Saint Clare, Virgin

A Daughter of Privilege

Clare Offreduccio was born in 1194 into one of the wealthiest and most distinguished families in Assisi, Italy. Her mother, Ortolana, was a deeply devout woman who had made pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Rome, and the shrine of Saint Michael on Monte Gargano. From her earliest childhood, Clare was known for her piety and her compassion for the poor. She would set aside portions of her meals to give to the hungry and spent long hours in prayer, even as a young girl.

Assisi in the early thirteenth century was a city of dramatic contrasts — great wealth and grinding poverty, noble ambition and spiritual longing. It was also the city of Francis Bernardone, the merchant's son who had renounced his inheritance to embrace radical poverty. When Clare was eighteen years old, she heard Francis preach during the Lenten services of 1212, and his words ignited a fire in her soul that would never be extinguished.

The Flight to Freedom

On the night of Palm Sunday, March 18, 1212, Clare made one of the most courageous decisions in the history of Christian holiness. She slipped out of her family's palazzo through a side door — some accounts say through the "door of the dead," a small exit used only for carrying out the deceased — and fled to the chapel of the Portiuncula, where Francis and his brothers were waiting.

"We must give great things for the sake of great things." — Saint Clare of Assisi

By the flickering light of torches, Francis cut her beautiful long hair, and she exchanged her fine garments for a rough tunic and veil. She had given up everything — wealth, status, the prospect of a noble marriage — to follow Christ in absolute poverty. Her family was furious. Her relatives came to drag her back by force, but Clare clung to the altar of the church where she had taken refuge, pulling back her veil to show her shorn head. She would not be moved.

Foundress of the Poor Ladies

Francis initially placed Clare with Benedictine nuns, but soon she and the small community of women who joined her — including her own sister Agnes and eventually her mother Ortolana — settled at the church of San Damiano, just outside the walls of Assisi. There, Clare established what would become the Order of Poor Ladies, later known as the Poor Clares.

The life at San Damiano was marked by:

• Absolute poverty — the community owned nothing, not even collectively
• Manual labor and begging for sustenance
• Rigorous fasting and penance
• Continuous prayer, including the Divine Office chanted throughout the day and night
• Enclosure from the world, yet profound engagement with its needs through prayer

Clare fought tenaciously for what she called the "Privilege of Poverty" — the right of her community to live without any property or fixed income. Every pope who dealt with her tried to persuade her to accept some endowments for security. She refused them all. It was the first time in Church history that a woman had written a religious rule, and Clare's Rule was finally approved by Pope Innocent IV just two days before her death.

Miracles and the Power of Prayer

The most famous miracle associated with Clare occurred in 1240, when the army of Emperor Frederick II, which included Saracen mercenaries, attacked Assisi. The soldiers scaled the walls of San Damiano and began to invade the convent. Clare, though gravely ill, had herself carried to the window holding the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament. She prayed with fierce intensity, and the soldiers were suddenly seized with terror and fled.

"Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!" — Saint Clare of Assisi

A second attack on Assisi was repelled through her prayers shortly afterward, and she is venerated as the protectress of the city. In a beautiful and unexpected connection, Clare was named the patron saint of television in 1958 by Pope Pius XII, because on Christmas Eve 1252, when she was too ill to attend Mass, she miraculously saw and heard the entire liturgy projected on the wall of her cell.

The Final Radiance

Clare spent the last twenty-seven years of her life bedridden or in severe illness, yet she never ceased her prayer, her penance, or her joyful witness. She embroidered altar linens and corporals from her sickbed, sending them to poor churches throughout the region. She governed her community with a mother's tenderness and a mystic's wisdom.

On August 11, 1253, surrounded by her sisters, Clare died at San Damiano. She was sixty years old. Pope Innocent IV himself came to Assisi for her funeral and wished to canonize her on the spot. She was formally canonized by Pope Alexander IV in 1255, just two years after her death.

A Light for All Ages

Saint Clare of Assisi teaches us that true freedom is found not in the accumulation of possessions but in their radical surrender. Her life is a luminous witness to the power of contemplative prayer, the beauty of evangelical poverty, and the strength of a woman who knew her own mind and her own God. She reminds us that even from a place of hiddenness and silence, a soul on fire with love can change the world. Her feast day is celebrated on August 11.