Sainte CHIARA (CLAIRE) D'ASSISE, vierge religieuse, abbesse et fondatrice des Pauvres Dames de l'Ordre des Mineurs

Sainte Claire d'Assise

Fondatrice des clarisses (+1253)

Il n'est pas possible de séparer l'histoire de sainte Claire de celle de saint François d'Assise. Née à Assise, elle a 11 à 12 ans de moins que lui. Elle est de famille noble et lui fils de marchand. Au moment de la 'commune' d'Assise vers 1200, soulèvement violent contre le pouvoir féodal, auquel participe saint François, les parents de Claire quittent la ville par sécurité et se réfugient à Pérouse, la ville rivale. Ils ne reviendront à Assise que 5 à 6 ans plus tard. Claire ne commence à connaître saint François que vers 1210, quand celui-ci, déjà converti à la vie évangélique, se met à prêcher dans Assise. Elle est séduite par lui et par cette vie pauvre toute donnée au Christ. Elle cherche donc à rencontrer François par l'intermédiaire de son cousin Rufin qui fait partie du groupe des frères. Ensemble, ils mettent au point son changement de vie. Le soir des Rameaux 1212, elle quitte la demeure paternelle et rejoint saint François à la Portioncule. Elle a 18 ans et se consacre à Dieu pour toujours. L'opposition de sa famille n'y pourra rien. Rapidement d'autres jeunes filles se joignent à Claire, dont sa sœur Agnès, sa maman Ortolana et son autre sœur Béatrice. La vie des 'Pauvres Dames' prospère rapidement et d'autres monastères doivent être fondés. Le Pape Innocent III leur accorde 'le privilège de pauvreté'. Mais après la mort de saint François, les papes interviendront pour aménager la vie matérielle des Clarisses et leur permettre une relative sécurité. Claire refuse de toutes ses forces. Elle veut la pauvreté totale et la simplicité franciscaine. En 1252, le pape Innocent IV rend visite aux Sœurs, accepte leur Règle de vie et la bulle d'approbation arrive le 9 août 1253. Claire meurt le 11 août tenant la bulle dans ses mains dans la paix et la joie.

La communauté des clarisses de Cormontreuil (Reims) vous propose de découvrir Claire d'Assise par sa vie en 10 épisodes.

- méditation sur les symboles dans la vie et les écrits de sainte Claire d'Assise, vidéo de la WebTV de la CEF.

Le 15 septembre 2010, Benoît XVI a consacré sa catéchèse à Claire d'Assise (1193-1253), une des saintes les plus aimées dans l'Église. Son témoignage "montre ce que l'Église doit aux femmes courageuses et remplies de foi, capables de donner une forte impulsion à sa rénovation". Puis il a rappelé qu'elle naquit dans une famille aristocratique, qui décida de la marier à un bon parti. Mais à dix huit ans, Claire et son amie Bonne quittèrent leurs foyers et décidèrent de suivre le Christ en entrant dans la communauté de la Portioncule. C'est François qui l'y accueillit, lui tailla les cheveux et la revêtit d'un grossier vêtement de pénitence. Dès lors fut elle une vierge, épouse du Christ, humble et pauvre, totalement consacrée au Seigneur".

Dès le début de sa vie religieuse, a ensuite rappelé le Pape, "Claire trouva en François un maître avec ses enseignements, et plus encore un ami fraternel. Cette amitié fut considérable car, lorsque deux âmes pures brûlent ensemble du même amour de Dieu, elles trouvent dans l'amitié un encouragement à la perfection. L'amitié est l'un des sentiments les plus nobles et élevés que la grâce divine purifie et transfigure". L'évêque Jacques de Vitry, qui connut les débuts du mouvement franciscain, a rapporté que la pauvreté radicale, liée à la confiance absolue en la Providence, était caractéristique de sa spiritualité, et que Claire y était très sensible. C'est pourquoi elle obtint du Pape "le Privilegium Paupertatis, confirmant que Claire et ses compagnes du couvent de San Damiano ne pourraient jamais posséder de biens fonciers. "Ce fut une exception totale au droit canonique de l'époque, accordée par les autorités ecclésiastiques devant les fruits de sainteté évangélique produits par le mode de vie de la sainte et de ses sœurs".

Ce point, a-t-il ajouté, "montre combien au Moyen Âge le rôle de la femme était important. D'ailleurs, Claire fut la première femme de l'histoire de l'Église à rédiger une règle qui fut soumise à l'approbation papale, par laquelle elle voulut que le charisme de saint François fut conservé dans toutes les communautés féminines s'inspirant de leur exemple". A San Damiano, elle "pratiqua les vertus héroïques qui devraient distinguer tous les chrétiens, l'humilité, la piété, la pénitence et la charité. Sa réputation de sainteté et les prodiges opérés grâce à elle conduisirent Alexandre IV à canoniser Claire en 1255, à peine deux ans après sa mort". Ses filles spirituelles, les clarisses, poursuivent dans la prière une œuvre inappréciable au sein de l'Église.
(source: VIS 20100915 430)

Pie XII, Lettre Apostolique (en forme brève) proclamant Ste Claire Patronne Céleste de la Télévision (21 août 1958)

- Sainte Claire est présente sur les vitraux de plusieurs églises du diocèse d'Autun.

Mémoire de sainte Claire, vierge. Première plante des pauvres Dames de l'Ordre des Mineurs, elle suivit saint François d'Assise et mena au couvent de Saint-Damien une vie très austère, mais riche d’œuvres de charité et de piété. Aimant par-dessus tout la pauvreté, elle n'accepta jamais de s'en écarter, pas même dans l'extrême indigence ou dans la maladie. Elle mourut à Assise en 1253.

Martyrologe romain

Ce que tu tiens, tiens-le. Ce que tu fais, fais-le et ne le lâche pas. Mais d'une course rapide, d'un pas léger, sans entraves aux pieds, pour que tes pas ne ramassent pas la poussière, sûre, joyeuse et alerte, marche prudemment sur le chemin de la béatitude.

Sainte Claire à sainte Agnès de Prague

SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1654/Sainte-Claire-d-Assise.html

SAINTE CLAIRE D'ASSISE

Vierge et Fondatrice d'Ordre

(1194-1253)

Sainte Claire naquit à Assise, en Italie. Dès son enfance, on put admirer en elle un vif attrait pour la retraite, l'oraison, le mépris du monde, l'amour des pauvres et de la souffrance; sous ses habits précieux, elle portait un cilice.

A l'âge de seize ans, fortement émue de la vie si sainte de François d'Assise, elle va lui confier son désir de se donner toute à Dieu. Le Saint la pénètre des flammes du divin amour, accepte de diriger sa vie, mais il exige des actes: Claire devra, revêtue d'un sac, parcourir la ville en mendiant son pain de porte en porte. Elle accomplit de grand coeur cet acte humiliant, et, peu de jours après, quitte les livrées du siècle, reçoit de François une rude tunique avec une corde pour lui ceindre les reins, et un voile grossier sur sa tête dépouillée de ses beaux cheveux.

Elle triomphe de la résistance de sa famille. Quelques jours après, sa soeur Agnès la supplie de l'agréer en sa compagnie, ce que Claire accepte avec joie, en rendant grâce au Ciel. "Morte ou vive, qu'on me ramène Agnès!" s'écria le père, furieux à cette nouvelle; mais Dieu fut le plus fort, et Agnès meurtrie, épuisée, put demeurer avec sa soeur. Leur mère, après la mort de son mari, et une de leurs soeurs, vinrent les rejoindre.

La communauté fut bientôt nombreuse et florissante; on y vit pratiquer, sous la direction de sainte Claire, devenue, quoique jeune, une parfaite maîtresse de vie spirituelle, une pauvreté admirable, un détachement absolu, une obéissance sublime: l'amour de Dieu était l'âme de toutes ses vertus.

Claire dépassait toutes ses soeurs par sa mortification; sa tunique était la plus rude, son cilice le plus terrible à la chair; des herbes sèches assaisonnées de cendre formaient sa nourriture; pendant le Carême, elle ne prenait que du pain et de l'eau, trois fois la semaine seulement. Longtemps elle coucha sur la terre nue, ayant un morceau de bois pour oreiller.

Claire, supérieure, se regardait comme la dernière du couvent, éveillait ses soeurs, sonnait matines, allumait les lampes, balayait le monastère. Elle voulait qu'on vécût dans le couvent au jour le jour, sans fonds de terre, sans pensions et dans une clôture perpétuelle.

Claire est célèbre par l'expulsion des Sarrasins, qui, après avoir pillé la ville, voulaient piller le couvent. Elle pria Dieu, et une voix du Ciel cria: "Je vous ai gardées et Je vous garderai toujours." Claire, malade, se fit transporter à la porte du monastère, et, le ciboire en main, mit en fuite les ennemis. Sa mort arriva le 12 août 1253.

Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.

SOURCE : https://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Jaud_Saints/calendrier/Vies_des_Saints/08-12.htm

BENOÎT XVI

AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE

Salle Paul VI

Mercredi 15 septembre 2010

Claire d’Assise

Chers frères et sœurs,

L’une des saintes les plus aimées est sans aucun doute sainte Claire d’Assise, qui vécut au XIIIe siècle, et qui fut contemporaine de saint François. Son témoignage nous montre combien l’Eglise tout entière possède une dette envers des femmes courageuses et riches de foi comme elle, capables d’apporter une impulsion décisive au renouveau de l’Eglise.

Qui était donc Claire d’Assise? Pour répondre à cette question, nous possédons des sources sûres: non seulement les anciennes biographies, comme celles de Thomas de Celano, mais également les Actes du procès de canonisation promu par le Pape quelques mois seulement après la mort de Claire et qui contiennent les témoignages de ceux qui vécurent à ses côtés pendant longtemps.

Née en 1193, Claire appartenait à une riche famille aristocratique. Elle renonça à la noblesse et à la richesse pour vivre dans l’humilité et la pauvreté, adoptant la forme de vie que François d’Assise proposait. Même si ses parents, comme cela arrivait alors, projetaient pour elle un mariage avec un personnage important, à 18 ans, Claire, à travers un geste audacieux inspiré par le profond désir de suivre le Christ et par son admiration pour François, quitta la maison paternelle et, en compagnie de son amie, Bona de Guelfuccio, rejoignit en secret les frères mineurs dans la petite église de la Portioncule. C’était le soir du dimanche des Rameaux de l’an 1211. Dans l’émotion générale, fut accompli un geste hautement symbolique: tandis que ses compagnons tenaient entre les mains des flambeaux allumés, François lui coupa les cheveux et Claire se vêtit d’un habit de pénitence en toile rêche. A partir de ce moment, elle devint l’épouse vierge du Christ, humble et pauvre, et se consacra entièrement à Lui. Comme Claire et ses compagnes, d’innombrables femmes au cours de l’histoire ont été fascinées par l’amour pour le Christ qui, dans la beauté de sa Personne divine, remplit leur cœur. Et l’Eglise tout entière, au moyen de la mystique vocation nuptiale des vierges consacrées, apparaît ce qu’elle sera pour toujours: l’Epouse belle et pure du Christ.

L’une des quatre lettres que Claire envoya à sainte Agnès de Prague, fille du roi de Bohême, qui voulut suivre ses traces, parle du Christ, son bien-aimé Epoux, avec des expressions nuptiales qui peuvent étonner, mais qui sont émouvantes: «Alors que vous le touchez, vous devenez plus pure, alors que vous le recevez, vous êtes vierge. Son pouvoir est plus fort, sa générosité plus grande, son apparence plus belle, son amour plus suave et son charme plus exquis. Il vous serre déjà dans ses bras, lui qui a orné votre poitrine de pierres précieuses... lui qui a mis sur votre tête une couronne d'or arborant le signe de la sainteté» (Première Lettre: FF, 2862).

En particulier au début de son expérience religieuse, Claire trouva en François d’Assise non seulement un maître dont elle pouvait suivre les enseignements, mais également un ami fraternel. L’amitié entre ces deux saints constitue un très bel et important aspect. En effet, lorsque deux âmes pures et enflammées par le même amour pour le Christ se rencontrent, celles-ci tirent de leur amitié réciproque un encouragement très profond pour parcourir la voie de la perfection. L’amitié est l’un des sentiments humains les plus nobles et élevés que la Grâce divine purifie et transfigure. Comme saint François et sainte Claire, d’autres saints également ont vécu une profonde amitié sur leur chemin vers la perfection chrétienne, comme saint François de Sales et sainte Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal. Et précisément saint François de Sales écrit: «Il est beau de pouvoir aimer sur terre comme on aime au ciel, et d’apprendre à s’aimer en ce monde comme nous le ferons éternellement dans l’autre. Je ne parle pas ici du simple amour de charité, car nous devons avoir celui-ci pour tous les hommes; je parle de l’amitié spirituelle, dans le cadre de laquelle, deux, trois ou plusieurs personnes s’échangent les dévotions, les affections spirituelles et deviennent réellement un seul esprit» (Introduction à la vie de dévotion, III, 19).

Après avoir passé une période de quelques mois auprès d’autres communautés monastiques, résistant aux pressions de sa famille qui au début, n’approuvait pas son choix, Claire s’établit avec ses premières compagnes dans l’église Saint-Damien où les frères mineurs avaient préparé un petit couvent pour elles. Elle vécut dans ce monastère pendant plus de quarante ans, jusqu’à sa mort, survenue en 1253. Une description directe nous est parvenue de la façon dont vivaient ces femmes au cours de ces années, au début du mouvement franciscain. Il s’agit du compte-rendu admiratif d’un évêque flamand en visite en Italie, Jacques de Vitry, qui affirme avoir trouvé un grand nombre d’hommes et de femmes, de toute origine sociale, qui «ayant quitté toute chose pour le Christ, fuyaient le monde. Ils s’appelaient frères mineurs et sœurs mineures et sont tenus en grande estime par Monsieur le Pape et par les cardinaux... Les femmes... demeurent ensemble dans divers hospices non loin des villes. Elle ne reçoivent rien, mais vivent du travail de leurs mains. Et elles sont profondément attristées et troublées, car elles sont honorées plus qu’elles ne le voudraient, par les prêtres et les laïcs» (Lettre d’octobre 1216: FF, 2205.2207).

Jacques de Vitry avait saisi avec une grande perspicacité un trait caractéristique de la spiritualité franciscaine à laquelle Claire fut très sensible: la radicalité de la pauvreté associée à la confiance totale dans la Providence divine. C'est pour cette raison qu'elle agit avec une grande détermination, en obtenant du Pape Grégoire IX ou, probablement déjà du Pape Innocent III, celui que l’on appela le Privilegium Paupertatis (cf. FF, 3279). Sur la base de celui-ci, Claire et ses compagnes de Saint-Damien ne pouvaient posséder aucune propriété matérielle. Il s'agissait d'une exception véritablement extraordinaire par rapport au droit canonique en vigueur et les autorités ecclésiastiques de cette époque le concédèrent en appréciant les fruits de sainteté évangélique qu’elles reconnaissaient dans le mode de vie de Claire et de ses consœurs. Cela montre que même au cours des siècles du Moyen âge, le rôle des femmes n'était pas secondaire, mais considérable. A cet égard, il est bon de rappeler que Claire a été la première femme dans l'histoire de l'Eglise à avoir rédigé une Règle écrite, soumise à l'approbation du Pape, pour que le charisme de François d'Assise fût conservé dans toutes les communautés féminines qui étaient fondées de plus en plus nombreuses déjà de son temps et qui désiraient s'inspirer de l'exemple de François et de Claire.

Dans le couvent de Saint-Damien, Claire pratiqua de manière héroïque les vertus qui devraient distinguer chaque chrétien: l'humilité, l'esprit de piété et de pénitence, la charité. Bien qu'étant la supérieure, elle voulait servir personnellement les sœurs malades, en s'imposant aussi des tâches très humbles: la charité en effet, surmonte toute résistance et celui qui aime accomplit tous les sacrifices avec joie. Sa foi dans la présence réelle de l'Eucharistie était si grande que, par deux fois, un fait prodigieux se réalisa. Par la seule ostension du Très Saint Sacrement, elle éloigna les soldats mercenaires sarrasins, qui étaient sur le point d'agresser le couvent de Saint-Damien et de dévaster la ville d'Assise.

Ces épisodes aussi, comme d'autres miracles, dont est conservée la mémoire, poussèrent le Pape Alexandre IV à la canoniser deux années seulement après sa mort, en 1255, traçant un éloge dans la Bulle de canonisation, où nous lisons: «Comme est vive la puissance de cette lumière et comme est forte la clarté de cette source lumineuse. Vraiment, cette lumière se tenait cachée dans la retraite de la vie de clôture et dehors rayonnaient des éclats lumineux; elle se recueillait dans un étroit monastère, et dehors elle se diffusait dans la grandeur du monde. Elle se protégeait à l'intérieur et elle se répandait à l'extérieur. Claire en effet, se cachait: mais sa vie était révélée à tous. Claire se taisait mais sa renommée criait» (FF, 3284). Et il en est véritablement ainsi, chers amis: ce sont les saints qui changent le monde en mieux, le transforment de manière durable, en insufflant les énergies que seul l'amour inspiré par l'Evangile peut susciter. Les saints sont les grands bienfaiteurs de l'humanité!

La spiritualité de sainte Claire, la synthèse de sa proposition de sainteté est recueillie dans la quatrième lettre à sainte Agnès de Prague. Sainte Claire a recours à une image très répandue au Moyen âge, d'ascendance patristique, le miroir. Et elle invite son amie de Prague à se refléter dans ce miroir de perfection de toute vertu qu'est le Seigneur lui-même. Elle écrit: «Heureuse certes celle à qui il est donné de prendre part au festin sacré pour s'attacher jusqu'au fond de son cœur [au Christ], à celui dont toutes les troupes célestes ne cessent d'admirer la beauté, dont l'amitié émeut, dont la contemplation nourrit, dont la bienveillance comble, dont la douceur rassasie, dont le souvenir pointe en douceur, dont le parfum fera revivre les morts, dont la vue en gloire fera le bonheur des citoyens de la Jérusalem d'en haut. Tout cela puisqu'il est la splendeur de la gloire éternelle, l'éclat de la lumière éternelle et le miroir sans tache. Ce miroir, contemple-le chaque jour, ô Reine, épouse de Jésus Christ, et n'arrête d'y contempler ton apparence afin que... tu puisses, intérieurement et extérieurement, te parer comme il convient... En ce miroir brillent la bienheureuse pauvreté, la sainte humilité et l'ineffable charité» (Quatrième lettre: FF, 2901-2903).

Reconnaissants à Dieu qui nous donne les saints qui parlent à notre cœur et nous offrent un exemple de vie chrétienne à imiter, je voudrais conclure avec les mêmes paroles de bénédiction que sainte Claire composa pour ses consœurs et qu'aujourd'hui encore les Clarisses, qui jouent un précieux rôle dans l'Eglise par leur prière et leur œuvre, conservent avec une grande dévotion. Ce sont des expressions où émerge toute la tendresse de sa maternité spirituelle: «Je vous bénis dans ma vie et après ma mort, comme je peux et plus que je le peux, avec toutes les bénédictions par lesquelles le Père des miséricordes pourrait bénir et bénira au ciel et sur la terre les fils et les filles, et avec lesquelles un père et une mère spirituelle pourraient bénir et béniront leurs fils et leurs filles spirituels. Amen» (FF, 2856).

* * *

Je salue les francophones présents et plus particulièrement les participants au pèlerinage promu par la Conférence épiscopale de Guinée, et conduits par l’Evêque de N’Zérékoré, Mgr Guilavogui, et ceux du Diocèse de Nancy, en France, guidés par Mgr Papin. Je n’oublie pas les pèlerins de la Martinique, de Dijon et d’ailleurs. Puisse Dieu vous bénir! Bon séjour à Rome!

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APPEL DU SAINT-PÈRE

Je suis avec préoccupation les événements qui se déroulent ces jours-ci dans les diverses régions de l'Asie du sud, notamment en Inde, au Pakistan et en Afghanistan. Je prie pour les victimes et je demande que le respect de la liberté religieuse et la logique de la réconciliation prévalent sur la haine et la violence.

© Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100915_fr.html

Sainte Claire

Biographie

Sainte Claire (née en 1193 ou 1194) fille du noble et chevalier Favarone di Offreduccio, l'un des plus puissants et des plus riches d'Assise, est expulsée de la ville avec sa famille lors de l'insurrection bourgeoise de 1198-1199 et se réfugie à Pérouse où ses parents possèdent un château. Lorsqu'en 1211, à Assise, elle entend une prédication de saint François à la cathédrale Saint-Rufin, elle se sent irrésistiblement attirée par son idéal de pauvreté évangélique et décide de le prendre, après Dieu, pour guide de sa vie. Dans la nuit qui suit le dimanche des Rameaux 1212, elle s'enfuit de chez elle et rejoint les frères à Sainte-Marie de la Portioncule où elle fait promesse de suivre le Christ pauvre ; saint François la conduit chez les bénédictines de Saint-Paul (sur la route de Sainte-Marie des Anges à Pérouse) où elle reste jusqu'à ce que la famille soit apaisée, puis l'installe à Saint-Damien où elle fonde l'ordre des Pauvres Dames aujourd'hui connu sous le nom de Clarisses. A la tête d'une communauté de cinquante religieuses dont sa soeur Agnès, elle est faite abbesse par le pape (1216). De nouvelles communautés se forment en Italie (on en compte 24 en 1228), en France (le couvent de Reims est fondé en 1220) et en Espagne (Pampelune) ; sainte Agnès de Bohême fonde, en 1233 la communauté de Prague. La règle est approuvée par Innocent IV, le 9 août 1253, deux jours avant la mort de Claire (11 août). Cinquante ans après la mort de sainte Claire, l'ordre compte soixante-seize monastères, il y en aura 372 en 1316 (dont 47 en France) et 425 à la fin du XIV° siècle.L'ordre des clarisses comprend aujourd'hui 18 000 religieuses réparties en 897 maisons : 617 couvents en Europe (270 en Espagne, 160 en Italie, 54 en France, 25 en Belgique, 24 en Allemagne, 22 en Pologne, 19 en Angleterre, 17 au Portugal, 8 en Hollande, 6 en Irlande, 4 dans l'ancienne Yougoslavie, 3 en Suisse, 1 à Malte), 39 en Amérique du Nord (32 aux Etats-Unis, 7 au Canada), 159 en Amérique Latine (96 au Mexique,17 en Colombie, 7 au Pérou, 7 au Brésil, 6 en Bolivie, 5 en Argentine, 5 au Chili, 3 en Equateur, 3 en Uruguay, 3 au Venezuela, 2 au Guatemala, 2 au Nicaragua, 2 au Paraguay, 1 en République dominicaine), 27 en Afrique (4 en Ethiopie, 3 en Tanzanie, 2 en Afrique du Sud, 2 en Angola, 2 au Cameroun, 2 au Zaïre, 1 en Algérie, 1 au Burundi, 1 en Côte d'Ivoire, 1 en Egypte, 1 au Gabon, 1 à Madagascar, 1 au Malawi, 1 en République Centre Africaine, 1 au Rwanda, 1 en Ouganda, 1 en Zambie), 2 en Israël, 1 au Liban, 47 en Asie (17 au Philippines, 8 aux Indes, 7 en Thaïlande, 4 en Indonésie, 4 au Japon, 2 en Corée du Sud, 2 au Sri-Lanka, 1 au Bangla-Desh, 1 à Taïwan, 1 au Viet-Nam), 5 en Océanie (3 en Australie, 1 en Papouasie, 1 en Polynésie française).

Les plus anciens monastères français de Clarisses existant aujourd'hui sont : Tinqueux (Marne), fondé en 1220, refondé en 1933, reconstruit en 1965 ; Béziers, fondé en 1240, rétabli en 1819 ; Nîmes, fondé en 1240, détruit en 1567, restauré en 1891, bombardé en 1944, reconstruit en 1956 ; Perpignan, fondé en 1240, reconstruit en 1878 ; Besançon, fondé en 1250, réformé par sainte Colette en 1410, rétabli en 1879 ; Nérac, fondé en 1358, restauré en 1935 ; Azille (Aude) fondé en 1361, restauré en 1891 ; Marseille, fondé en 1254, rétabli en 1892 ; Poligny (Jura), fondé en 1415 par Marguerite de Bavière, rétabli en 1817 ; Le Puy, fondé par sainte Colette en 1432 ; Arras, fondé en 1457 ; Nantes, fondé en 1457, rétabli en 1859 ; Paris, fondé par Anne de Beaujeu en 1484, rétabli en 1876 ; Haubourdin (Nord), fondé en 1490, refondés à Esquermes en 1866, rétabli à Haubourdin en 1931 ; Cambrai, fondé en 1496, rétabli en 1827 ; Alençon, fondé en 1498 par Marguerite de Lorraine et refondé en 1819 ; Motbrison, fondé en 1500 ; Evian-les-Bains, fondé en 1536, restauré en 1875, refondé en 1924, établi à Thony en 1978 ; Romans (Drome), fondé en 1621, reconstruit en 1834 ; Lavaur, fondé en 1642, restauré en 1802 ; Mur-de-Barrez (Aveyron), fondé en 1653, rétabli en 1868.

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La spiritualité de Claire

Sainte Claire, vénère en même temps le Christ comme le Divin Enfant « couché dans la crèche et enveloppé de quelques méchants langes » et le Crucifié qui a voulu « souffrir sur le bois de la croix et... mourir du genre de mort le plus infamant aui soit. » En cela, elle est bien la fille de saint François d’Assise qui fit venir l’Enfant Jésus dans la crèche à Greccio, et qui reçut les stigmates sur l'Alverne. L'Homme-Dieu est l'Enfant et le Crucifié, mais aussi le Roi de Gloire, le Seigneur.

Sainte Claire médite sans cesse le mystère de l'lncarnation par lequel « Celui qui était riche s'est fait pauvre pour nous » ; elle contemple le Verbe divin devenu « le dernier des humains, méprisé, frappé, tout le corps déchiré à coups de fouets, mourant sur la croix dans les pires douleurs. » De la Crèche au crucifiement, elle voit le même et profond mystère, adorant déjà dans le corps du Divin Enfant les plaies du Divin Crucifié. Si on ne peut lui attribuer la composition de la prière aux Cinq Plaies du Seigneur, on sait qu'elle la disait chaque jour.

A l’école de saint François d’Assise, elle découvre la sainte humanité du Sauveur Jésus, sans pour autant être uniquement fascinée par l'aspect sanglant du Crucifié : l’Enfant Jésus de la Crèche n’est pas moins l'Oint, le Messie, le Seigneur, le Fils du Trés-Haut que l’Homme Dieu de la passion et de la Croix. Elle découvre la sainte humanité du Sauveur Jésus, sans pour autant perdre de vue que « Celui s'est fait pauvre pour nous » est toujours le Seigneur qu’elle n’appelle, avec la révérence que l’on doit à sa divinité, le Christ ou le Christ-Jésus, le Seigneur ou le Roi. Le Crucifié de Saint-Damien qui a parlé à saint François, celui que sainte Claire contemple n'est pas tant l’Homme des douleurs que le Christ serein et victorieux au sein même de la plus extrême abjection. Sous le Crucifié, elle voit encore « le plus beau des enfants des hommes », « de race noble », « celui dont la beauté fait l'admiration des anges pour l'éternité », celui « dont le soleil et la lune admirent la beauté », celui qui est « splendeur de la gloire éternelle, éclat de la Lumière sans fin et miroir sans tache. » Comme saint François, parce qu’elle perçoit la « Beauté de Dieu » elle s'attache à Lui seul comme son épouse.

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L'ardent désir du Crucifix pauvre

La lumineuse figure de sainte Claire d'Assise a été évoquée par le Saint-Père dans une Lettre, en date du 11 août 1993, adressée aux Clarisses à l'occasion du VIII° centenaire de la naissance de la sainte fondatrice. Voici une traduction du texte du message de Jean-Paul II :

Très chères religieuses de clôture !

1. Il y a huit cents ans naissait Claire d'Assise du noble Favarone d'Offreduccio.

Cette " femme nouvelle ", comme l'ont écrit d'elle dans une Lettre récente les Ministres généraux des familles franciscaines, vécut comme une " petite plante " à l'ombre de saint François qui la conduisit au sommet de la perfection chrétienne. La commémoration d'une telle créature véritablement évangélique veut surtout être une invitation à la redécouverte de la contemplation, de cet itinéraire spirituel dont seuls les mystiques ont une profonde expérience. Lire son ancienne biographie et ses écrits - la Forme de vie, le Testament et les quatre Lettres qui nous sont restées des nombreuses qu'elle a adressées à sainte Agnès de Prague - signifie s'immerger à tel point dans le mystère de Dieu Un et Trine et du Christ, Verbe incarné, que l'on en reste comme ébloui. Ses écrits sont tellement marqués par l'amour suscité en elle par le regard ardent et prolongé posé sur le Christ Seigneur, qu'il n'est pas facile de redire ce que seul un coeur de femme a pu expérimenter.

2. L'itinéraire contemplatif de Claire, qui se conclura par la vision du " Roi de gloire " (Proc. IV, 19 : FF 3017 ),commence précisément lorsqu'elle se remet totalement à l'Esprit du Seigneur, à la manière de Marie lors de l'Annonciation : c'est-à-dire qu'il commence par cet esprit de pauvreté ( cf.. Lc I, 26-38 ) qui ne laisse plus rien en elle si ce n'est la simplicité du regard fixé sur Dieu.

Pour Claire, la pauvreté - tant aimée et si souvent invoquée dans ses écrits - est la richesse de l'âme qui, dépouillée de ses propres biens, s'ouvre à l' "Esprit du Seigneur et à sa sainte opération " (cf. Reg. S. Ch. X, 10 : FF 2811 ), comme une coquille vide où Dieu peut déverser l'abondance de ses dons. Le parallèle Marie - Claire apparaît dans le premier écrit de saint François, dans la " Forma vivendi " donnée à Claire : " Par inspiration divine, vous vous êtes faites filles et servantes du très haut Roi suprême, le Père céleste, et vous avez épousé l'Esprit Saint, en choisissant de vivre selon la perfection du saint Evangile " ( Forma vivendi,in Reg. S. Ch. VI, 3 : FF 2788 ).

Claire et ses soeurs sont appelées " épouses de l'Esprit Saint " : terme inusité dans l'histoire de l'Eglise, où la soeur, la religieuse, est toujours qualifiée d' "épouse du Christ". Mais on retrouve là certains thèmes du récit de Luc de l'Annonciation ( cf. Lc 1, 26-38 ), qui deviennent des paroles-clefs pour exprimer l'expérience de Claire : le " Très Haut ", l' "Esprit Saint ", le " Fils de Dieu ", la " servante du Seigneur " et, enfin, cet " ensevelissement "qu'est pour Claire la prise du voile, alors que ses cheveux, coupés, tombent au pied de l'autel de la Vierge Marie dans la Portioncule, " presque devant la chambre nuptiale " (cf. Legg. S. Ch. 8 : FF 3170-3172 ).

3. L' " opération de l'Esprit du Seigneur ", qui nous est donné dans le baptême, est de créer chez le chrétien le visage du Fils de Dieu. Dans la solitude et dans le silence, que Claire choisit comme forme de vie pour elle et pour ses compagnes entre les pauvres murs de son monastère, à mi-côte entre Assise et la Portioncule, se dissipe le voile de fumée des paroles et des choses terrestres, et la communion avec Dieu devient réalité : amour qui naît et qui se donne.

Claire, penchée en contemplation sur l'enfant de Bethléem, nous exhorte ainsi : " Puisque cette vision de lui est splendeur de la gloire éternelle, clarté de la lumière éternelle et miroir sans tache, chaque jour porte ton âme dans ce miroir... Admire la pauvreté de celui qui fut déposé dans la crèche et enveloppé de pauvres linges. O admirable humilité et pauvreté qui stupéfie ! Le Roi des anges, le Seigneur du ciel et de la terre, est couché dans une mangeoire ! " ( Lett. IV, 14. 19-21 : FF 2902. 2904 ).

Elle ne se rend pas même compte que son sein de vierge consacrée et de " vierge pauvre " attachée au " Christ pauvre " (cf.Lett. II, 18 : FF 2878 ) devient aussi, au moyen de la contemplation et de la transformation, un berceau du Fils de Dieu (Proc. IX, 4 : FF 3062 ) . C'est la voix de cet enfant qui, de l'Eucharistie, dans un moment de grand danger - quand le monastère va tomber aux mains des troupes sarrazines au service de l'empereur Frédéric II - la rassure : " Je vous protègerai toujours ! " (Legg. S. Ch. 22 : FF 3202 ).

Dans la nuit de Noël de 1252, Jésus enfant transporte Claire loin de son lit d'infirme et l'amour, qui n'a ni lieu ni époque, l'enveloppe dans une expérience mystique qui l'immerge dans la profondeur infinie de Dieu.

4. Si Catherine de Sienne est la sainte pleine de passion pour le sang du Christ, si Thérèse la Grande est la femme qui s'avance de " demeure " en " demeure " jusqu'à la porte du Grand Roi, dans le Château intérieur, et si Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus est celle qui parcour avec simplicité évangélique la petite voie, Claire est l'amante passionnée du Crucifix pauvre, avec lequel elle veut absolument s'identifier.

Dans une de ses lettres elle s'exprime ainsi : " Vois que Lui, pour toi, s'est fait objet de mépris, et suis son exemple, en devenant, par amour de lui, méprisable en ce monde. Admire ... ton Epoux, le plus beau parmi les fils des hommes, méprisé, frappé et plusieurs fois flagellé sur tout le corps, et allant jusqu'à mourir dans les douleurs les plus atroces sur la croix. Médite et contemple et aspire à l'imiter. Si tu souffres avec Lui, avec Lui tu règneras ; si tu pleures avec Lui, avec Lui tu te réjouiras ; si tu meurs avec lui sur la croix des tribulations, tu possèderas avec Lui les demeures célestes dans la splendeur des saints, et ton nom sera écrit dans le Livre de vie ... " (Lett. II, 19-22 : FF 2879-2880 ).

Claire, entrée au monastère à dix-huit ans à peine, y meurt à cinquante-neuf ans, après une vie de souffrance, de prière jamais relâchée, de restriction et de pénitence. Pour cet " ardent désir du Crucifix pauvre ", rien ne lui pèsera jamais, au point qu'elle dira en mourant au frère Rainaldo qui l'assistait " dans le long martyr d'aussi graves infirmités ... : Depuis que j'ai connu la grâce de mon Seigneur Jésus-Christ au moyen de son serviteur François, aucune peine ne m'a pesée, aucune pénitence n'a été lourde, aucune infirmité n'a été dure, très cher frère ! " ( Legg. S. Ch. 44 : FF 3247 ).

5. Mais celui qui souffre sur la croix est aussi celui qui reflète la gloire du Père et qui entraîne avec lui dans sa Pâque qui l'a aimé jusqu'à en partager les souffrances par amour.

La fragile jeune fille de dix-huit ans qui, fuyant de chez elle la nuit du dimanche des Rameaux de l'an 1212, s'aventure sans hésitations dans la nouvelle expérience, en croyant en l'Evangile que lui a indiqué François et en rien d'autre, entièrement plongée avec les yeux du visage et ceux du coeur dans le Christ pauvre et crucifié, fait l'expérience de cette union qui la transforme : " Place tes yeux - écrit-elle à sainte Agnès de Prague - devant le miroir de l'éternité, place ton âme dans la splendeur de la gloire, place ton coeur en Celui qui est image de la substance divine et transforme-toi entièrement, au moyen de la contemplation, en l'image de sa divinité. Alors, toi aussi tu éprouveras ce qui est réservé à ses seuls amis, et tu goûteras la douceur secrète que Dieu lui-même a réservée dès le début à ceux qui l'aiment. Sans même accorder un regard aux séductions, qui dans ce monde trompeur et agité tendent des pièges aux aveugles qui y attachent leur coeur, aime de toute ta personne Celui qui, par amour pour toi, s'est donné " ( Lett. III, 12-15 : FF 2888-2889 ).

Alors, le terrible lieu de la croix devient le doux lit nuptial et la " recluse à vie par amour " trouve les accents les plus passionnés de l'Epouse du Cantique : " Attire-moi à toi, ô céleste Epoux ! ... Je courrai sans jamais me fatiguer, jusqu'à ce que tu m'introduise dans ta cellule " (Lett. IV, 30-32 : FF 2906 ).

Enfermée dans le monastère de saint Damien, menant une vie marquée par la pauvreté, par la fatigue, par les tribulations, par la maladie, mais aussi par une communion fraternelle si intense qu'elle est qualifiée dans le langage de la " Forma di vita " par le nom de " sainte unité " ( Bulle initiale, 18 : FF 2749 ), Claire connaît la joie la plus pure qui ait jamais été donnée d'expérimenter à une créature : celle de vivre dans le Christ la parfaite union des Trois personnes divines, en entrant presque dans l'ineffable circuit de l'amour trinitaire.

6. La vie de Claire, sous la conduite de François, ne fut pas une vie érémitique, même si elle fut contemplative et claustrale. Autour d'elle, qui voulait vivre comme les oiseaux du ciel et les lys des champs ( Mt. VI, 26-28 ), se rassembla un premier groupe de soeurs, satisfaites de Dieu seulement. Ce " petit troupeau " , qui s'agrandit rapidement - en août 1228 les monastères des clarisses étaient au moins 25 (cf. Lett. du Cardinal Rainaldo ; AFH 5, 1912, pp. 444-446 ) - ne nourrissait aucune crainte ( cf. Lc XII, 32 ) : la foi était pour elles un motif de sécurité tranquille au milieu de tous les dangers. Claire et les soeurs avaient un coeur grand comme le monde : étant contemplatives, elles intercédaient pour toute l'humanité. En tant qu'âmes sensibles aux problèmes quotidiens de chacun, elles savaient prendre en charge chaque peine : il n'y avait pas de préoccupation d'autrui, de souffrance, d'angoisse, de désespoir qui ne trouvât un écho dans leur coeur de femmes priantes. Claire pleura et supplia le Seigneur pour la ville bien-aimée d'Assise, assiégée par les troupes de Vitale d'Aversa, obtenant la libération de la ville de la guerre ; elle priait chaque jour pour les malades et de nombreuses fois elle les guérit d'un signe de croix. Persuadée qu'il n'y a pas de vie apostolique si on ne s'immerge pas dans le flanc déchiré du Christ crucifié, elle écrivait à Agnès de Prague avec les paroles de saint Paul : " Je te considère comme une collaboratrice de Dieu lui-même ( Rm XVI, 3 ) et un soutien des membres faibles et vacillants de son ineffable Corps " ( Lett. III, 8 : FF 2886 ).

7. Claire d'Assise,également en raison d'un genre d'iconographie qui a eu un vaste succès à partir du XVII° siècle, est souvent représentée l'ostensoir à la main. Le geste rappelle, bien qu'avec une attitude plus solennelle, l'humble réalité de cette femme qui, déjà très malade, se prosternait, soutenue par deux soeurs, devant le ciboire d'argent contenant l'Eucharistie ( cf. Legg. S. Ch. 21 : FF 3201 ), placé devant la porte du réfectoire, où devait s'abattre la furie des troupes de l'Empereur. Claire vivait de ce pain, que pourtant, suivant l'usage de l'époque, elle ne pouvait recevoir que sept fois par an. Sur son lit de malade, elle brodait du linge d'autel et l'envoyait aux églises pauvres de la vallée de Spolète.

En réalité, toute la vie de Claire était une eucharistie, car - à l'instar de François - elle élevait de sa clôture un continuel " remerciement " à Dieu par la prière, la louange, la supplication, l'intercession, les pleurs, l'offrande et le sacrifice. Tout était accueilli par elle et offert au Père en union avec le " merci " infini du Fils unique, enfant, crucifié, ressuscité, vivant à la droite du Père.

En cette fête jubilaire, très chères soeurs, l'attention de toute l'Eglise se tourne avec un intérêt accru vers la figure lumineuse de votre Mère profondément aimée. Avec une ferveur encore plus grande votre regard doit converger sur elle, pour tirer de ses exemples une stimulation à intensifier l'élan à répondre à la grâce du Seigneur, avec un dévouement quotidien à cet engagement contemplative dont l'Eglise tire tant de force pour son action missionnaire dans le monde d'aujourd'hui.

