
When Clare heard Francis give the Lenten service at the church of San Giorgio at Assisi, her heart was struck. She was soon to be married to a man her father selected, but the world had never held much allure for her. She wanted to follow Christ as Francis did. His words inspired her to believe that she, too, could separate herself from the world and live for the sake of God and others.
Accompanied by her aunt, Clare sought out Francis and asked that she be admitted to the way of the Brothers Minor. There was no legal hindrance to her admission, but Francis had made no provision for the inclusion of women into his order. Still, he urged her to pray and be certain of God’s calling. She did, and her mind and heart were not changed. She asked again to follow him in the way of service, and touched by her sincerity and convinced of her calling, he agreed.
On Palm Sunday, Clare attended mass in all her finery. As others pressed forward at the altar rail to receive a palm branch from the bishop, Clare remained in her place. That was the last time the world beheld Clare Offreduccio.
She left her father’s house that same night, and accompanied by her aunt, she traveled to the chapel of the Portiuncula. The Brothers Minor were there, with candles lit, waiting with Francis to celebrate the mass. After their final amen, Francis read to Clare the laws she would follow. She bowed her head before him in a sign of obedience, and he cut off her hair and left it on the altar. She relinquished her rich robes and received a gray gown and black veil for beginning her life of poverty, chastity, and service. Francis then led Clare away to the convent at San Paolo, where she would live with the Benedictine sisters until a permanent home for her could be secured.
For eighteen years she had been her father’s daughter. Now she belonged entirely to God.
The next day, her father learned of her whereabouts and arrived to take her home. He spoke passionately to dissuade her from her promise, but she would not be moved. He finally left her there. A week later, her younger sister Agnes fled from their unhappy home to join Clare, and Francis received her as well. Again their father followed, but his attempts to carry his daughters back home were unsuccessful.
Realizing that he could not keep the sisters safe, Francis moved them to a quiet nearby retreat called San Damiano, which he had rebuilt with his own hands. There they were protected, and San Damiano became the permanent home for the Poor Sisters of Penitence, or “Poor Clares,” as they came to be known.
Other noble ladies of Assisi joined them, including, after a time, Clare’s third sister, Beatrice, her aunt Pacifica, and even her mother. In this way, the second order of Saint Francis of Assisi was established.
The Poor Clares were not required to travel, preaching and calling men to repentance, or to beg door to door as the Franciscans did. Their duties were fitting to their roles as women and complementary to those of Francis and his followers. They tended the sick, fed the hungry, and made garments for the naked. They fashioned medicines and administered them, made altar cloths for the churches restored by their Franciscan brothers, grew gardens, and baked bread.
Although even the church pressed Clare to renounce her strict vows of poverty, she did not. She meant to own nothing, and own nothing she did. When Cardinal Ugolino (later Pope Gregory IX) visited Clare in Assisi, he urged her to accept provision from Rome for the future needs of the order and offered to absolve her of her previous vows. She steadfastly refused. “Holy Father,” she answered, “I crave for absolution from my sin, but I desire not to be absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ.” Her words earned his lifelong respect.
Saint Clare continued to preside as abbess over the Poor Clares until her death in 1253, nearly forty years after she took her vows. Throughout her life she encouraged and aided her friend and spiritual mentor, Francis. On his final visit to San Damiano, Clare erected a little hut for him in an olive grove close to the monastery. It is believed to be there that he composed his glorious “Canticle of the Sun.” Upon Francis’s death, the funeral procession carrying his remains stopped only once: at the gate of San Damiano so Clare and her sisters could pay tribute to the one who had challenged them to a life of loving sacrifice for the glory of God.
Live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
(Ephesians 4:1-3)