Our patron
St. Clare, our patroness
Born Clara Offreducia in 1194 St. Clare was a friend of St. Francis. From him she learned to love God and his wonderful creation. She shared with him the desire to bring all people to a deeper love of God and of each other.
On the night of Palm Sunday 1212, having listened to a sermon by Francis, Clare left her wealthy family home and, in the chapel of Our Lady and the Angels, renounced all her possessions and professed her complete devotion to God. As a sign of her dedication she asked Francis to cut off her beautiful hair and to give her a habit of sacking which she tied with a rope girdle.
At first Francis placed her in the care of Benedictine nuns, but later she and her sister Agnes founded the first convent of the Poor Clares in an old house next to the church of San Damiano in Assisi, the building where God asked Francis to rebuild the church.
Here the sisters lived under the Franciscan rule, and Clare was their abbess. She remained there for the rest of her life. The austerity and material poverty of their lives was unique for nuns at that time.
Legend has it that Clare and Agnes’ father, having earlier tried unsuccessfully to persuade Clare to return home, sent a dozen men to force Agnes’ return, but that Clare’s prayers made her sister too heavy for the men to lift.
The sisters’ life was one of prayer, penance and voluntary poverty offered to God for all mankind. When Clare’s father died her mother and her sister Beatrice joined the growing community. In 1228 a special dispensation was granted by Pope Gregory IX for the sisters to live in absolute poverty – they lived entirely by alms – and the Poor Clare order was established. It spread rapidly throughout Europe.
On two occasions Clare saved Assisi from attack by the armies of Emperor Frederick II, on one of these occasions she appeared on the city walls carrying a monstrance. The besieging army fled. For this reason she is often depicted carrying the monstrance, as she is in the magnificent etched panels at the rear of St. Clare’s.
Clare died in 1253 and was canonised a mere two years later. Shortly before her death, when Clare was too ill to attend Mass at Christmas, she clearly saw the Mass in a vision. For this ability to see from afar St. Clare was made patroness of television in 1958.
Feast day
The feast of St Clare of Assisi is on 11th August.