Que le Christ, notre Seigneur, soit votre lumière et la joie de vos coeurs.

Avec ces souhaits, en signe de profonde affection, je donne à tous une spéciale Bénédiction apostolique.

Du Vatican, le 11 août, mémoire liturgique de sainte Claire d'Assise, de l'an 1993, quinzième de mon pontificat.

Jean-Paul II

SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/08/11.php

SAINTE CLAIRE, vierge

Morte le 11 août 1253, canonisée en 1255 par Alexandre IV. Fête immédiate diffusée par les Franciscains.

Fête double jusqu’en 1568 au calendrier romain. Réduite à une simple mémoire dans l’Octave de St Laurent par St Pie V. Innocent X en fit un double ad libitum et Clément X à nouveau un double de précepte en 1670.

Textes de la Messe

die 12 augusti	le 12 août
SANCTÆ CLARÆ	SAINTE CLAIRE
Virginis	Vierge
III classis (ante CR 1960 : duplex)	IIIème classe (avant 1960 : double)
Missa Dilexísti, de Communi Virginum III loco.	Messe Dilexísti, du Commun des Vierges III.

Office

Leçons des Matines avant 1960.

Au deuxième nocturne.

Quatrième leçon. La vierge Claire naquit d’une famille illustre, à Assise, en Ombrie. A l’exemple de saint François, qui était de la même ville, elle distribua et convertit tous ses biens en aumônes et secours aux pauvres. Fuyant le tumulte du siècle, elle se rendit dans l’église de la Portioncule, où le même Saint lui coupa les cheveux. Ses parents firent tous leurs efforts pour la ramener dans le monde ; mais elle y opposa une ferme résistance. Conduite par saint François à l’église de Saint-Damien, elle s’associa plusieurs compagnes et institua ainsi elle-même une communauté de religieuses consacrées à Dieu, dont elle n’accepta le gouvernement que pour céder aux saintes importunités du Bienheureux. Elle exerça pendant quarante-deux ans la charge de supérieure, et se montra admirable par sa sollicitude, sa prudence et le soin qu’elle prit de maintenir dans sa communauté la parfaite observance des règles et des statuts de l’Ordre. Sa vie, en effet, était pour ses sœurs un enseignement et un exemple, d’où elles apprirent à régler leur vie.

Cinquième leçon. Afin de fortifier l’esprit en soumettant la chair, elle avait pour lit la terre nue ou des sarments, et pour oreiller un dur morceau de bois. Une seule tunique et un manteau d’étoffe rude et grossière lui suffisaient ; un âpre cilice ne quittait point sa chair. Telle était son abstinence que, pendant un temps assez long, elle ne goûta aucun aliment corporel, trois jours par semaine ; se restreignant les autres jours à une si petite quantité de nourriture, que ses sœurs s’étonnaient qu’elle pût subsister. Avant de tomber malade, elle s’imposait deux carêmes chaque année, sa seule réfection consistant alors en du pain et de l’eau. Adonnée aux veilles et assidue à l’oraison, elle passait dans ce saint exercice la plupart des jours et des nuits. Quand, éprouvée par de longues infirmités, elle ne pouvait se lever d’elle-même pour se livrer au labeur matériel, Claire se soulevait avec l’aide de ses sœurs, puis, le dos appuyé, travaillait des mains pour ne pas demeurer oisive, même dans ses maladies. Son amour passionné de la pauvreté lui fit constamment refuser les biens que Grégoire IX lui offrait pour le soutien de sa communauté.

Sixième leçon. Des miracles nombreux et variés répandirent l’éclat de sa sainteté. A l’une des sœurs de son monastère, elle rendit l’usage de la parole, guérit une seconde de sa surdité, et en délivra d’autres de la fièvre, d’une enflure d’hydropisie, d’une fistule douloureuse et de diverses maladies qui les accablaient. Un frère de l’Ordre des Mineurs lui dut de recouvrer la raison. L’huile étant venue à manquer totalement dans le monastère, Claire prit une cruche, la lava, et tout à coup ce vase se trouva rempli d’huile par un miracle de la divine bonté. Elle multiplia la moitié d’un pain, de manière à ce qu’il y en eût assez pour cinquante sœurs. Les Sarrasins, assiégeant Assise, s’efforçaient d’envahir le couvent de Claire : la Sainte, toute malade qu’elle était, se fit porter à l’entrée de la maison, tenant elle-même le vase où était renfermé le très saint sacrement de l’Eucharistie ; là, elle adressa à Dieu cette prière : « Seigneur, ne livrez pas aux bêtes féroces des âmes qui vous louent ; protégez vos servantes, que vous avez rachetées de votre sang précieux. » Pendant qu’elle priait, on entendit cette parole : « Moi, je vous garderai toujours. » En effet, une partie des Sarrasins prit la fuite, et ceux d’entre eux qui étaient déjà montés sur les murailles furent aveuglés et tombèrent à la renverse. Enfin cette Vierge, à ses derniers moments, fut visitée par un chœur de bienheureuses Vierges vêtues de blanc parmi lesquelles s’en distinguait une surpassant en beauté toutes les autres. Alors, munie de la sainte Eucharistie et enrichie par Innocent IV de l’indulgence plénière, elle rendit son âme à Dieu, la veille des ides d’août. Les nombreux miracles qui la glorifièrent après sa mort, déterminèrent le Pape Alexandre IV à la mettre au nombre des saintes Vierges.

Au troisième nocturne. Du Commun.

Lecture du saint Évangile selon saint Matthieu. Cap. 25, 1-13.

En ce temps-là : Jésus dit à-ses disciples cette parabole : Le royaume des cieux sera semblable à dix vierges qui ; ayant pris leurs lampes, altèrent au-devant de l’époux et de l’épouse. Et le reste.

Homélie de saint Grégoire, Pape. Homilia 12 in Evang.

Septième leçon. Je vous recommande souvent, mes très chers frères, de fuir le mal et de vous préserver de la corruption du monde ; mais aujourd’hui la lecture du saint Évangile m’oblige à vous dire de veiller avec beaucoup de soin à ne pas perdre le mérite de vos bonnes actions. Prenez garde que vous ne recherchiez dans le bien que vous faites, la faveur ou l’estime des hommes, qu’il ne s’y glisse un désir d’être loué, et que ce qui paraît au dehors ne recouvre un fond vide de mérite et peu digne de récompense. Voici que notre Rédempteur nous parle de dix vierges, il les nomme toutes vierges et cependant toutes ne méritèrent pas d’être admises au séjour de la béatitude, car tandis qu’elles espéraient recueillir de leur virginité une gloire extérieure, elles négligèrent de mettre de l’huile dans leurs vases.

Huitième leçon. Il nous faut d’abord examiner ce qu’est le royaume des cieux, ou pourquoi il est comparé à dix vierges, et encore quelles sont les vierges prudentes et les vierges folles. Puisqu’il est certain qu’aucun réprouvé n’entrera dans le royaume des cieux, pourquoi nous dit-on qu’il est semblable à des vierges parmi lesquelles il y en a de folles ? Mais nous devons savoir que l’Église du temps présent est souvent désignée dans le langage sacré sous le nom de royaume des cieux ; d’où vient que le Seigneur dit en un autre endroit : « Le Fils de l’homme enverra ses anges, et ils enlèveront de son royaume tous les scandales » [1]. Certes, ils ne pourraient trouver aucun scandale à enlever, dans ce royaume de la béatitude, où se trouve la plénitude de la paix.

Neuvième leçon. L’âme humaine subsiste dans un corps doué de cinq sens. Le nombre cinq, multiplié par deux, donne celui de dix. Et parce que la multitude des fidèles comprend l’un et l’autre sexe, la sainte Église est comparée à dix vierges. Comme, dans cette Église, les méchants se trouvent mêlés avec les bons et ceux qui seront réprouvés avec les élus, ce n’est pas sans raison qu’on la dit semblable à des vierges, dont les unes sont sages et les autres insensées. Il y a en effet, beaucoup de personnes chastes qui veillent sur leurs passions quant aux choses extérieures et sont portées par l’espérance vers les biens intérieurs ; elles mortifient leur chair et aspirent de toute l’ardeur de leur désir vers la patrie d’en haut ; elles recherchent les récompenses éternelles, et ne veulent pas recevoir pour leurs travaux de louanges humaines : celles-ci ne mettent assurément pas leur gloire dans les paroles des hommes, mais la cachent au fond de leur conscience. Et il en est aussi plusieurs qui affligent leur corps par l’abstinence, mais attendent de cette abstinence même des applaudissements humains.

[1] Matth. 13, 41.

Dom Guéranger, l’Année Liturgique

L’année même où, préalablement à tout projet de réunir des fils, saint Dominique fondait le premier établissement des Sœurs de son Ordre, le compagnon destiné du ciel au père des Prêcheurs recevait du Crucifix de Saint-Damien sa mission par ces mots : « Va, François, réparer ma maison qui tombe en ruines ». Et le nouveau patriarche inaugurait son œuvre en préparant, comme Dominique, à ses futures filles l’asile sacré où leur immolation obtiendrait toute grâce à l’Ordre puissant qu’il devait fonder. Sainte-Marie de la Portioncule, berceau des Mineurs, ne devait qu’après Saint-Damien, maison des Pauvres-Dames, occuper la pensée du séraphin d’Assise. Ainsi une deuxième fois dans ce mois [2], l’éternelle Sagesse veut-elle nous montrer que tout fruit de salut, qu’il semble provenir de la parole ou de l’action, procède premièrement de la contemplation silencieuse.

Claire fut pour François l’aide semblable à lui-même [3] dont la maternité engendra au Seigneur cette multitude d’héroïques vierges, d’illustres pénitentes, que l’Ordre séraphique compta bientôt sous toutes les latitudes, venant à lui des plus humbles conditions comme des marches du trône.

Dans la nouvelle chevalerie du Christ, la Pauvreté, que le père des Mineurs avait choisie pour Dame, était aussi la souveraine de celle que Dieu lui avait donnée pour émule et pour fille. Suivant jusqu’aux dernières extrémités l’Homme-Dieu humilié et dénué pour nous, elle-même pourtant déjà se sentait reine avec ses sœurs au royaume des cieux [4]. Dans le petit nid de son dénuement, répétait-elle avec amour, quel joyau d’épouse égalerait jamais la conformité avec le Dieu sans nul bien que la plus pauvre des mères enserra tout petit de vils langes en une crèche étroite [5] ! Aussi la vit-on défendre intrépidement, contre les plus hautes interventions, ce privilège de la pauvreté absolue dont la demande avait fait tressaillir le grand Pape Innocent III, dont la confirmation définitive, obtenue l’avant-veille de la mort delà sainte, apparut comme la récompense ambitionnée de quarante années de prières et de souffrances pour l’Église de Dieu.

La noble fille d’Assise avait justifié la prophétie qui, soixante ans plus tôt, l’annonçait à sa pieuse mère Hortulana comme devant éclairer le monde ; bien inspiré avait été le choix du nom qu’on lui donnait à sa naissance [6]. « Oh ! comme puissante fut cette clarté de la vierge, s’écrie dans la bulle de sa canonisation le Pontife suprême ! comme pénétrants furent ses rayons ! Elle se cachait au plus profond du cloître, et son éclat, transperçant tout, remplissait la maison de Dieu » [7]. De sa pauvre solitude qu’elle ne quitta jamais, le nom seul de Claire semblait porter partout la grâce avec la lumière, et fécondait au loin pour Dieu et son père saint François les cités.

Vaste comme le monde, où se multipliait l’admirable lignée de sa virginité, son cœur de mère débordait d’ineffable tendresse pour ces filles qu’elle n’avait jamais vues. A ceux qui croient que l’austérité embrassée pour Dieu dessèche l’âme, citons ces lignes de sa correspondance avec la Bienheureuse Agnès de Bohême. Fille d’Ottocare Ier, Agnès avait répudié pour la bure d’impériales fiançailles et renouvelait à Prague les merveilles de Saint-Damien : « O ma Mère et ma fille, lui disait notre sainte, si je ne vous ai pas écrit aussi souvent que l’eût désiré mon âme et la vôtre, n’en soyez point surprise : comme vous aimaient les entrailles de votre mère, ainsi je vous chéris ; mais rares sont les messagers, grands les périls des routes. Aujourd’hui que l’occasion m’en est présentée, mon allégresse est entière, et je me conjouis avec vous dans la joie du Saint-Esprit. Comme la première Agnès s’unit à l’Agneau immaculé, ainsi donc vous est-il donné, ô fortunée, de jouir de cette union, étonnement des cieux, avec Celui dont le désir ravit toute âme, dont la bonté est toute douceur, dont la vision fait les bienheureux, lui la lumière de l’éternelle lumière, le miroir sans nulle tache ! Regardez-vous dans ce miroir, ô Reine, ô Épouse ! Sans cesse, à son reflet, relevez vos charmes ; au dehors, au dedans, ornez-vous des vertus, parez comme il convient la fille et l’épouse du Roi suprême : ô bien-aimée, les yeux sur ce miroir, de quelles délices il vous sera donné de jouir en la divine grâce !... Souvenez-vous cependant de votre pauvre Mère, et sachez que pour moi j’ai gravé à jamais votre bienheureux souvenir en mon cœur » [8]. La famille franciscaine n’était pas seule à bénéficier d’une charité qui s’étendait à tous les nobles intérêts de ce monde. Assise, délivrée des lieutenants de Frédéric II et de la horde sarrasine à la solde de l’excommunié, comprenait quel rempart est une sainte pour sa patrie de la terre. Mais c’étaient surtout les princes de la sainte Église, c’était le Vicaire du Christ, que le ciel aimait à voir éprouver la puissance toute d’humilité, l’ascendant mystérieux dont il plaisait au Seigneur de douer son élue. François, le premier, ne lui avait-il pas, dans un jour de crise comme en connaissent les saints, demandé direction et lumière pour son âme séraphique ? De la part des anciens d’Israël arrivaient à la vierge, qui n’avait pas trente ans alors, des messages de cette sorte : « A sa très chère sœur en Jésus-Christ, à sa mère, Dame Claire servante du Christ, Hugolin d’Ostie, évêque indigne et pécheur. Depuis l’heure où il a fallu me priver de vos saints entretiens, m’arracher à cette joie du ciel, une telle amertume de cœur fait couler mes larmes que, si je ne trouvais aux pieds de Jésus la consolation que ne refuse jamais son amour, mon esprit en arriverait à défaillir et mon âme à se fondre. Où est la glorieuse allégresse de cette Pâque célébrée en votre compagnie et en celle des autres servantes du Christ ?... Je me savais pécheur ; mais au souvenir de la suréminence de votre vertu, ma misère m’accable, et je me crois indigne de retrouver jamais cette conversation des saints, si vos larmes et vos prières n’obtiennent grâce pour mes péchés. Je vous remets donc mon âme ; à vous je confie mon esprit, pour que vous m’en répondiez au jour du jugement. Le Seigneur Pape doit venir prochainement à Assise ; puissé-je l’accompagner et vous revoir ! Saluez ma sœur Agnès (c’était la sœur même de Claire et sa première fille en Dieu) ; saluez toutes vos sœurs dans le Christ » [9].

Le grand cardinal Hugolin, âgé de plus de quatre-vingts ans, devenait peu après Grégoire IX. Durant son pontificat de quatorze années, qui fut l’un des plus glorieux et des plus laborieux du XIIIe siècle, il ne cessa point d’intéresser Claire aux périls de l’Église et aux immenses soucis dont la charge menaçait d’écraser sa faiblesse. Car, dit l’historien contemporain de notre sainte, « il savait pertinemment ce que peut l’amour, et que l’accès du palais sacré est toujours libre aux vierges : à qui le Roi des cieux se donne lui-même, quelle demande pourrait être refusée [10] ? »

L’exil, qui après la mort de François s’était prolongé vingt-sept ans pour la sainte, devait pourtant finir enfin. Des ailes de feu, aperçues par ses filles au-dessus de sa tête et couvrant ses épaules, indiquaient qu’en elle aussi la formation séraphique était à son terme. A la nouvelle de l’imminence d’un tel départ intéressant toute l’Église, le Souverain Pontife d’alors, Innocent IV, était venu de Pérouse avec les cardinaux de sa suite. Il imposa une dernière épreuve à l’humilité de la sainte, en lui ordonnant de bénir devant lui les pains qu’on avait présentés à la bénédiction du Pontife suprême [11]) ; le ciel, ratifiant l’invitation du Pontife et l’obéissance de Claire au sujet de ces pains, fit qu’à la bénédiction de la vierge, ils parurent tous marqués d’une croix.

La prédiction que Claire ne devait pas mourir sans avoir reçu la visite du Seigneur entouré de ses disciples, était accomplie. Le Vicaire de Jésus-Christ présida les solennelles funérailles qu’Assise voulut faire à celle qui était sa seconde gloire devant les hommes et devant Dieu. Déjà on commençait les chants ordinaires pour les morts, lorsqu’Innocent voulut prescrire qu’on substituât à l’Office des défunts celui des saintes vierges ; sur l’observation cependant qu’une canonisation semblable, avant que le corps n’eût même été confié à la terre, courrait risque de sembler prématurée, le Pontife laissa reprendre les chants accoutumés. L’insertion de la vierge au catalogue des Saints ne fut au reste différée que de deux ans.

O Claire, le reflet de l’Époux dont l’Église se pare en ce monde ne vous suffit plus ; c’est directement que vous vient la lumière. La clarté du Seigneur se joue avec délices dans le cristal de votre âme si pure, accroissant l’allégresse du ciel, donnant joie en ce jour à la vallée d’exil. Céleste phare dont l’éclat est si doux, éclairez nos ténèbres. Puissions nous avec vous, par la netteté du cœur, parla droiture de la pensée, par la simplicité du regard, affermir sur nous le rayon divin qui vacille dans l’âme hésitante et s’obscurcit de nos troubles, qu’écarte ou brise la duplicité d’une vie partagée entre Dieu et la terre.

Votre vie, ô vierge, ne fut pas ainsi divisée. La très haute pauvreté, que vous eûtes pour maîtresse et pour guide, préservait votre esprit de cette fascination de la frivolité qui ternit l’éclat des vrais biens pour nous mortels [12]. Le détachement de tout ce qui passe maintenait votre œil fixé vers les éternelles réalités ; il ouvrait votre âme aux ardeurs séraphiques qui devaient achever de faire de vous l’émule de François votre père. Aussi, comme celle des Séraphins qui n’ont que pour Dieu de regards, votre action sur terre était immense ; et Saint-Damien, tandis que vous vécûtes, fut une des fermes bases sur lesquelles le monde vieilli put étayer ses ruines.

Daignez nous continuer votre secours. Multipliez vos filles, et maintenez-les fidèles à suivre les exemples qui feront d’elles, comme de leur mère, le soutien puissant de l’Église. Que la famille franciscaine en ses diverses branches s’échauffe toujours à vos rayons ; que tout l’Ordre religieux s’illumine à leur suave clarté. Brillez enfin sur tous, ô Claire, pour nous montrer ce que valent cette vie qui passe et l’autre qui ne doit pas finir.

[2] Il est fait allusion ici à la fête franciscaine de la Dédicace de la Portioncule le 2 août.

[3] Gen. II, 18.

[4] Regula Damianitarum, VIII.

[5] Regula, II ;Vita S. Clarae coeva, II.

[6] Clara claris praeclara meritis, magnas in cœlo claritate glorias ac in terra splendore miraculorum sublimium, clare claret, Bulla canonizationis.

[7] Ibid.

[8] S. Clarae ad B. Agnetem, Epist. IV.

[9] Wadding, ad an. 1221.

[10] Vita S. Clarae coaeva, III.

[11] Wadding, ad an. 1253, bien que le fait soit rapporté par d’autres au pontificat de Grégoire IX.

[12] Sap. IV, 12.

François d'Assise recevant la profession de foi de Claire.

Enluminure, vers 1435

Bhx cardinal Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum

Voici celle qu’aujourd’hui la sainte liturgie appelle la première plante de la pauvre famille des Mineurs, dans sa branche féminine. Pauvre d’argent, oui, mais splendide dans la magnificence de son dénuement, parce qu’elle reflète fidèlement la pauvreté royale du Christ en Bethléem et sur la Croix.

