 St. Clare of Assisi
Name: St. Clare of Assisi
Date: 12 August
On Palm Sunday, March 19, 1212, a maiden eighteen years of age left her rich and noble family to retire for her reception as a religious to the little church of the Portiuncula. This maiden wasSaint Clare. Already she had learned from Saint Francis to scorn the world, and was secretlyresolved to live for God alone. There she was met by Saint Francis and his brethren, and at thealtar of Our Lady, Saint Francis cut off her hair, clothed her in the habit of penance, a piece ofsackcloth, with a cord as a cincture. Thus was she espoused to Christ. Saint Francis placed herfor the moment in a Benedictine convent. It was in a tiny house outside Assisi that she founded her Order. Two weeks after Clare’s consecration, her sister Agnes left home secretly to go to join her, at the age of fourteen years. Agnes succeeded in her intention, despite their father’s strong opposition and a convoy of twelve men who attempted to take her back home by force. While Clare prayed in the convent, Agnesbecame so heavy they were unable to move her. Later their mother and other noble ladies joinedthem. They went barefoot, observed perpetual abstinence, constant silence, and perfect poverty. Saint Clare is celebrated for a miracle which occurred when the Saracen army of Frederick II was ravaging the valley of Spoleto. A legion of infidels advanced to assault the convent outsideAssisi. The Saint, who was ill in the infirmary, rose and went, supported by her religious, to thedoor of the convent; there she had the Blessed Sacrament placed in a monstrance above the gateof the monastery facing the enemy. She knelt before it and prayed, “Deliver not to beasts, OLord, the souls of those who confess Your Name!” A voice from the Host replied, “Myprotection will never fail you.” A sudden panic seized the infidel army, which took flight; and theSaint’s convent was spared. Although Saint Clare herself never left her monastery of Saint Damian, her Order spread in many places not only in Europe but elsewhere, and some four thousand convents, divided into severalbranches, shelter her disciples. Many Saints have come from these, especially from the groupswhich have maintained the original absolute poverty of her Constitutions. The Sisters of theoriginal Order live by charity, and their convents possess nothing. Saint Clare died in 1253, as thePassion was being read, and Our Lady and the Angels conducted her to glory. |