Pour bien comprendre la figure séraphique de sainte Claire Sciti, il faut se reporter au temps où elle vécut. L’abus de la richesse et de la puissance féodale au XIIIe siècle avait imposé au clergé et aux moines des soins temporels qui, souvent, les distrayaient trop, au détriment de leur mission spirituelle. Les hérétiques en prenaient sujet d’accuser l’Église de s’être écartée de la pauvreté apostolique, tandis que les bons catholiques gémissaient de cet état de choses et appelaient une réforme. Dieu suscita enfin saint François, qui professa, dans le premier article de sa Règle, humble obéissance au pape Honorius (III) et à ses successeurs. Le héraut du grand Roi, sans bulle de privilèges, sans immunités féodales, se présenta donc aux fidèles pauvre et sans chaussures, mais portant aux mains, aux pieds et au côté, le sceau du Crucifié et, en son nom, fit résonner à nouveau sur les places et aux carrefours, la parole évangélique et les béatitudes de la montagne.

Le puissant abbé de Saint-Benoît du Subasio exerçait sa suzeraineté sur de nombreuses terres et forteresses dans le territoire d’Assise. Le Poverello, pour donner un berceau à la nouvelle famille qu’il voulait instituer, lui demanda la plus pauvre de ses possessions, la chapelle à demi détruite de la Portiuncule, qui devint ainsi le Bethléem des Mineurs.

Claire fut la parfaite imitatrice de saint François. Ce que celui-ci fit lui-même pour la vie religieuse dans la branche masculine, il le fit par l’intermédiaire de Claire dans la branche féminine. Au début, saint François lui donna à professer la Règle du Patriarche saint Benoît, sur l’Ordre duquel il voulut greffer sa nouvelle réforme des recluses de Saint-Damien, afin de l’établir sur une base canonique, déjà reconnue par la sainte Église. Toutefois, ne se contentant pas de l’exemple des riches monastères de Bénédictines répandus alors en Ombrie, saint François établit que Claire et ses moniales se rattacheraient, en vertu d’un recul de plusieurs siècles, aux traditions austères de la vie bénédictine, telle que le saint Patriarche l’avait instituée parmi les rochers solitaires de Subiaco, et dans la plus rigoureuse pauvreté.

C’est ainsi que Grégoire IX, avant que les Clarisses n’eussent encore une règle propre, put leur écrire : « Voici que vous êtes les dignes filles du bienheureux Benoît ».

Le monastère de Saint-Damien, où Claire vécut et mourut, représente aujourd’hui encore le palais royal de madonna paupertade. Mais, pour mieux assurer ce trésor, la fille spirituelle du Poverello voulut obtenir d’Innocent IV un diplôme de parfaite pauvreté ; aussi, tandis que d’autres sollicitaient du Pontife romain des honneurs, des privilèges et des biens, Claire ambitionna au contraire, pour elle et pour ses sœurs, le privilège de suivre la parfaite pauvreté du Christ.

Sainte Claire mourut en 1253 et fut canonisée deux ans après par Alexandre IV.

Aujourd’hui la messe est du commun (Dilexísti).

Sainte Claire nous enseigne aussi la dévotion à l’Eucharistie. Dans l’extrême dénuement de sa pauvreté, elle conservait le Très Saint Sacrement dans une custode d’argent, placée dans une pyxide en ivoire. Quand, sous Frédéric II, les Sarrasins assiégèrent Assise et assaillirent même le monastère de Saint-Damien, la Sainte, malade alors, ayant vu que tout secours humain était inutile, demanda celui de Dieu. Elle se fit transporter à la porte de clôture, et de là elle éleva, tel un bouclier, la pyxide eucharistique pour défendre ses religieuses contre les infidèles. A cette vue les ennemis prirent immédiatement la fuite, comme si, de ce vase sacré, fût sortie une vertu qui les repoussait de ce lieu.

Dom Pius Parsch, Le Guide dans l’année liturgique

Seigneur, ne livrez pas aux bêtes sauvages les âmes de ceux qui vous louent ! (Ps. LXXIII).

Sainte Claire. — Jour de mort : le 12 août 1253. Tombeau : son corps reposa pendant six cents ans profondément enfoui sous l’église d’Assise. En 1850, Pie IX en ayant permis l’exhumation, on le trouva parfaitement conservé (en particulier, la tête et toutes les dents). Image : une religieuse, avec un ciboire dans la main.

Vie : La vie de collaboratrice de saint François d’Assise est comme enveloppée d’un voile de tendre charité divine. L’Ordre des Clarisses, branche féminine de la famille franciscaine, lui doit l’existence. A l’exemple de saint François, dit le bréviaire, elle distribua tous ses biens aux pauvres. Fuyant le tumulte du siècle, elle se réfugia à la campagne, dans une église. Là, saint François lui coupa les cheveux et lui imposa un habit de pénitence (18 mars 1212). Puis, elle se rendit à l’église Saint-Damien, où le Seigneur lui envoya plusieurs compagnes avec lesquelles elle institua une communauté dont elle accepta le gouvernement sur les instances de saint François. Pendant quarante-deux ans sa direction fut admirable de sollicitude et de prudence ; et sa vie tout entière, un enseignement et une lumière pour ses sœurs. Elle obtint du pape Innocent IV, pour elle et pour ses compagnes, le privilège de vivre dans la pauvreté parfaite. Elle fut la très fidèle imitatrice du saint d’Assise.

Comme les Sarrasins assiégeaient Assise et s’efforçaient d’envahir son couvent, bien que malade, sainte Claire se fit transporter à la porte de la maison, tenant elle-même le vase où était renfermé le Très Saint Sacrement. « Seigneur, implora-t-elle, ne livrez pas aux bêtes sauvages les âmes qui, vous louent (Ps LXXIII). Protégez vos servantes que vous avez rachetées de votre sang précieux ! » On entendit alors une voix qui disait : « Je vous garderai toujours ! » Et, en effet, les Sarrasins prirent la fuite.

Claire d’Assise fut proclamée sainte deux ans seulement après sa mort. On connaît l’ingénieuse trouvaille de Thomas de Celano : Clara nomine, vita clarior, clarissima moribus.

La Messe est du commun (Dilexísti).

SOURCE : https://www.introibo.fr/12-08-Ste-Claire-vierge

LETTRE APOSTOLIQUE PROCLAMANT
Sainte CLAIRE PATRONNE CÉLESTE DE LA TÉLÉVISION*

Ad perpetuam rei memoriam

Par un bienfait de la divine Sagesse le génie de l'homme brille d'un plus vif éclat et fait, surtout de nos jours, des découverts qui suscitent l'admiration générale. Et l'Eglise, qui ne se montra jamais contraire au progés de la civilisation et de la technique, encourage cette assistance nouvelle apportée à la culture et à la vie journalière, et s'en sert même volontiers pour l'enseignement de la verité et l'extension de la religion. Parmi ces inventions si utiles, la Télévision a sa place, elle qui "permet en effet de voir et d'entendre à distance des événements à l'instant même où ils se produisent, et cela de façon si suggestive que l'on croit y assister." (Litt. Encycl. "Miranda prorsus", 8 sept. 1957; A.A.S. XLIX, p. 800). Ce merveilleux instrument - comme chacun le sait et Nous l'avons dit clairement Nous-même - peut être la source des très grands biens, mais aussi de profonds malheurs en raison de l'attraction singulière qu'il exerce sur les esprits à l'intérieurs même de la maison familiale. Aussi Nous a-t-il semblé bon de donner à cette invention une sauvegarde céleste qui interdise ses méfaits et en favorise un usage honnête, voir salutaire. On a souhaité pour ce patronage sainte Claire. On rapporte en effet qu'à Assise, une nuit de Noël, Claire, aditée dans son couvent par la maladie, entendit les chants fervents qui accompagnaient les cérémonies sacrée et vit la crèche du Divin Enfant, comme si elle était présente en personne dans l'eglise franciscaine. Dans la splendeur de la gloire de son innocence et la clarté qu'elle jette sur nos si profondes ténèbres, que Claire protège donc cette technique et donne à l'appareil translucide de faire briller la vérité et la vertu, soutiens nécessaires de la société. Nous avons donc décidé d'accueillir avec bienveillance les prières que Nous ont addressés à ce sujet Notre Vénérable Frère Joseph Placide Nicolini, évêque d'Assise, le Supérieurs des quatre familles franciscaines, enfin d'autres personnes remarquables, et qu'ont approuvées de nombreaux Cardinaux de la Sainte Eglise Romaine, des Archevêques et des Evêques. En consequénce, ayant consulté la Sacrée Congrégation des Rites, de science certaine et après mûre réflexion, en vertu de la plénitude du pouvoir Apostolique, par cette Lettre et pour toujours, Nous faison, Nous constituons et Nous déclarons Sainte Claire, vierge d'Assise, céleste Patronne auprès de Die de la Télévision, en lui attribuant tous les privilèges et honneurs liturgiques qu'un tel patronage comporte, nonobstant toutes choses contraires. Nous annonçons, Nous établissons, Nous ordonnons que cette présente Lettre soit ferme et valide, qu'elle sorte et produise tous ses effets dans leur intégrité et leur plénitude, maintenant et à l'avenir, pour ceux qu'elle concerne ou pourra concerner; qu'il en faut régulièrement juger et décider ainsi; que dès maintenant est tenu pour nul et sans effet tout ce qui pourrait être tenté par quiconque, en vertu de n'importe quelle autorité, en connaissance de cause ou par ignorance, contre les mesures décrétées par cette Lettre.

Donnée à Rome, près Saint Pierre, sous l'anneau du Pêcheur, le 14 février 1957, de Notre Pontifical la 19éme année.

PIUS PP. XII

   

*La lettre Apostolique, en "forme breve" - dont nous donnons ci-dessous la traduction du latin - a été publiée dans les Acta Apostolica Sedis du 21 août 1958, vol. L, p. 512-513.

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

SOURCE : http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/fr/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-xii_apl_21081958_st-claire.html

Pere Serra (1403-1408). Sainte Eulalie de Barcelone et Sainte Claire d'Assise, 

retable, Cathédrale de Segorbe

BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Paul VI Hall
Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Saint Clare of Assisi

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

One of the best loved Saints is without a doubt St Clare of Assisi who lived in the 13th century and was a contemporary of St Francis. Her testimony shows us how indebted the Church is to courageous women, full of faith like her, who can give a crucial impetus to the Church's renewal.

So who was Clare of Assisi? To answer this question we possess reliable sources: not only the ancient biographies, such as that of Tommaso da Celano, but also the Proceedings of the cause of her canonization that the Pope promoted only a few month after Clare's death and that contain the depositions of those who had lived a long time with her.

Born in 1193, Clare belonged to a wealthy, aristocratic family. She renounced her noble status and wealth to live in humility and poverty, adopting the lifestyle that Francis of Assisi recommended. Although her parents were planning a marriage for her with some important figure, as was then the custom, Clare, with a daring act inspired by her deep desire to follow Christ and her admiration for Francis, at the age of 18 left her family home and, in the company of a friend, Bona di Guelfuccio, made her way in secret to the Friars Minor at the little Church of the Portiuncula. It was the evening of Palm Sunday in 1211. In the general commotion, a highly symbolic act took place: while his companions lit torches, Francis cut off Clare's hair and she put on a rough penitential habit. From that moment she had become the virgin bride of Christ, humble and poor, and she consecrated herself totally to him. Like Clare and her companions, down through history innumerable women have been fascinated by love for Christ which, with the beauty of his Divine Person, fills their hearts. And the entire Church, through the mystical nuptial vocation of consecrated virgins, appears what she will be for ever: the pure and beautiful Bride of Christ.

In one of the four letters that Clare sent to St Agnes of Prague the daughter of the King of Bohemia, who wished to follow in Christ's footsteps, she speaks of Christ, her beloved Spouse, with nuptial words that may be surprising but are nevertheless moving: "When you have loved [him] you shall be chaste; when you have touched [him] you shall become purer; when you have accepted [him] you shall be a virgin. Whose power is stronger, whose generosity is more elevated, whose appearance more beautiful, whose love more tender, whose courtesy more gracious. In whose embrace you are already caught up; who has adorned your breast with precious stones... and placed on your head a golden crown as a sign [to all] of your holiness" (First Letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague: FF, 2862).

Especially at the beginning of her religious experience, Francis of Assisi was not only a teacher to Clare whose teachings she was to follow but also a brotherly friend. The friendship between these two Saints is a very beautiful and important aspect. Indeed, when two pure souls on fire with the same love for God meet, they find in their friendship with each other a powerful incentive to advance on the path of perfection. Friendship is one of the noblest and loftiest human sentiments which divine Grace purifies and transfigures. Like St Francis and St Clare, other Saints too experienced profound friendship on the journey towards Christian perfection. Examples are St Francis de Sales and St Jane Frances de Chantal. And St Francis de Sales himself wrote: "It is a blessed thing to love on earth as we hope to love in Heaven, and to begin that friendship here which is to endure for ever there. I am not now speaking of simple charity, a love due to all mankind, but of that spiritual friendship which binds souls together, leading them to share devotions and spiritual interests, so as to have but one mind between them" (The Introduction to a Devout Life, III, 19).

After spending a period of several months at other monastic communities, resisting the pressure of her relatives who did not at first approve of her decision, Clare settled with her first companions at the Church of San Damiano where the Friars Minor had organized a small convent for them. She lived in this Monastery for more than 40 years, until her death in 1253. A first-hand description has come down to us of how these women lived in those years at the beginning of the Franciscan movement. It is the admiring account of Jacques de Vitry, a Flemish Bishop who came to Italy on a visit. He declared that he had encountered a large number of men and women of every social class who, having "left all things for Christ, fled the world. They called themselves Friars Minor and Sisters Minor [Lesser] and are held in high esteem by the Lord Pope and the Cardinals.... The women live together in various homes not far from the city. They receive nothing but live on the work of their own hands. And they are deeply troubled and pained at being honoured more than they would like to be by both clerics and lay people" (Letter of October 1216: FF, 2205, 2207).

Jacques de Vitry had perceptively noticed a characteristic trait of Franciscan spirituality about which Clare was deeply sensitive: the radicalism of poverty associated with total trust in Divine Providence. For this reason, she acted with great determination, obtaining from Pope Gregory IX or, probably, already from Pope Innocent III, the so-called Privilegium Paupertatis (cf. FF., 3279). On the basis of this privilege Clare and her companions at San Damiano could not possess any material property. This was a truly extraordinary exception in comparison with the canon law then in force but the ecclesiastical authorities of that time permitted it, appreciating the fruits of evangelical holiness that they recognized in the way of life of Clare and her sisters. This shows that even in the centuries of the Middle Ages the role of women was not secondary but on the contrary considerable. In this regard, it is useful to remember that Clare was the first woman in the Church's history who composed a written Rule, submitted for the Pope's approval, to ensure the preservation of Francis of Assisi's charism in all the communities of women large numbers of which were already springing up in her time that wished to draw inspiration from the example of Francis and Clare.

In the Convent of San Damiano, Clare practised heroically the virtues that should distinguish every Christian: humility, a spirit of piety and penitence and charity. Although she was the superior, she wanted to serve the sick sisters herself and joyfully subjected herself to the most menial tasks. In fact, charity overcomes all resistance and whoever loves, joyfully performs every sacrifice. Her faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was so great that twice a miracle happened. Simply by showing to them the Most Blessed Sacrament distanced the Saracen mercenaries, who were on the point of attacking the convent of San Damiano and pillaging the city of Assisi.

Such episodes, like other miracles whose memory lives on, prompted Pope Alexander IV to canonize her in 1255, only two years after her death, outlining her eulogy in the Bull on the Canonization of St Clare. In it we read: "How powerful was the illumination of this light and how strong the brightness of this source of light. Truly this light was kept hidden in the cloistered life; and outside them shone with gleaming rays; Clare in fact lay hidden, but her life was revealed to all. Clare was silent, but her fame was shouted out" (FF, 3284). And this is exactly how it was, dear friends: those who change the world for the better are holy, they transform it permanently, instilling in it the energies that only love inspired by the Gospel can elicit. The Saints are humanity's great benefactors!

St Clare's spirituality, the synthesis of the holiness she proposed is summed up in the fourth letter she wrote to St Agnes of Prague. St Clare used an image very widespread in the Middle Ages that dates back to Patristic times: the mirror. And she invited her friend in Prague to reflect herself in that mirror of the perfection of every virtue which is the Lord himself. She wrote: "Happy, indeed, is the one permitted to share in this sacred banquet so as to be joined with all the feelings of her heart (to Christ) whose beauty all the blessed hosts of the Heavens unceasingly admire, whose affection moves, whose contemplation invigorates, whose generosity fills, whose sweetness replenishes, whose remembrance pleasantly brings light, whose fragrance will revive the dead, and whose glorious vision will bless all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, because the vision of him is the splendour of everlasting glory, the radiance of everlasting light, and a mirror without tarnish. Look into this mirror every day, O Queen, spouse of Jesus Christ, and continually examine your face in it, so that in this way you may adorn yourself completely, inwardly and outwardly.... In this mirror shine blessed poverty, holy humility, and charity beyond words..." (Fourth Letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague, FF, 2901-2903).

Grateful to God who give us Saints who speak to our hearts and offer us an example of Christian life to imitate, I would like to end with the same words of Blessing that St Clare composed for her Sisters and which the Poor Clares, who play a precious role in the Church with their prayer and with their work, still preserve today with great devotion. These are words in which the full tenderness of her spiritual motherhood emerges: "I give you my blessing now while living, and after my death, in as far as I may: nay, even more than I may, I call down on you all the blessings that the Father of mercies has bestowed and continues to bestow on his spiritual sons and daughters both in Heaven and on earth, and with which a spiritual father and mother have blessed and will bless their spiritual sons and daughters. Amen" (FF, 2856).

---

To special groups:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I welcome to the pilgrimage group from Iran, in the company of Archbishop Thomas Meram. My cordial greeting also goes to the participants in the international symposium of Benedictine Nuns and Sisters. I also greet those taking part in the biennial meting of KPMG International. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at today's Audience, especially the pilgrim groups from England, Scotland, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and the United States of America, I invoke God's abundant Blessings.

I would now like to greet with special affection the young people, the sick and the newlyweds. Today we are commemorating Our Lady of Sorrow, who stood with faith beneath the Cross of her Son. Dear young people, do not be afraid to stand, like Mary, beneath the Cross. The Lord will imbue in you the courage to overcome every obstacle in your daily life. And you, dear sick people, may you find in Mary comfort and support to learn from the Crucified Lord the saving value of suffering. Dear newlyweds, in difficult moments may you turn with trust to Our Lady of Sorrow who will help you to face them with her motherly intercession.

* * *

APPEAL

I am following with concern the events of the past few days in various regions of Southern Asia, especially in India, in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. I pray for the victims and I ask that respect for religious freedom and the logic of reconciliation and peace be made to prevail over hatred and violence.

© Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100915.html

St. Clare of Assisi

Clare was a beautiful Italian noblewoman who became the Foundress of an order of nuns now called “Poor Clares.” When she heard St. Francis of Assisi preach, her heart burned with a great desire to imitate Francis and to live a poor humble life for Jesus. So one evening, she ran away from home, and in a little chapel outside Assisi, gave herself to God. St. Francis cut off her hair and gave her a rough brown habit to wear, tied with a plain cord around her waist. Her parents tried in every way to make her return home, but Clare would not.

Soon her sister, St. Agnes joined her, as well as other young women who wanted to be brides of Jesus, and live without any money. St. Clare and her sisters wore no shoes, ate no meat, lived in a poor house, and kept silent most of the time. Yet they were very happy, because Our Lord was close to them all the time. Once, He saved them from a great danger in answer to St. Clare’s prayer. An army of rough soldiers came to attack Assisi and they planned to raid the convent first. Although very sick, St. Clare had herself carried to the wall and right there, where the enemies could see it, she had the Blessed Sacrament placed. Then on her knees, she begged God to save the Sisters.

“O Lord, protect these Sisters whom I cannot protect now,” she prayed. A voice seemed to answer: “I will keep them always in My care.” At the same time a sudden fright struck the attackers and they fled as fast as they could. St. Clare was sick and suffered great pains for many years, but she said that no pain could trouble her. So great was her joy in serving the Lord that she once exclaimed: “They say that we are too poor, but can a heart which possesses the infinite God be truly called poor?” We should remember this miracle of the Blessed Sacrament when in Church. Then we will pray with great Faith to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist: “Save me, O Lord, from every evil – of soul and body.”

SOURCE :  http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-clare-of-assisi/

Saint Clare of Assisi

Memorial

• 11 August
• formerly 12 August
• 23 September, feast of the finding of her body
• 3 October, feast of her first translation, celebrated within the Poor Clares

Profile

Clare’s father was a count, her mother the countess Blessed Orsolana. Her father died when the girl was very young. After hearing Saint Francis of Assisi preach in the streets, Clare confided to him her desire to live for God, and the two became close friends. On Palm Sunday in 1212, her bishop presented Clare with a palm, which she apparently took as a sign. With her cousin Pacifica, Clare ran away from her mother‘s palace during the night to enter religious life. She eventually took the veil from Saint Francis at the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi, Italy.

Clare founded the Order of Poor Ladies (Poor Clares) at San Damiano, and led it for 40 years. Everywhere the Franciscans established themselves throughout Europe, there also went the Poor Clares, depending solely on alms, forced to have complete faith on God to provide through people; this lack of land-based revenues was a new idea at the time. Clare’s mother and sisters later joined the order, and there are still thousands of members living lives of silence and prayer.

Clare loved music and well-composed sermons. She was humble, merciful, charming, optimistic, chivalrous, and every day she meditated on the Passion of Jesus. She would get up late at night to tuck in her sisters who’d kicked off their blankets. When she learned of the Franciscan martyrs in Morrocco in 1221, she tried to go there to give her own life for God, but was restrained. Once when her convent was about to be attacked, she displayed the Sacrament in a monstrace at the convent gates, and prayed before it; the attackers left, the house was saved, and the image of her holding a monstrance became one of her emblems. Her patronage of eyes and against their problems may have developed from her name which has overtones from clearness, brightness, brilliance – like healthy eyes.

Toward the end of her life, when she was too ill to attend Mass, an image of the service would display on the wall of her cell; thus her patronage of television. She was ever the close friend and spiritual student of Francis, who apparently led her soul into the light at her death.

Born

• 16 July 1194 at Assisi, Italy

Died

• 11 August 1253 of natural causes

Canonized

• 26 September 1255 by Pope Alexander IV

Name Meaning

• bright; brilliant

Patronage

• against eye disease
• embroiderers
• eyes
• for good weather
• gilders
• gold workers
• goldsmiths
• laundry workers
• needle workers
• telegraphs
• telephones
• television (proclaimed on 14 February 1958 by Pope Pius XII)
• television writers
•  Poor Clares
•  Assisi, Italy
• Santa Clara Indian Pueblo

Representation

• host
• monstrance
• woman with a monstrance in her hand(s)

Readings

Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear, for he who created you has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Blessed be you, my God, for having created me. – Saint Clare of Assisi

O wondrous blessed clarity of Clare!

In life she shone to a few;

after death she shines on the whole world!

On earth she was a clear light;

Now in heaven she is a brilliant sun.

O how great the vehemence of the

brilliance of this clarity!

On earth this light was indeed kept

within cloistered walls,

yet shed abroad its shining rays;

It was confined within a convent cell,

yet spread itself through the wide world.

– Pope Innocent IV

He, Christ, is the splendor of eternal glory, “the brightness of eternal light, and the mirror without cloud.” Behold, I say, the birth of this mirror. Behold Christ’s poverty even as he was laid in the manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes. What wondrous humility, what marvelous poverty! The King of angels, the Lord of heaven and earth resting in a manger! Look more deeply into the mirror and meditate on his humility, or simply on his poverty. Behold the many labors and sufferings he endured to redeem the human race. Then, in the depths of this very mirror, ponder his unspeakable love which caused him to suffer on the wood of the cross and to endure the most shameful kind of death. The mirror himself, from his position on the cross, warned passers-by to weigh carefully this act, as he said: “All of you who pass by this way, behold and see if there is any sorrow like mine.” Let us answer his cries and lamentations with one voice and one spirit: “I will be mindful and remember, and my soul will be consumed within me.” – from a letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague by Saint Clare of Assisi

MLA Citation

• “Saint Clare of Assisi“. CatholicSaints.Info. 5 April 2020. Web. 11 August 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-clare-of-assisi/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-clare-of-assisi/

St. Clare of Assisi

Cofoundress of the Order of Poor Ladies, or Clares, and first Abbess of San Damiano; born at Assisi, 16 July, 1194; died there 11 August, 1253.

She was the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, the wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in Assisi and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio. Such at least is the traditional account. Her mother, Bl. Ortolana, belonged to the noble family of Fiumi and was conspicuous for her zeal and piety.

From her earliest years Clare seems to have been endowed with the rarest virtues. As a child she was most devoted to prayer and to practices of mortification, and as she passed into girlhood her distaste for the world and her yearning for a more spiritual life increased. She was eighteen years of age when St. Francis came to preach the Lenten course in the church of San Giorgio at Assisi. The inspired words of the Poverello kindled a flame in the heart of Clare; she sought him out secretly and begged him to help her that she too might live "after the manner of the holy Gospel". St. Francis, who at once recognized in Clare one of those chosen souls destined by God for great things, and who also, doubtless, foresaw that many would follow her example, promised to assist her. On Palm Sunday Clare, arrayed in all her finery, attended high Mass at the cathedral, but when the others pressed forward to the altar-rail to receive a branch of palm, she remained in her place as if rapt in a dream. All eyes were upon the young girl as the bishop descended from the sanctuary and placed the palm in her hand. That was the last time the world beheld Clare. On the night of the same day she secretly left her father's house, by St. Francis's advice and, accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion, proceeded to the humble chapel of the Porziuncula, where St. Francis and his disciples met her with lights in their hands. Clare then laid aside her rich dress, and St. Francis, having cut off her hair, clothed her in a rough tunic and a thick veil, and in this way the young heroine vowed herself to the service of Jesus Christ. This was 20 March, 1212.

Clare was placed by St. Francis provisionally with the Benedictine nuns of San Paolo, near Bastia, but her father, who had expected her to make a splendid marriage, and who was furious at her secret flight, on discovering her retreat, did his utmost to dissuade Clare from her heroic proposals, and even tried to drag her home by force. But Clare held her own with a firmness above her years, and Count Favorino was finally obliged to leave her in peace. A few days later St. Francis, in order to secure Clare the greater solitude she desired, transferred her to Sant' Angelo in Panzo, another monastery of the Benedictine nuns on one of the flanks of Subasio. Here some sixteen days after her own flight, Clare was joined by her younger sister Agnes, whom she was instrumental in delivering from the persecution of their infuriated relatives. Clare and her sister remained with the nuns at Sant' Angelo until they and the other fugitives from the world who had followed them were established by St. Francis in a rude dwelling adjoining the poor chapel of San Damiano, situated outside the town which he had to a great extent rebuilt with his own hands, and which he now obtained from the Benedictines as a permanent abode for his spiritual daughters. Thus was founded the first community of the Order of Poor Ladies, or of Poor Clares, as this second order of St. Francis came to be called.

The history of the Poor Clares will be dealt with in a separate article. Here it suffices to note that we may distinguish, during the lifetime of St. Clare, three stages in the complicated early history of the new order.

In the beginning St. Clare and her companions had no written rule to follow beyond a very short formula vitae given them by St. Francis, and which may be found among his works. Some years later, apparently in 1219, during St. Francis's absence in the East, Cardinal Ugolino, then protector of the order, afterwards Gregory IX, drew up a written rule for the Clares at Monticelli, taking as a basis the Rule of St. Benedict, retaining the fundamental points of the latter and adding some special constitutions. This new rule, which, in effect if not in intention, took away from the Clares the Franciscan character of absolute poverty so dear to the heart of St. Francis and made them for all practical purposes a congregation of Benedictines, was approved by Honorius III (Bull, "Sacrosancta", 9 Dec., 1219). When Clare found that the new rule, though strict enough in other respects, allowed the holding of property in common, she courageously and successfully resisted the innovations of Ugolino as being entirely opposed to the intentions of St. Francis. The latter had forbidden the Poor Ladies, just as he had forbidden his friars to possess any worldly goods even in common. Owning nothing, they were to depend entirety upon what the Friars Minor could beg for them. This complete renunciation of all property was however regarded by Ugolino as unpractical for cloistered women. When, therefore, in 1228, he came to Assisi for the canonization of St. Francis (having meanwhile ascended the pontifical throne as Gregory IX), he visited St. Clare at San Damiano and pressed her to so far deviate from the practice of poverty which had up to this time obtained at San Damiano, as to accept some provision for the unforeseen wants of the community. But Clare firmly refused. Gregory, thinking that her refusal might be due to fear of violating the vow of strict poverty she had taken, offered to absolve her from it. "Holy Father, I crave for absolution from my sins", replied Clare, "but I desire not to be absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ".

The heroic unworldliness of Clare filled the pope with admiration, as his letters to her, still extant, bear eloquent witness, and he so far gave way to her views as to grant her on 17 September, 1228, the celebrated Privilegium Paupertatis which some regard in the light of a corrective of the Rule of 1219. The original autograph copy of this unique "privilege"--the first one of its kind ever sought for, or ever issued by the Holy See--is preserved in the archive at Santa Chiara in Assisi. The text is as follows:

Gregory Bishop Servant of the Servants of God. To our beloved daughters in Christ Clare and the other handmaids of Christ dwelling together at the Church of San Damiano in the Diocese of Assisi. Health and Apostolic benediction. It is evident that the desire of consecrating yourselves to God alone has led you to abandon every wish for temporal things. Wherefore, after having sold all your goods and having distributed them among the poor, you propose to have absolutely no possessions, in order to follow in all things the example of Him Who became poor and Who is the way, the truth, and the life. Neither does the want of necessary things deter you from such a proposal, for the left arm of your Celestial Spouse is beneath your head to sustain the infirmity of your body, which, according to the order of charity, you have subjected to the law of the spirit. Finally, He who feeds the birds of the air and who gives the lilies of the field their raiment and their nourishment, will not leave you in want of clothing or of food until He shall come Himself to minister to you in eternity when, namely, the right hand of His consolations shall embrace you in the plenitude of the Beatific Vision. Since, therefore, you have asked for it, we confirm by Apostolic favour your resolution of the loftiest poverty and by the authority of these present letters grant that you may not be constrained by anyone to receive possessions. To no one, therefore, be it allowed to infringe upon this page of our concession or to oppose it with rash temerity. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, be it known to him that he shall incur the wrath of Almighty God and his Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul. Given at Perugia on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October in the second year of our Pontificate."

That St. Clare may have solicited a "privilege" similar to the foregoing at an earlier date and obtained it vivâ voce, is not improbable. Certain it is that after the death of Gregory IX Clare had once more to contend for the principle of absolute poverty prescribed by St. Francis, for Innocent IV would fain have given the Clares a new and mitigated rule, and the firmness with which she held to her way won over the pope. Finally, two days before her death, Innocent, no doubt at the reiterated request of the dying abbess, solemnly confirmed the definitive Rule of the Clares (Bull, "Solet Annuere", 9 August, 1253), and thus secured to them the precious treasure of poverty which Clare, in imitation of St. Francis, had taken for her portion from the beginning of her conversion. The author of this latter rule, which is largely an adaptation mutatis mutandis, of the rule which St. Francis composed for the Friars Minor in 1223, seems to have been Cardinal Rainaldo, Bishop of Ostia, and protector of the order, afterwards Alexander IV, though it is most likely that St. Clare herself had a hand in its compilation. Be this as it may, it can no longer be maintained that St. Francis was in any sense the author of this formal Rule of the Clares; he only gave to St. Clare and her companions at the outset of their religious life the brief formula vivendi already mentioned.

St. Clare, who in 1215 had, much against her will been made superior at San Damiano by St. Francis, continued to rule there as abbess until her death, in 1253, nearly forty years later. There is no good reason to believe that she ever once went beyond the boundaries of San Damiano during all that time. It need not, therefore, be wondered at if so comparatively few details of St. Clare's life in the cloister "hidden with Christ in God", have come down to us. We know that she became a living copy of the poverty, the humility, and the mortification of St. Francis; that she had a special devotion to the Holy Eucharist, and that in order to increase her love for Christ crucified she learned by heart the Office of the Passion composed by St. Francis, and that during the time that remained to her after her devotional exercises she engaged in manual labour. Needless to add, that under St. Clare's guidance the community of San Damiano became the sanctuary of every virtue, a very nursery of saints. Clare had the consolation not only of seeing her younger sister Beatrix, her mother Ortolana, and her faithful aunt Bianca follow Agnes into the order, but also of witnessing the foundation of monasteries of Clares far and wide throughout Europe. It would be difficult, moreover, to estimate how much the silent influence of the gentle abbess did towards guiding the women of medieval Italy to higher aims. In particular, Clare threw around poverty that irresistible charm which only women can communicate to religious or civic heroism, and she became a most efficacious coadjutrix of St. Francis in promoting that spirit of unworldliness which in the counsels of God, "was to bring about a restoration of discipline in the Church and of morals and civilization in the peoples of Western Europe". Not the least important part of Clare's work was the aid and encouragement she gave St. Francis. It was to her he turned when in doubt, and it was she who urged him to continue his mission to the people at a time when he thought his vocation lay rather in a life of contemplation. When in an attack of blindness and illness, St. Francis came for the last time to visit San Damiano, Clare erected a little wattle hut for him in an olive grove close to the monastery, and it was here that he composed his glorious "Canticle of the Sun". After St. Francis's death the procession which accompanied his remains from the Porziuncula to the town stopped on the way at San Damiano in order that Clare and her daughters might venerate the pierced hands and feet of him who had formed them to the love of Christ crucified--a pathetic scene which Giotto has commemorated in one of his loveliest frescoes. So far, however, as Clare was concerned, St. Francis was always living, and nothing is, perhaps, more striking in her after-life than her unswerving loyalty to the ideals of the Poverello, and the jealous care with which she clung to his rule and teaching.

When, in 1234, the army of Frederick II was devastating the valley of Spoleto, the soldiers, preparatory to an assault upon Assisi, scaled the walls of San Damiano by night, spreading terror among the community. Clare, calmly rising from her sick bed, and taking the ciborium from the little chapel adjoining her cell, proceeded to face the invaders at an open window against which they had already placed a ladder. It is related that, as she raised the Blessed Sacrament on high, the soldiers who were about to enter the monastery fell backward as if dazzled, and the others who were ready to follow them took flight. It is with reference to this incident that St. Clare is generally represented in art bearing a ciborium.

When, some time later, a larger force returned to storm Assisi, headed by the General Vitale di Aversa who had not been present at the first attack, Clare, gathering her daughters about her, knelt with them in earnest prayer that the town might be spared. Presently a furious storm arose, scattering the tents of the soldiers in every direction, and causing such a panic that they again took refuge in flight. The gratitude of the Assisians, who with one accord attributed their deliverance to Clare's intercession, increased their love for the "Seraphic Mother". Clare had long been enshrined in the hearts of the people, and their veneration became more apparent as, wasted by illness and austerities, she drew towards her end. Brave and cheerful to the last, in spite of her long and painful infirmities, Clare caused herself to be raised in bed and, thus reclining, says her contemporary biographer "she spun the finest thread for the purpose of having it woven into the most delicate material from which she afterwards made more than one hundred corporals, and, enclosing them in a silken burse, ordered them to be given to the churches in the plain and on the mountains of Assisi". When at length she felt the day of her death approaching, Clare, calling her sorrowing religious around her, reminded them of the many benefits they had received from God and exhorted them to persevere faithfully in the observance of evangelical poverty. Pope Innocent IV came from Perugia to visit the dying saint, who had already received the last sacraments from the hands of Cardinal Rainaldo. Her own sister, St. Agnes, had returned from Florence to console Clare in her last illness; Leo, Angelo, and Juniper, three of the early companions of St. Francis, were also present at the saint's death-bed, and at St. Clare's request read aloud the Passion of Our Lord according to St. John, even as they had done twenty-seven years before, when Francis lay dying at the Porziuncula. At length before dawn on 11 August, 1253, the holy foundress of the Poor Ladies passed peacefully away amid scenes which her contemporary biographer has recorded with touching simplicity. The pope, with his court, came to San Damiano for the saint's funeral, which partook rather of the nature of a triumphal procession.

The Clares desired to retain the body of their foundress among them at San Damiano, but the magistrates of Assisi interfered and took measures to secure for the town the venerated remains of her whose prayers, as they all believed, had on two occasions saved it from destruction. Clare's miracles too were talked of far and wide. It was not safe, the Assisians urged, to leave Clare's body in a lonely spot without the walls; it was only right, too, that Clare, "the chief rival of the Blessed Francis in the observance of Gospel perfection", should also have a church in Assisi built in her honour. Meanwhile, Clare's remains were placed in the chapel of San Giorgio, where St. Francis's preaching had first touched her young heart, and where his own body had likewise been interred pending the erection of the Basilica of San Francesco. Two years later, 26 September, 1255, Clare was solemnly canonized by Alexander IV, and not long afterwards the building of the church of Santa Chiara, in honour of Assisi's second great saint, was begun under the direction of Filippo Campello, one of the foremost architects of the time. On 3 October, 1260, Clare's remains were transferred from the chapel of San Giorgio and buried deep down in the earth, under the high altar in the new church, far out of sight and reach. After having remained hidden for six centuries--like the remains of St. Francis--and after much search had been made, Clare's tomb was found in 1850, to the great joy of the Assisians. On 23 September in that year the coffin was unearthed and opened, the flesh and clothing of the saint had been reduced to dust, but the skeleton was in a perfect state of preservation. Finally, on the 29th of September, 1872, the saint's bones were transferred, with much pomp, by Archbishop Pecci, afterwards Leo XIII, to the shrine, in the crypt at Santa Chiara, erected to receive them, and where they may now be seen. The feast of St. Clare is celebrated throughout the Church on 12 August later changed to 11 August — Ed.; the feast of her first translation is kept in the order on 3 October, and that of the finding of her body on 23 September.

Sources

The sources of the history of St. Clare at our disposal are few in number. They include (1) a Testament attributed to the saint and some charming Letters written by her to Blessed Agnes, Princess of Bohemia; (2) the Rule of the Clares, and a certain number of early Pontifical Bulls relating to the Order; (3) a contemporary Biography, written in 1256 by order of Alexander IV. This life, which is now generally ascribed to Thomas of Celano, is the source from which St. Clare's subsequent biographers have derived most of their information.

Robinson, Paschal. "St. Clare of Assisi." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 11 Aug. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04004a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Rick McCarty.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04004a.htm

St. Clare, Virgin and Abbess

From her authentic life, written soon after her death, by order of Pope Alexander IV. who had pronounced her funeral panegyric whilst Cardinal of Ostia, and who canonized her two years after. See also the Annals of the Franciscan Order, compiled by the learned F. Luke Wadding; her life published in English; F. Sbarala, &c.

A.D. 1253.

ST. CLARE was daughter to Phavorino Sciffo, a noble knight who had distinguished himself in the wars, and his virtuous spouse called Hortulana. These illustrious personages, who held the first rank at Assisium for their birth and riches, were still more eminent for their extraordinary piety. They had three daughters, Clare, Agnes, and Beatrice. 1 St. Clare was born in 1193 at Assisium, a city in Italy, built on a stony mountain called Assi. From her infancy she was extremely charitable and devout. It was her custom to count her task of Paters and Aves by a certain number of little stones in her lap, in imitation of some ancient anchorets in the East. 2 Her parents began to talk to her very early of marriage, which gave her great affliction; for it was her most ardent desire to have no other spouse but Jesus Christ. Hearing the great reputation of St. Francis, who set an example of perfection to the whole city, she found means to be conducted to him by a pious matron, and begged his instruction and advice. He spoke to her on the contempt of the world, the shortness of life, and the love of God and heavenly things in such a manner as warmed her tender breast; and, upon the spot, she formed a resolution of renouncing the world. St. Francis appointed Palm-Sunday for the day on which she should come to him. On that day Clare, dressed in her most sumptuous apparel, went with her mother and family to the divine office; but when all the rest went up to the altar to receive a palm-branch, bashfulness and modesty kept her in her place; which the bishop seeing, he went from the altar down to her and gave her the palm. She attended the procession; but, the evening following it, being the 18th of March, 1212, she made her escape from home, accompanied with another devout young woman, and went a mile out of the town to the Portiuncula, where St. Francis lived with his little community. He and his religious brethren met her at the door of their church of Our Lady with lighted tapers in their hands, singing the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus. Before the altar of the Blessed Virgin she put off her fine clothes, and St. Francis cut off her hair, and gave her his penitential habit, which was no other than a piece of sackcloth, tied about her with a cord. The holy father not having yet any nunnery of his own, placed her for the present in the Benedictin nunnery of St. Paul, where she was affectionately received, being then eighteen years of age. The Poor Clares date from this epoch the foundation of their Order.

No sooner was this action of the holy virgin made public, but the world conspired unanimously to condemn it, and her friends and relations came in a body to draw her out of her retreat. Clare resisted their violence, and held the altar so fast as to pull the holy cloths half off it when they endeavoured to drag her away; and, uncovering her head to show her hair cut, she said that Christ had called her to his service, and that she would have no other spouse of her soul; and that the more they should continue to persecute her, the more God would strengthen her to resist and overcome them. They reproached her that by embracing so poor and mean a life she disgraced her family; but she bore their insults, and God triumphed in her. St. Francis soon after removed her to another nunnery, that of St. Angelo of Panso, near Assisium, which was also of St. Bennet’s Order. There her sister Agnes joined in her undertaking; which drew on them both a fresh persecution, and twelve men abused Agnes both with words and blows, and dragged her on the ground to the door, whilst she cried out, “Help me, sister; permit me not to be separated from our Lord Jesus Christ, and your loving company.” Her constancy proved at last victorious, and St. Francis gave her also the habit, though she was only eighteen years of age. He placed them in a new mean house contiguous to the church of St. Damian, situated on the skirts of the city Assisium, and appointed Clare the superior. She was soon after joined by her mother, Hortulana, and several ladies of her kindred and others to the number of sixteen, among whom three were of the illustrious family of the Ubaldini in Florence. Many noble princesses held for truer greatness the sackcloth and poverty of St. Clare than the estates, delights, and riches which they possessed, seeing they left them all to become humble disciples of so holy and admirable a mistress. St. Clare founded, within a few years, monasteries at Perugia, Arezzo, Padua, that of SS. Cosmas and Damian in Rome; at Venice, Mantua, Bologna, Spoletto, Milan, Sienna, Pisa, &c.; also in many principal towns in Germany. Agnes, daughter to the King of Bohemia, founded a nunnery of her Order in Prague, in which herself took the habit.

St. Clare and her community practised austerities, which, till then, had scarcely ever been known among the tender sex. They wore neither stockings, shoes, sandals, nor any other covering on their feet; they lay on the ground, observed a perpetual abstinence, and never spoke but when they were obliged to it by the indispensable duties of necessity and charity. The foundress in her rule extremely recommends this holy silence as the means to retrench innumerable sins of the tongue, and to preserve the mind always recollected in God, and free from the dissipation of the world, which, without this guard, penetrates the walls of cloisters. Not content with the four

Lents, and the other general mortifications of her rule, she always wore next her skin a rough shift of horse hair or of hog’s bristles cut short; she fasted church vigils and all Lent on bread and water; and from the 11th of November to Christmas-day, and during these times on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays ate nothing at all. She sometimes strewed the ground on which she lay with twigs, having a block for her bolster. Her disciplines, watchings, and other austerities were incredible, especially in a person of so tender a constitution. Being reduced to great weakness and to a very sickly state of health, St. Francis and the Bishop of Assisium obliged her to lie upon a little chaff, and never pass one day without taking at least some bread for nourishment. Under her greatest corporal austerities her countenance was always mild and cheerful, demonstrating that true love makes penance sweet and easy. Her esteem of holy poverty was most admirable. She looked upon it as the retrenchment of the most dangerous objects of the passions and self-love, and as the great school of patience and mortification, by the perpetual inconveniences and sufferings which it lays persons under, and which the spirit of Christ crucified teaches us to bear with patience and joy. It carries along with it the perfect disengagement of the heart from the world, in which the essence of true devotion consists. The saint considered in what degree Christ, having for our sakes relinquished the riches of his glory, practised holy poverty, in his birth, without house or other temporal conveniency; and during his holy ministry, without a place to lay his head in, and living on voluntary contributions; but, above all, his poverty, nakedness, and humiliation on the cross and at his sacred death were deeply imprinted on her mind, and she ardently sought to bear for his sake some resemblance of that state which he had assumed for us to apply a proper remedy to our spiritual wounds, and heal the corruption of our nature.

St. Francis instituted that his Order should never possess any rents even in common, subsisting on daily contributions. St. Clare possessed this spirit in such perfection, that when her large fortune fell to her, by the death of her father, after her profession, she gave the whole to the poor without reserving one single farthing for the monastery. Pope Gregory IX. desired to mitigate this part of her rule, and offered to settle a yearly revenue on her monastery of St. Damian’s; but she in the most pressing manner persuaded him by many reasons, in which her love of evangelical poverty made her eloquent, to leave her Order in its first rigorous establishment. Whilst others asked riches, Clare presented again her most humble request to Pope Innocent IV. that he would confirm to her Order the singular privilege of holy poverty, which he did, in 1251, by a bull written with his own hand, which he watered at the same time with tears of devotion. 3 So dear was poverty to St. Clare, chiefly for her great love of humility. Though superior, she would never allow herself any privilege or distinction. It was her highest ambition to be the servant of servants, always beneath all, washing the feet of the lay-sisters and kissing them when they returned from begging, serving at table, attending the sick, and removing the most loathsome filth. When she prayed for the sick she sent them to her other sisters, that their miraculous recovery might not be imputed to her prayers or merits. She was so true a daughter of obedience, that she had always, as it were, wings to fly wherever St. Francis directed her, and was always ready to execute anything, or to put her shoulders under any burden that was enjoined her; she was so crucified to her own will, as to seem entirely divested of it. This she expressed to her holy father as follows: “Dispose of me as you please; I am yours by having consecrated my will to God. It is no longer my own.”

Prayer was her spiritual comfort and strength, and she seemed scarcely ever to interrupt that holy exercise. She often prostrated herself on the ground, kissed it, and watered it with many tears. Whilst her sisters took their rest she watched long in prayer, and was always the first that rose, rung the bell in the choir, and lighted the candles. She came from prayer with her face so bright and inflamed (like that of Moses descending from conversing with God) that it often dazzled the eyes of those who beheld her; and every one perceived by her words that she came from her devotions; for she spoke with such a spirit and fervour as enkindled a flame in all who but heard her voice, and diffused into their souls a great esteem of heavenly things. She communicated very often, and had a wonderful devotion towards the blessed sacrament. Even when she was sick in bed, she spun with her own hands fine linen for corporals, and for the service of the altar, which she distributed through all the churches of Assisium. In prayer she was often so absorpt in divine love as to forget herself and her corporal necessities. She on many occasions experienced the all-powerful force and efficacy of her holy prayer. A remarkable instance is mentioned in her life: The impious Emperor Frederic II. cruelly ravaged the valley of Spoletto, because it was the patrimony of the holy see. He had in his army many Saracens and other barbarous infidels, and left in that country a colony of twenty thousand of these enemies of the church in a place still called Noura des Moros. These banditti came once in a great body to plunder Assisium, and as St. Damian’s convent stood without the walls, they first assaulted it. Whilst they were busy in scaling the walls, St. Clare, though very sick, caused herself to be carried and seated at the gate of the monastery, and the blessed sacrament to be placed there in a pix in the very sight of the enemies, and, prostrating herself before it, prayed with many tears, saying to her beloved spouse: “Is it possible, my God, that thou shouldst have here assembled these thy servants, and nurtured them up in thy holy love, that they should now fall into the power of these infidel Moors? Preserve them, O my God, and me in their holy company.” At the end of her prayer she seemed to hear a sweet voice, which said: “I will always protect you.” A sudden terror, at the same time, seized the assailants, and they all fled with such precipitation, that several were hurt without being wounded by any enemy. Another time, Vitalis Aversa, a great general of the same emperor, a cruel and proud man, laid siege to Assisium for many days. St. Clare said to her nuns, that they who had received corporal necessaries from that city, owed to it all assistance in their power in its extreme necessity. She therefore bid them cover their heads with ashes, and in this most suppliant posture beg of Christ the deliverance of the town. They continued pressing their request with many tears a whole day and night till powerful succours arriving, the besiegers silently raised the siege, and retired without noise, and their general was soon after slain.

St. Francis was affected with the most singular and tender devotion towards the mysteries of Christ’s nativity and sacred passion. He used to assemble incredible numbers of the people to pass the whole Christmas night in the church in fervent prayer; and, at midnight, once preached with such fervour and tenderness, that he was not able to pronounce the name Jesus, but called him the little child of Bethlehem; and, in repeating these words, always melted away with tender love. St. Clare inherited this same devotion and tenderness to this holy mystery, and received many special favours from God in her prayers on that festival. As to the passion of Christ, St. Francis called it his perpetual book, and said he never desired to open any other but the history of it in the gospels, though he were to live to the world’s end. The like were the sentiments of St. Clare towards it; nor could she call to mind this adorable mystery without streams of tears, and the warmest emotions of tender love. In sickness particularly it was her constant entertainment. She was afflicted with continual diseases and pains for eight-and-twenty years, yet was always joyful, allowing herself no other indulgence than a little straw to lie on. Reginald, cardinal of Ostia, afterwards Pope Alexander IV., both visited her and wrote to her in the most humble manner. Pope Innocent IV. paid her a visit a little before her death, going from Perugia to Assisium on purpose, and conferring with her a long time on spiritual matters with wonderful comfort.

St. Clare bore her sickness and great pains without so much as speaking of them, and when brother Reginald exhorted her to patience, she said: “How much am I obliged to my sweet Redeemer; for since, by means of his servant Francis, I have tasted the bitterness of his holy passion, I have never in my whole life found any pain or sickness that could afflict me. There is nothing insupportable to a heart that loveth God, and to him that loveth not every thing is insupportable.” Agnes, seeing her dear sister and spiritual mother draw near her end, besought her with great affection and many tears that she would take her along with her, and not leave her here on earth, seeing they had been such faithful companions, and so united in the same spirit and desire of serving our Lord. The holy virgin comforted her, telling her it was the will of God she should not at present go along with her; but bade her be assured she should shortly come to her, and so it happened. St. Clare seeing all her spiritual children weep, comforted them, and tenderly exhorted them to be constant lovers and faithful observers of holy poverty, and gave them her blessing, calling herself the little plant of her holy father St. Francis. The passion of Christ, at her request, was read to her in her agony, and she sweetly expired, amidst the prayers and tears of her community, on the 11th of August, 1253, in the forty-second year after her religious profession, and the sixtieth of her age. She was buried on the day following, on which the church keeps her festival. Pope Innocent IV. came again from Perugia, and assisted in person with the sacred college at her funeral. Alexander IV. canonized her at Anagnia in 1255. Her body was first buried at St. Damian’s; but the pope ordered a new monastery to be built for her nuns at the church of St. George within the walls, which was finished in 1260, when her relics were translated thither with great pomp. A new church was built here afterwards, which bears her name, in which, in 1265, Pope Clement V. consecrated the high altar under her name, and her body lies under it. The body of St. Francis had lain in this church of St. George four years, when, in 1230, it was removed to that erected in his honour, in which it still remains. Camden remarks that the family name Sinclair among us is derived from St. Clare.

The example of this tender virgin, who renounced all the softness, superfluity, and vanity of her education, and engaged and persevered in a life of so much severity, is a reproach of our sloth and sensuality. Such extraordinary rigours are not required of us; but a constant practice of self-denial is indispensably enjoined us by the sacred rule of the gospel, which we all have most solemnly professed. Our backwardness in complying with this duty is owing to our lukewarmness, which creates in every thing imaginary difficulties, and magnifies shadows. St. Clare, notwithstanding her continual extraordinary austerities, the grievous persecutions she had suffered, and the pains of a sharp and tedious distemper with which she was afflicted, was surprised when she lay on her death-bed, to hear any one speak of her patience, saying, that from the time she had first given her heart to God, she had never met with any thing to suffer, or to exercise her patience. This was the effect of her ardent charity. Let none embrace her holy institute without a fervour which inspires a cheerful eagerness to comply in the most perfect manner with all its rules and exercises; and without seriously studying to obtain, and daily improve, in their souls, her eminent spirit of poverty, humility, obedience, love of silence, mortification, recollection, prayer, and divine love. In this consists their sanctification—in this they will find all present and future blessings and happiness.

Note 1. Hortulana met with a sensible affliction in the loss of her husband; but, upon that occasion, raising her heart to God, she said courageously: “Sovereign Lord, my affections for my husband carried me to an excess, and was a hinderance to the perfect reign of thy love in my heart. Therefore hast thou been pleased to deprive me of so great a comfort and support: may thy name be for ever praised. I am thine, and to thy service I consecrate my soul and affections, with all I possess.” This heroic sacrifice of herself, which drew its merit from the perfect dispositions with which it was made, was accepted by God, and deserved to be recompensed by greater graces. In like manner St. Jerom relates of St. Melania, that, having lost her husband and two children the same day, casting herself at the foot of the cross, she said: “I see, my God, that thou requirest of me my whole heart and love, which was too much fixed on my husband and children. I most willingly resign it all to thee.” Hortulana placed her youngest daughter Beatrice with Monaldo, her husband’s brother, and put her fortune into his hands, her two eldest having already forsaken the world; and having distributed the remainder of her estate among the poor, took the veil at St. Damian’s from the hands of St. Francis; and, though advanced in years, went through the meanest offices of the novitiate, made her profession, and courageously bore the most austere fasts, watching, disciplines, and other mortifications in her tender body. In these fervent exercises she persevered to her death, and was buried at St. Damian’s; but her body was afterwards translated to the church of St. George, where it lies in the same tomb with her two daughters, St. Clare and St. Agnes. [back]

Note 2. Paul of Sceté counted the tribute of his prayers which he repeated three hundred and sixty-six times a day, by pebble stones. Hist. Lausiac. c. 23. [back]

Note 3. Urban IV. allowed a dispensation to many houses of this Order to possess rents; these are called Urbanists; the others Poor Clares. Besides these the Capucinesses, the Annunciades, the Conceptionists, the Cordeliers or Grey-sisters, the Recollects, and the most austere Reformation of the Ave-Maria in Paris, are branches of the rule of St. Clare; but most add certain particular constitutions. Of all these together there are said to be above four thousand convents. The third Order of St. Francis differs from the others, and is a milder institute, established by that saint in favour of certain devout ladies, who were not disposed to embrace so great austerities, or were not able entirely to forsake the world. This admits married persons, both men and women, who enroll themselves under the standard of penance, according to a certain form of living which this saint prescribed for persons settled in the world. See on its institution Wadding’s Annals of the Franciscans on the year 1221. Several persons of this third Order make the essential vows of religious, and live in communities. [back]

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73).  Volume VIII: August. The Lives of the Saints.  1866.

SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/8/121.html

Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Clare, Virgin and Abbess

Article

Saint Clare, foundress of the Order which bears her name, was born of rich and pious parents, at Assisi, in the district of Umbria, in Italy. She received the name of Clare, which means clear or bright, for the following reason. While her mother Hortulana, was kneeling before a crucifix, praying that God might aid her in her hour of delivery, she heard the words: “Do not fear. You will give birth to a light which shall illumine the whole world.” From her earliest childhood, prayer was Clare s only delight. She gave to the poor all the presents which she received from her parents. She despised all costly garments, all worldly pleasures. Beneath the fine clothes she was obliged to wear, she wore a rough hair-girdle. She par- took of so little food, that it seemed as if she wished to observe a continual fast. During this same period lived Saint Francis, surnamed “the Seraphic,” on account of his great virtues. Clare frequently went to him and confided to him her desire to renounce the world and to consecrate her virginity to God, and to lead a perfect life in the most abject poverty. Saint Francis who saw, that besides other gifts and graces, she was filled with the most ardent love of God, possessing great innocence of heart and despising the world, strengthened her in her holy desire, while at the same time he tested her constancy. Being sufficiently convinced that her desires were inspired by Heaven, he advised Clare to leave her home, which she did on Palm Sunday, going to the church of the Portiuncula, where she had her hair cut off, as a sign that she would enter a religious life. She divested herself of all feminine ornaments, and attired in a penitential garb, tied around her with a cord, she was placed by Saint Francis in a vacant Benedictine convent. She was at that time just eighteen years of age. When her parents heard of what she had done, they hastened to the Convent, to take Clare heme, declaring that this choice of a state of life was only a childish whim, or that she had been persuaded to it by others. Clare, however, after opposing their arguments, fled into the church, and clinging to the altar with one hand, with the other she bared her head shorn of its hair, exclaiming; “Know all, that I desire no other bridegroom than Jesus Christ. Understanding well what I was doing, I chose Him and I will never leave Him.” Astonished at this answer, all returned home, admiring her virtue and piety. Clare thanked God for this victory and was, on account of it, all the more strengthened in her resolution. She had a sister younger than herself, named Agnes. A few’ days later she, too, fled from her parents’ roof and going to Clare, wished to be invested in the same habit and to serve Gcd in the same manner. Saint Clare received her joyfully, but as all her relatives were provoked beyond measure that she, tco, had entered a Convent, twelve of them went and forcibly tore her from her sister’s arms. Clare took refuge in prayer, and as if inspired by the Almighty, ran after her sister, loudly calling her by name. God assisted her by a miracle. Agnes suddenly became immovable, as if rooted to the ground, and no one possessed strength enough to drag her from where she stood. Recognizing in this the powerful hand of God, they opposed her no longer, but allowed her to return to the Convent. Meanwhile, Saint Francis had rebuilt the old church of Saint Damian and had bought the neighboring house. Into this house he placed his first two religious daughters, Clare and Agnes, who were speedily joined by others, desirous of conforming themselves to the rule of life which Saint Francis had given to Clare. This was the beginning of the Order of Poor Clares, which has since given to the world so many shining examples of virtue and holiness, to the salvation of many thousands of souls. Saint Clare was appointed abbess by Saint Francis, and filled the office for forty-two years with wonderful wisdom and holiness. Her mother also, together with her youngest daughter, took the habit and submitted to the government of Saint Clare. The holy abbess enjoined on her order the most severe poverty, and when the Pope himself offered her some property as an endowment, she humbly but earnestly refused to accept it. She was, to all in her charge, a bright example of poverty. In austerity towards herself she was more to be admired than imitated. The floor or a bundle of straw was her bed; a piece of wood, her pillow. Twice during the year she kept a forty days’ fast on bread and water. Besides this, three days of the week, she tasted no food, and so little on the others, that it is marvellous that she could sustain life with it. The greater part of the night she spent in prayer, and her desire for mortification was so great, that Saint Francis compelled her to moderate her austerities. She nursed the sick with the greatest pleasure, as in this work of charity, she found almost constant opportunity to mortify and overcome herself. Besides all her other virtues, she was especially remarkable for her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. She sometimes remained whole hours immovable before the Tabernacle, and was often seen in ecstacy, so great was her love for the Saviour it concealed. She sought her comfort in Him alone in all her trials, amidst all her persecutions; and how great were the graces she thereby received, the following event will sufficiently illustrate.

The Saracens besieged Assisi and made preparations to scale the walls of the Convent. Saint Clare, who was sick at the time, had herself carried to the gates of the convent, where, with the Ciborium, containing the Blessed Sacrament, in her hands, prostrating herself in company with all her religious, she cried aloud: “O Lord, do not give into the hands of the infidels the souls of those who acknowledge and praise Thee. Protect and preserve Thy handmaidens whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood.” A voice was distinctly heard, saying: “I will protect you always.” The result proved that this was the voice of heaven. The Saracens, seized with a sudden fear, betook themselves to flight, those who had already scaled the walls, became blind, and flung themselves down. Thus were Saint Clare and her religious protected and the whole city preserved from utter devastation, by the piety and devotion of the Saint to the Blessed Sacrament.

We must omit many miracles which God wrought through His faithful servant, in order to relate her happy end. She had reached the age of sixty years, during twenty-eight of which she had suffered from various painful maladies, though she had not been confined to her bed, or rather, her bundle of straw. Her patience while suffering was remarkable, and she was never heard to complain of the severity or the duration of her sickness. The contemplation of the Passion of Christ made her own pains easy and even pleasing to her. “How short,” said she one day, “seems the night to me, which I pass in the contemplation of the Lord’s suffering!” At another time, she exclaimed: “How can man complain when he beholds Christ hanging upon the cross and covered with blood!” Having suffered so long and with such noble resignation, she saw at last, that her end was near. She received the Blessed Sacrament, and then exhorted all her daughters not to relax in their zeal to live in poverty and holiness. When her confessor conversed with her on the merits of patience, she said: “As long as I have had the grace to serve God in the religious state, no care, no penance, no sickness has seemed hard to me. Oh, how comforting it is to suffer for the love of Christ!” The hour of her death drew near, and she saw a great many white-robed virgins come to meet her, among whom was one who surpassed all the rest in beauty. She followed them and they led her to see the Almighty face to face. Several who had read in the depths of her heart, said that she died more from the fervor of her love for God than from the effects of her sickness. Her holy death took place in 1253. The great number of miracles wrought after her death through her intercession, and the heroic virtues which made her so remarkable, induced Pope Alexander IV, only two years later, to place her in the number of Saints.

Practical Considerations

• “How can man complain when he beholds Christ hanging on the cross and covered with blood,” asked Saint Clare; and she also said that those nights in which she contemplated the passion of Our Lord, seemed short. During her long and painful maladies, she meditated on all the sufferings which Our Lord endured to save us, and by this means, learned such resignation that she not only had no thought of murmuring against Divine Providence, but also bore her pains with great interior consolation. See your crucified Saviour and think: “What is my suffering compared to that which my Redeemer endured for love of me? My Jesus has suffered with patience, with joy, and even with the desire to suffer still more. Why then should I be impatient and faint-hearted.” With such thoughts you should animate yourself, especially during the night, as it is generally then that pains increase. Remember the night, the bitter night, which your Saviour passed in the house of Caiaphas, maltreated in every possible manner, and pray for grace, to bear the cross laid upon you, with patience and fortitude. Only try it once and you will find great relief. Saint Gregory said rightly: “Remembering the sufferings of Christ, we can bear everything patiently, how heavy soever it may be.”

• Saint Clare, besides her love for her crucified Lord, had an especial devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. To it she went with all her cares, and found strength and comfort. Why do you not do the same? If I you had lived at the time when Christ was visible on earth and had known that He was truly the Saviour, would you not have gone to Him, full of faith and confidence, with all your troubles, and asked Him for the graces you needed? Why are you not doing so now? Is He who is present in our churches under the form of bread, not the same who in times gone by, cured the sick and allowed no one to leave Him without consolation? Your faith teaches you that He is the same. Why then do you not go to Him with greater confidence? Why do you not look up to Him for comfort and help? You so often speak of your needs to men, who either will not or cannot help you. What does it benefit you? Ah! go to the church; lay your heart bare before your Saviour, represent to Him all your perplexities, and He will comfort you. Especially when you are unhappy, in misfortune, in temptation, go to Him. Pray to Him in the words of Saint Clare: “Lord, do not deliver to the demons the soul of one who believes in Thee. Protect and keep Thy servant whom Thou hast bought with Thy precious blood.” Do not forget the instructions here given you. Follow the admonition of Saint Paul, who says: “Let us therefore go with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid.” (Hebrews 4) This throne of grace you find in the blessed Sacrament. Fly to it in all your sorrows, and you will find comfort and assistance.

MLA Citation

• Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Clare, Virgin and Abbess”. Lives of the Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info. 1 April 2018. Web. 11 August 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-clare-virgin-and-abbess/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-clare-virgin-and-abbess/

Miniature Lives of the Saints – Saint Clare, Abbess

Article

On Palm Sunday, 17 March 1212, the Bishop of Assisi left the altar to present with a palm a noble maiden, eighteen years of age, whom bashfulness had detained in her place. This maiden was Saint Clare. Already she had learnt from Saint Francis to hate the world, and was secretly resolved to live for God alone. The same night she escaped, with one companion, to the Church of the Portiuncula, where she was met by Saint Francis and his brethren. At the altar of Our Lady, Saint Francis cut off her hair, clothed her in his habit of penance, a piece of sack-cloth with his cord as a girdle. Thus was she espoused to Christ. When her relatives would have carried her home, she resisted them by force, and drove them away in horror by the sight of her shaven head. In a miserable house outside Assisi she founded her Order, and was joined by her sister, fourteen years of age, and afterwards by her mother and other noble ladies. They went barefoot, observed perpetual abstinence, constant silence, and perfect poverty. Saint Clare absolutely refused all revenues, and would have but one possession, the Blessed Sacrament and what served for its use. During her illness of twenty-eight years the Holy Eucharist was her only support, and spinning linen for the altar the one work of her hands. She died A.D. 1253 as the Passion was being read, and our Lady and the angels conducted her to glory.

In a luxurious and effeminate age the daughters of Saint Clare still bear the noble title of poor, and preach by their daily lives the poverty of Jesus Christ.

They say that we are too poor; alas, can a heart which possesses God be truly called poor? – Saint Clare

While the Saracen army of Frederick II was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, a body of infidels advanced to assault Saint Clare’s convent, which stood outside Assisi. The Saint in her poverty had no servants to defend her, and no treasure wherewith to buy off the foe. Her one resource was the Blessed Sacrament. She caused It to be placed in a monstrance above the gate of the monastery facing the enemy, and kneeling before It, prayed, “Deliver not to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those who confess to Thee.” A voice from the Host replied, “My protection will never fail you.” A sudden panic seized the infidel host, which took to flight, and the Saint’s convent was spared. Thus was Saint Clare’s poverty more powerful than the strength of man.

Behold I have refined thee, but not as silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of poverty. – Isaiah 48:10

MLA Citation

• Henry Sebastian Bowden. “Saint Clare, Abbess”. Miniature Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year, 1877. CatholicSaints.Info. 9 March 2015. Web. 11 August 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/miniature-lives-of-the-saints-saint-clare-abbess/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/miniature-lives-of-the-saints-saint-clare-abbess/

A Garner of Saints – Saint Clare of Assisi

Article

(Italian: Chiara) Born at Assisi in 1193 of a rich and noble family. Being singularly beautiful she received many offers of marriage, but these and the insistance of her parents distressed her, and she went to seek Saint Francis of Assisi to ask for his advice. The saint spoke to her of the vanity of this world, and told her to come to him again on Palm Sunday. That day she went to the church with her mother and sisters, dressed in her best clothes, but as the others went to receive the palms at the altar, she remained modestly in her place. The bishop of Assisi, perceiving this, himself took a palm to her, and she followed in the procession with the rest. But the following day, 18th March 1212, she ran away from her home, and with some friends went to the convent of the Portiuncule, where Saint Francis was living with his disciples. He received her at the door, the monks singing the Veni Creator the while. Before the altar of the Virgin she stripped off her rich clothes, and Saint Francis gave her a habit of penitence and cut off her hair. He placed her provisionally with the Benedictines. Her family came to their convent to take her away, using so much violence that her clothes were torn. Showing her shorn head she declared her intention of devoting her virginity to Christ, and ultimately her relations yielded. After some while Saint Francis gave her the habit of his order, and established her in a small house which proved the nucleus of a future monastery of the order of the “Poor Clarisses,” of which she was the founder. This order practised the utmost severities, and upheld in all its strictures the rule of absolute poverty. The Emperor Frederick II, who was engaged in a war against the pope, employed a number of Turks who came to besiege Assisi, and attacked the nunnery which was outside the walls. Clare, who was sick, caused herself to be carried to the entry of the nunnery with a ciborium containing the Sacrament, and placed in full view of the enemy, where she earnestly prayed that God would deliver them from the infidels. Seized with a sudden panic, the besiegers took to flight. Soon after Assisi was besieged by Vitalis Aversa, one of Frederick’s generals. Clare ordered her nuns to cover their heads with ashes, and to pray for the deliverance of their fellow-citizens. After they had prayed for a day and a night, the enemy suddenly raised the siege without having done any harm. Clare’s last years were passed in almost continual sickness, and she died in 1253. Her canonisation took place in 1255. 11th August.

Attributes

• Wears the Franciscan habit and holds a lily and a book.

MLA Citation

• Allen Banks Hinds, M.A. “Saint Clare of Assisi”. A Garner of Saints, 1900. CatholicSaints.Info. 17 April 2017. Web. 11 August 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-clare-of-assisi/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-clare-of-assisi/

Golden Legend – Saint Clare

Article

Here beginneth the life of the Holy Virgin Saint Clare.

There was a marvellous holy woman in the city of Assisi, which was named Clare. First ye shall understand that her nativity was much worthy and noble. It is read that as touching the world she was of right noble lineage, and as touching the spirit to the regard of the estate of virtues and noble manners towards God, she was of right noble reputation. Then for to show that after her nativity she was a devout espouse of God, she is worthy to be of great recommendation. It is read that when her mother was enceinted or great with child of her, on a time as she was before the crucifix, weeping and praying that of his grace he would grant to her the deliverance of her fruit with joy and gladness, she heard a voice suddenly saying to her: Woman, have thou no doubt, for without peril thou shalt be delivered of a daughter which shall by her doctrine enlumine all the world. And therefore, as soon as she was born, she did do name her at the font, Clare. Secondly, is found in her life and known, great plenty of virtues. It is read that this holy virgin, after the time of her infancy, was so composed in all good manners, in port, in maintenance, and in continuance, that all others might take of her fair and good ensample for to nsaintain and govern them. And in especial she had so great pity of the poor people, that ofttimes she spared her own mouth and sent by secret messengers such as she should herself have been sustained by. Also in making devout prayer she had so great pleasure that ofttimes it seemed to her, being in orisons, that her spirit was refreshed with the sweetness of heaven. She was in her array like others, but by penance she chastised her body, for how well that for the honour of her friends she was nobly apparelled, yet nevertheless she ware always the hair on her bare body, and from her infancy her heart had determined that for to die she would never have other espouse than Jesu Christ. And many other and plenty of virtues shone in her, the which were overlong to recount. Thirdly, how Saint Francis showed to her the way of truth; it is read that as soon as Saint Clare heard the renomee of Saint Francis, it was spread over all the world as it were a new man sent into the world, showing how we ought to follow the new way of Jesu Christ, she never might have rest in her heart till she was come to him, and that to him she had opened her heart. Then after she had sweetly understood him, and had received of him many a holy, sweet, and angelic word, Saint Francis exhorted her above all other things to flee the world both with heart and her body. And to this he enjoined her that on Palm Sunday she should hallow the feast with the other people, but the night following, in remembrance of the passion of Jesu Christ, she should turn her joy into weeping and afflictions, for in such wise to weep the passion of Jesu Christ, finally she might come to heaven as virgin and espouse of God, well eurous and happy. Fourthly, how she had no quietness in her heart till she had accomplished her thought and purpose; it is read that Saint Clare, thus informed of Saint Francis, could have no rest in her heart till that, the night assigned and the hour, she issued out of the city of Assisi, in which she dwelled, and came to the church of our Lady of Portiuncula. And then the friars received her, which awoke in the said church, and abode for her tofore the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And there her hair was cut off, and after, they led her into an abbey of nuns and there left her. Fifthly, how her friends despised this work ordained by our Lord; it is read when this lady was thus ordained, she laboured and did so much that she drew her sister named Agnes into her company, wherefore as well for that one as for that other, the carnal friends of Saint Clare had her in indignation out of measure, wherefore Saint Francis translated them into the church of Saint Damian, which church by the commandment of the crucifix he had repaired. And there this lady began the religion that was called of poor sisters, and there she was inclosed in a little cell which Saint Francis had edified. Sixthly, how she had humility in her heart; it is read that Saint Clare glorified herself sovereignly in humility, like as the wise man saith: Of so much that a creature is promoted, of so much ought he to be the more humble. Therefore, after that she had assembled a great convent of holy virgins, unnethe and with great pain, if it had not been for the obedience of Saint Francis, she had never received the sovereignty of them. And after that she had received the domination over them and governance, she was tofore all other ready to serve them that were sick, as she had been a handmaid or servant, and was so humble that she would wash the feet of her hand-maidens and servants when they came from without from their work, and dried them and kissed them. Seventhly, how Saint Clare kept poverty; it is read that for to keep and to follow poverty after the gospel of Jesu Christ, Saint Clare put thereto all her entent, wherefore sith the beginning of her holy life, all that ever that came to her of father and mother, she sold and gave it for God’s sake, insomuch that for her ne for her sisters she had but simple feeding and clothing, ne would have none other. And notwithstanding that she was assoiled of the pope of the vow of poverty, and thereupon had received letters of the pope, much suddenly weeping, she wrote again saying. I will well be assoiled of my sins, but the vow of poverty I shall keep unto the death. The eighth, how in necessity Jesu Christ visited her; it is read that, on a time that at the hour of dinner in the college of Saint Clare was but one loaf of bread, ne there might no more be had. Then Saint Clare took this loaf of the hand of the dispenser, and made then her prayer, and after, of that loaf made as many loaves and parts as there were sisters. And as soon as every each had received her part, how well it was but little, the divine grace multiplied it so much that every each left some and had enough. Item semblably it is read that that God did for her when in her college the pots were failed. Ninthly, how in straitness Saint Clare was ruled; this holy lady was content with one poor coat lined with a mantlet; she used never pendants ne furs of skins, but dispensed all her time in keeping her body in servage of the spirit. And herewith thrice in the week she fasted in this manner that she never tasted thing that was sodden. Item, every year she fasted two lentens to bread and water only, save the Sunday she took a little wine. And shortly, she lived so straitly that she became so feeble that Saint Francis commanded her by virtue of obedience that she should fail no day but that she should take for her refection an ounce and a half of bread. She was never without hair next her flesh, and for a pillow, she took a block or a great stone; she lay always on the bare ground, or for to take the better her rest she lay otherwhile upon the cuttings of vines, unto the time that Saint Francis had commanded her, because that it was over foul, that she should use to lie on a sack full of straw. Tenthly, how she hath despised the iniquity of the fiend our enemy; it is read that in especial she had a custom that from midday she was in prayers and remembering the passion and sufferance of Jesu Christ, two hours during, and after the eventide she was always a long while in orisons. And it is read that ofttimes the fiend appeared to her by night saying: If so be that ye abstain you not from waking and weeping, ye shall for certain be blind. And she answered: He shall not be blind that shall see our Lord in his glory. And when the fiend heard this answer, anon he departed all confused, ne durst never after tempt her ne let her of her prayers. Eleventhly, God of his grace had pierced her heart, it is read that Saint Clare for to dispend amorously the time that God had lent her, in especial she was determined that from the hour of mid-day unto evensong time, she would dispend all that time in thinking and beweeping the passion of Jesu Christ, and say prayers and orisons according thereto, after unto the five wounds of the precious body of Jesu Christ, as smitten and pierced to the heart with the dart of the love divine. It is read that from the time on a shere thursday, the hour of the maundy, unto Easter even the Saturday, she was remembering and thinking on the sufferance of our Lord Jesu Christ so burningly, that she was ravished as all drunken in the love of God, that she knew not what was said ne done about her, but as unmovable or as all insensible, in standing she held her eyes fixed in one place. Twelfthly, how in her disease and pain she was of God comforted; it is said that she was by the space of eight and twenty days in continual languor and sickness, nevertheless was never seen in her sign of impatience, but always sweet words and amiable in praising and thanking God of all. And in especial it is read that, in the sickness in which she passed toward the end of her life she was seventeen days without meat or drink. And nevertheless she was so sweetly visited of God that it seemed unto all them that saw her that she had no pain ne disease, but yet more every creature that came to her was comforted in God. And in especial it is read that, when the hour of death approached, she, which long time had lost her speech, began to speak and say: Go out surely, thou hast a good safeconduct. And when one of her sisters, being there present, heard that, she demanded her to whom she spake. And she answered: To my soul, whom I see abashed to depart from my body, for he ought not for to doubt, for I see the holy Virgin Mary which abideth for me. And this said, our Blessed Lady entered into the chamber where Saint Clare lay. And she was crowned with a crown right clear shining, that the obscurity of the night was changed into clearness of mid-day. And she brought with her a right great multitude of other virgins all nobly crowned, among whom there was one that bare a rich mantle, to whom she said: Give hither the mantle. And when she had sweetly embraced her she clad her with the mantle. And at that same time was weeping about her the college of sisters, and in especial Agnes the sister of Saint Clare, making great moan and sorrow. Then Saint Clare said sweetly: My sisters, discomfort you not, for ye shall have unto God of me a good and a true advocate. And thou Agnes shalt soon after follow me into glory. Now it is well reason and right that we say and show of the great marvels that God showed for Saint Clare by her holy prayers, for she was veritable, true, and worthy of all honour. That great tempest that was in the time of Frederick the emperor, whereof holy church had so much to suffer, that in divers parts of the world was much war, so that by the commandment of the emperor were battles established of knights, and with that so many archers of Saracens as they had been hills of ‘dies for to destroy the people, castles and cities. The Saracens ran as wood men till they came to the gates of Assisi. And the felon Saracens, that be full of all cruelty and falsehood, and seek nothing but for to slay and destroy christian men’s blood, and they came unto the cloister of the poor ladies of Saint Damian, and the holy ladies had so great fear that their hearts melted in their bodies, and ran weeping to their mother Saint Clare. And she that was sick, without fear of heart, made her to be led tofore her enemies unto the door, and did do bear tofore the body of our Lord, the which was in a pix much richly garnished and devoutly. And this holy lady was on her knees, saying with weeping tears unto our Lord: Ah! fair Lord God, please it you then that they that serve you, and be disarmed, whom I nourish for your love, be brought into the hands and power of the paynims? Fair sweet Lord, I beseech thee that thou keep thy handmaidens and servants, for I may not keep them in this point. And our Lord anon sent of his special grace a voice as it had been a child, which said to her: I shall keep you always. O sweet fair Lord, keep this city if it please you, which hath given to us such things as hath been needful to us, for the love of you. And he answered: The city shall have some grievance, but nevertheless I shall keep and defend it. Then this holy virgin Saint Clare arose from her prayer, which had yet her visage all bewept, and comforted much sweetly her sisters that wept, and said to them: I command you fair daughters that ye comfort you in good faith, and trust ye only in our Lord, for the Saracens shall never do you harm. Anon then the Saracens had so great dread and fear, that over the walls, and by those places that they had entered, they fled hastily, and were in this wise by the orison and prayer of Saint Clare destroubled and put from their emprise. Then commanded she to all them that heard the voice that in no manner they should discover ne tell it to any that lived.

On another time it happed that an old squire, full of vain glory, the which was much hardy in battle and was captain of a great host, which Frederick had delivered to him, and came with all his host for to take the city of Assisi, he did do hew down the trees, and destroy the country all about, and besieged the city, and sware that he would not depart thence till he had taken the city, and thus was the city besieged for to have been taken. And when Saint Clare, the handmaid of Jesu Christ, heard the tidings, she had great pity and did do call her sisters and said to them: Right sweet daughters, we receive daily many benefits of this city, and it should be a great unkindness in us if we succoured it not in this great need as much as we may. Then commanded she to bring ashes, and said to her sisters that they should discover their heads, and she herself first cast great plenty of ashes upon her head, and after, upon the heads of all the others, and said to them: Now go, fair daughters, and with all your hearts require and pray ye to our Lord that he will deliver this city. And then every each by themselves, in great weepings and tears, made their orisons and prayers devoutly to our Lord, in such wise that he kept and defended the city, that on the morn the host departed out of the country, and it was not long after that they all were dead and slain.

It should not be according that we should hele and keep secret the marvellous virtue of her prayer, by the which at the beginning of her conversion she converted a soul to God. For she had a sister younger than herself was, whose conversation she much desired, and in all her prayers that she made, she prayed at the beginning with all her heart to our Lord that like as she and her sister had been in the world of one heart and of one will, that it might please the Father of mercy that Agnes, her sister, whom she had left in the world, might despise the world, and savour the sweetness of God, so that she might have no will to marry her, save only to God her true friend, in such wise that between them both they might espouse their virginity to our Lord. These two sisters loved marvellously together, and were much sorrowful of their departing, and that one more than that other. But our Lord granted unto Saint Clare the first gift that she demanded, for it was a thing that much pleased him. After the seventh day that Saint Clare was converted, Agnes, her sister, came to her and discovered her secretness to her and will, and said utterly that she would serve God. And when Saint Clare heard that, anon she embraced her, and said for joy that she had: My sister, ye be right welcome, I thank God that hath heard me for thee, for whom I was in great sorrow. Howbeit that this conversion was marvellous, and yet more to be wondered how Clare defended her sister by her prayers. At that time were the good blessed sisters at Saint Michael of Pambo, which were joined to God, and they followed the life and works of Jesu Christ. And there was Saint Clare, which felt more of God than the other, and she informed her sister, her nurse, how she should rule her. And the parents and kinsmen of Saint Clare began a new battle and strife against the virgins. For when they heard say that Agnes was gone to dwell with her sister Saint Clare, there came on the morn to the place where Saint Clare dwelled, twelve of her kinsmen and friends all from themselves, all araged, and showed not withoutforth the malice that they had in their hearts, but gave them to understand that they came for good. And when they came within they made no force of Saint Clare for to draw her out, for they knew well that they should nothing exploit of their intent, but they turned to Agnes and said to her: What makest thou here? Come out with us home to thy house. And she answered, that she would never depart from the company of Saint Clare. And a tyrant, a knight, took and drew her by the hair, and the other took her by the arms, and carried her forth afar. And she, which seemed that she was among the hands of a lion, and taken from the hands of God, began to cry and said: Fair dear sister! help me, and suffer not that I be taken from the holy company of Jesu Christ. But the felons drew this virgin against her will over the mountain, and rent her clothes and drew and rased out her hair. And the holy sweet virgin Saint Clare kneeled down, and put herself to prayer, and prayed our Lord to give her sister a strong heart and a stable, and that she might by the puissance of God overcome and surmount the puissance of the people. And anon the Holy Ghost made her so pesant and heavy, that it seemed that her body were fixed to the ground, in such wise that for all the force and power that they could do they might not bear her over a little brook. And the men that were in the fields and river came for to help them, but they might never remove her from the earth. And then one of them said in mocking: It is no wonder though she be heavy, for she hath eaten much lead. Then the lord Mouvalt, her uncle, lift up his arm for to beat her cruelly, but an ache and pain took him suddenly, and tormented him a long time right cruelly. After that this said Saint Agnes had suffered this long wrestling of her kinsmen and friends, came Saint Clare and prayed them for God’s sake they should leave this battle with her sister, and go their way and take heed of themselves. And she received the cure and charge of Agnes, her sister, which lay there on the ground in great disease, and finally her kinsmen departed in great anguish and sorrow of heart. And then anon after, she arose up much gladly, and had much great joy of that first battle that she had suffered for the love of Jesu Christ, and from this time forward she ordained herself to serve God perdurably. And Saint Francis cut off her hair with his own hands, and induced and taught her to serve God, and so did Saint Clare her sister. And because we may not shortly account with few words the great perfection of the life of Agnes, therefore we shall entend unto the life of Saint Clare the virgin.

Was it not great marvel of the orisons and prayers of Saint Clare, which were so strong, and so much availed against the malice of the people, when they fled and were puissant to burn the devils? It happed on a time that a much devout woman of the bishopric of Pisa, came to one of the ladies for to yield thankings to God and Saint Clare which had delivered her from the hands of five devils. For they fled, and wailed that the orisons of Saint Clare burnt them all, and therefore they might no longer dwell in that place. The pope Gregory had much great faith and great devotion in the prayers of that holy virgin, and not without cause, for he had proved and felt certain virtue thereof, which had holpen many and divers that had necessity and need. And when he was bishop of Hostence and after when he was pope, he sent his letters to her by which he required her to pray for him, and anon he felt eased and alleged by her prayers. Then certainly if he which was vicar of Jesu Christ, by his humility, as we may see, had so great devotion to Saint Clare, of whom he required her aid, and recommended him to the virtue of her orisons, as well ought we then to ensue with all our power the devotion of such a man. For he knew well how much love is mighty and how the pure virgins have delivered entry into the door of the heart of our Lord. And if our sweet Lord give himself to them that love him firmly, who may he deny to them for whom they require him devoutly? Always seen that they require of him that is needful and behoveful. The holy work showeth well the great faith and the great devotion that she had in the holy sacrament of the altar. For in that great malady which had so vexed her that she lay in her bed, she arose and did her to be borne from one place to another, and did spin a fine small cloth of which she made more than fifty corporas, and sent them in fair towels of silk into divers churches in divers places of Assisi.

When she should receive the body of our Lord, it was marvel to see the tears that she wept, of which she was all wet. And she had so great fear when she approached nigh unto her Saviour, that she ne doubted him no less which is in semblance very God in the form of bread, the sacrament, than him that governeth heaven and earth, which is all one. Thus as she had always souvenance and mind of Jesu Christ in her malady, so God comforted her and visited her in her infirmity and languor. In the hour of the nativity of Jesu Christ at Christmas, when the angels and the world made feast and sung and enjoyed of little Jesus that was born, all the poor ladies went to matins into their monastery, and left alone their poor mother sore grieved in her malady. Then she began to think on little Jesus, and was sorrowful that she might not be at the service, and praise our Lord, and said in sighing: Fair Lord God, I wake here alone. And anon she began to hear the friars that sang, and Saint Francis, and heard well the jubilation, the psalmody, and the great melody of the song, howbeit her bed was not so nigh that the voice of a man ne of a woman might not be heard, ne understood if God did it not by his courtesy, or if God had not given to her, above all nature of man, force and power to hear it, but this passed all, for she was worthy to see in her oratory the joy of our Lord. On the morning, when the ladies, her daughters, came to her, she said to them: Blessed be our Lord Jesu Christ, for when ye left me, he left me not truly, and I say to you that I have heard this night all the service and solemnity that hath been done in the church by Saint Francis, through the grace of Jesu Christ.

At the pains of her death our Lord comforted her always. For she drew out of the holy wounds of Jesu Christ a bitterness, of which her heart, her will, and her thought were full of anguish, marvellously bitter, and often as she had been drunken of the sorrow and tears that she wept for the love of Jesu Christ. For ofttimes the love of God which she had imprinted in her heart withinforth she made to appear by signs outward. She informed and taught the novices, and admonished them that they have in their mind the sorrow and pain of the death of Jesu Christ. And that she said with her mouth, she did it in her heart, and gave ensample. When she was secretly alone, tofore she might say anything she was all bedewed with tears. She was most devout and had more fervour of devotion between undern and noon than any other time, because she would that in the hour that Jesu Christ was crucified in the altar of the cross, that her heart should be sacrificed to God our Lord.

On a time it happed at the hour of noon that she prayed to God in her cell, and the devil gave to her such a stroke under the ear, that her eyes and her visage were all covered with blood. She had learned an orison of the five wounds of Jesu Christ, which she oft recorded and remembered because her heart and thought were nourished therein, and might feel the delights that be in Jesu Christ. She learned the office of the Cross of Saint Francis, which loved her truly, and she said it as gladly, to her power, as he did. She girded to her flesh a cord whereon were thirteen knots which were full of brochets of small needles, and thereon small rings, and this did she in remembrance of the wounds of our Lord.

It happed on a time on the holy Sherethursday, which is the day when our Lord made his maundy or supper, whereas is remembered how God loved unto the end his disciples, about the hour of even, when God began the wrestling of his passion, then Saint Clare being heavy and sorrowful, enclosed her in the chamber of her cell. And it happed that she prayed God long, and was sorrowful unto the death, and in that sorrow and heaviness she drew a fervent love full of desire, for she remembered how Jesus in that hour was taken, estrained, haled forth and mocked, insomuch that of this remembrance she was all drunken, and sat in her bed. All that night she was so ravished and on the morn, that she wist not where her body was. The eyes of her head looked steadfastly in one place, without moving or looking aside, and the eye of her heart was so fixed in Jesu Christ that she felt nothing. One of her daughters, more familiar and secret with her than other, went oft to her for to see her, and always she found her in one point. The night of the Saturday, this good devout daughter brought a candle burning, and without speaking made a sign to her blessed mother Clare that she should remember the commandments of Saint Francis, for he had commanded that every day she should eat somewhat. Then as she stood tofore her with a candle burning, Saint Clare came again to her estate, and her seemed she was come from another world. And she said: Fair daughter, what need is of a candle, is it not yet day? And she answered: Right, dear fair mother, the night is passed and the day is gone, and that other night is come. Fair daughter, said Saint Clare, this sleep that I have made be blessed, for I have much desired it, and God hath given it to me, but beware that thou say it never to creature as long as I live. When our Lord knew and apperceived how well and how much this holy Clare loved him, and the right great love that she had to the very cross for the love of him, he so illumined and privileged her in such manner that she had power to make tokens and miracles by the cross. For when she made the sign of the very cross upon them that were sick, anon the malady fled away. And so many miracles God showed for her of which I shall tell you some. First, of a friar that was out of his wit. On a time it happed that Saint Francis sent to Saint Clare a friar named Steven, and was all mad from himself, that she should make upon him the sign of the cross. For he knew well that she was a woman of great perfection, and he honoured her much for the virtue that was in her. And she, that was obeissant and good daughter of obedience, blessed the friar by the commandment of Saint Francis, and made him to sleep a little, and after, she took him by the hand and he arose all whole, and went to Saint Francis clean delivered of all his malady. This blessed Saint Clare was a good mistress and true for to inform young people that knew but little of religion, and she was president and upperest of the maidens of our Lord, and informed them in good customs and taught them right well to do penance. She nourished them by so great love that unnethe any tongue may express, she taught them privily to flee all noise of the world, because they should join to our Lord, and also she exhorted them that they should put from them all carnal affection and fleshly love of their friends, and that they should not be over tender over them ne love them over much, ne houses, ne land, but make them strong to please and serve God. She counselled them and warned them that they should hate to do the will of the body, and that the delights and fleshly desires of the flesh they should with all their heart and good reason go thereagainst. She said to them the fiend of hell lieth in await and layeth his hooks and grinnes subtilly for to take and bind the holy souls, and yet they tempt more the good people than them of the world. She would that they should work and labour with their proper hands in such works as she had established to them. She would that when they had done their bodily travail they should go to prayer, for prayer is a thing that pleaseth much God. And she would that in praying they should rechaufe their bodies, and that they should leave and depress negligence and all coldness of heart, and be kindled and lighted in the holy love of God, so that instead of coldness they should be hot in devotion. In no place ne in no cloister was silence better kept ne holden, there was no lavas in their speech ne evil, but they were sober and so good that they showed well that in their hearts was none evil but all goodness. The good mistress Saint Clare herself spake so little that she restrained them and thought marvellously on their words, howbeit that in her heart ne in her thought was but all holiness. This good lady purveyed to her daughters the Word of God by devout preachings, and had so much joy and gladness profoundly in her heart in hearing the words of the holy predication, that all her delight was in our Lord Jesu Christ her spouse.

For on a time as friar Philip Adrian preached, a right fair child was tofore Saint Clare and abode there a great part of the sermon, and beheld marvellously and graciously Saint Clare, whereof it happed that he was worthy to know and see so high things, of Saint Clare received in that sight, and beholding so great a sweetness in his heart and so great comfort, that it might not be said ne expressed. And howbeit that she was not lettered, yet heard she more gladly the sermons in Latin than in her vulgar tongue. She knew well that within the shell was the kernel, she heard the sermons ententively and assavoured them more sweetly. She could much well draw to her that was most profitable for her soul. And well knew she that it was no less cunning to gather fair flowers among the sharp thorns, than to eat the fruit of a fair tree, that is to say that she loved better a rude sermon well edifying than a fair polished, little profiting.

On a time it happed that the pope Gregory defended that no friar should go to the house of the ladies without his leave. And when the holy mother Saint Clare knew that, she had much sorrow in her heart, because she saw well she might not have that which was needful, which was the nurture of Holy Scripture, and said to her sisters with a sorrowful heart; Now forthon well may the pope Gregory take from us all the friars, when he hath taken from us them that nourished our souls with the Word of God. And anon she sent again all the friars of her house to the master or minister, for she said she had nothing to do to have friars to get them bodily bread, when they failed them that nourished her and her sisters with the Word of God. Anon as the pope Gregory heard this tiding he repealed that which he had defended, and set all at the will of God. This holy and good abbess loved not only the souls of her good daughters, but thought well in her heart oft-times how she might serve their bodies most charitably. For when it was right cold she covered by night them that were feeble, and visited them much sweetly. And if she saw any trouble by any temptation or any anger, which happeth sometimes, she would call them secretly and comforted them, all weeping. And other while she would fall down to the feet of her daughters that were mat and heavy, and kneeled tofore them, so that by the sweetness and debonairly that the ladies saw in their good mother, that she alleged and took away their sorrow, whereof the ladies, her daughters, couthe her much thanks. And thus learned they to do well by devotion and to love their good mother more sweetly, and followed by the right way the works of their good abbess. And they marvelled much of the great abundance of holiness that God had given to his spouse. When she had been forty years in the state of right holy poverty it pleased to our Lord to call her to be rewarded in heaven, and sent to her a great malady, and multiplied her languor and sickness. She had sometime done so sharp penance that her body ne her flesh had no strength. And at the last she was over sick and much more than she was wont to be, for as our Lord had given to her in her health, riches of merits, of good virtues and of good are works, right so would God enrich her in her sickness, to the end that she should suffer for him right great pain and torments, for in suffering of sickness is virtue perfect. How and in what wise she was virtuous in her malady and perfect, ye may hear. For howbeit that she had been eight and twenty years in languor and malady, yet never she grudged, ne murmured, ne plained, but always said holy words and rendered thankings to our Lord, howbeit that she was marvellously aggrieved and sick, so that it seemed that she hasted much to draw to her end.

It pleased nevertheless to our Lord that he respited her from the death unto the time that her end might be honoured, and enhanced her by the presence of the pope and of the cardinals, to whom she was especial daughter. For when the pope and the cardinals had abode a great while at Lyons, Saint Clare was then marvellously destrained by sickness, so that her daughters had great sorrow at their hearts that them seemed that a glaive had pierced them, or that they had been riven with a sword. But our Lord showed anon a vision to one, his handmaid, which dwelled at Saint Paul’s, for it seemed to her that she and her sisters were at Saint Damian’s tofore Saint Clare, which was right sick. And her seemed that this Clare lay in a much fair bed and much precious, and her seemed that her daughters wept when the soul should pass out of the body. And anon she saw a right fair lady at the head of the bed, and said to them that wept: Fair daughters, weep no more, for this lady shall overcome all. And know ye that she shall not die till that our Lord and his disciples shall come. And she shall not abide long after that the pope and the court of Rome shall come to Perugia. And anon as the Bishop of Hostence heard say that this holy woman was sick, anon in great haste he went to see and visit the spouse of Jesu Christ, for he was her ghostly father, and had the cure of her soul, and nourished her with pure heart and will, for he had always devoutly loved the holy virgin. And then he gave to her in her malady the body of our Lord, for that is the very feeding of the soul, and he comforted the other daughters by his sermons and holy words. Then the holy good mother, weeping, prayed him much sweetly that he would take heed of her daughters there being, and of all the others, and that for the love of our Lord he would remember her. And above all other things she prayed him that he would do so much that her privilege of poverty might be confirmed of the pope and of the cardinals.

And he that loved verily her and the religion, and that had always truly aided her, promised that he should do, and did it. In the year after came the pope and the cardinals to Assisi for to see the departing of the holy virgin, and to put to effect the vision that had been seen and signified of her. For the pope is the highest man in earth under God, and that best representeth the person of Jesu Christ, for like as our Lord had his disciples which were joined to him in earth, in like wise the pope hath his cardinals, the which be joined to him in the holy church. Our Lord God hasted him as he that knew the firm purpose of his spouse Saint Clare, and hasted for to honour her, and to set in the palace of the king of paradise his poor pilgrim, and the good lady also coveted and wished with all her heart that she might be delivered of her mortal body, and that she might see in heaven Jesu Christ as she that had ensued him in the earth with all her heart in very poverty. Her members were bruised and troubled by great sickness that the body might not endure, for it was over much enfeebled, so that our Lord called her from this world, and ordained for her health perdurable. Then pope Innocent the fourth and the cardinals came with him for to visit the handmaid of God, of whom he had better proved the holy life than of any woman that was in his time. And therefore he knew certainly that it was reason that he should come and honour her with his presence. And when he came into the house of the ladies, he went thither whereas this holy saint lay, and took to her his hand for to kiss. And the pope, which was courteous, stood upon a tree and took to her his foot to kiss by great humility. And she took it and kissed it much sweetly, and after inclined herself to the pope much humbly, and required him with a sweet cheer that he would assoil her of all her sins. To whom he said: Would God that we had no more need of absolution of sins that we have done than ye have. And then he assoiled her of all her sins and gave to her largely his benediction. And when they were all departed, forasmuch as she had received that day, by the hands of the minister provincial, the very body of our Lord, she lift up her eyes to our Lord to heaven, and joined her hands together and said then: Ah! my right sweet and fair daughters, our Lord Jesu Christ by his debonairly hath done to me so great good, and given to me so great a gift that heaven ne earth may not know, for I have received this day a much high Lord and also have seen his vicar. The good daughters were about the bed, which wept and abode for the orphans whereof they had great sorrow in their hearts, for the death of their mother pierced their hearts like as it were a sword. Which daughters departed not from her ne for hunger, ne for thirst, ne for no sleep, ne they thought neither of bed ne of table. All the delights that they had was for to cry, to weep and to make sorrow. And among all the others her sister, which was a much devout virgin, wept many tears and said to Saint Clare her sister: Fair and right sweet sister, depart not away from me and leave me not here alone. And Saint Clare answered to her much sweetly: Fair sweet sister, it pleaseth to God that I depart from this world, but weep no more, fair sister, for ye shall come hastily to our Lord after me. And also I say unto you that our Lord shall do to you great comfort and consolation tofore or ye die. After, this holy and good Clare drew fast to her end. And the folk and people had to her great devotion and the prelates and cardinals came oft to see her, and honoured her as a very saint. But there was a marvellous thing to hear, for she was by the space of twelve days that never entered into her body no corporal meat, and she was so strong by the suffrance and grace of God that she comforted in the service of God all them that came tofore her, and desired and charged them to do well. And when Friar Reynald, which was debonair, came for to see her and beheld the great sickness that she had long time suffered, he preached to her, and prayed her much to have patience. And anon she answered to him freely and debonairly: Sith that the holy man Saint Francis, the servant of Jesu Christ hath showed to me the way of truth, and that I have felt and known the will and grace of Jesu Christ by the advertisement of Saint Francis, know ye, right dear brother, that no pains displease me, ne no penance grieveth me, ne no sicknesses be to me hard ne displeasing. And then answered she to the friar, when she felt our Lord knock at her gate for to take her soul out of this world, and required that good folk and spiritual should be with her, that she might hear of them the holy words of God, and specially the words of the death and passion of Jesu Christ. And among all others came a friar named Vinberes, which was one of the noblest preachers that was in earth, and that ofttimes spake and said noble and holy words, ardent and good. Of whose coming she was much glad, and prayed him that if he had made ready any new thing that he should say it. And then the friar opened his mouth and began to say so sweet words that they were like sparkles of fire and of ardent fervour, or heat, whereof the holy virgin had much great consolation. Then she turned her and said to her daughters: Sweet daughters, I recommend to you the holy poverty of our Lord, and give ye to him thankings for that he hath done to you. Then she blessed all them that had devotion to her and to her order, and gave largely and wisely her blessing to all the poor ladies of her order that were tofore her there. The two fellows of Saint Francis that were there, of whom that one was named Angel, comforted them that were full of sorrow, and that other friar kissed devoutly and holily the bed of her that should pass to our Lord. The holy ladies sorrowed much the loss of their mother, and as much more as they cried and wept withoutforth, so much more were they ardently grieved within forth. Then Saint Clare began to speak to her soul all softly: Go, said she, go surely, for thou hast a good guide and conductor in the way whereas thou shalt go, which shall lead thee well the right way. Go, said she hardily, for he that made thee and sanctified thee shall keep thee, for he loveth thee also tenderly as the mother doth her child. Lord God, said she, blessed be thou that madest me. And then one of her sisters demanded her to whom she spake. I have, said she, spoken to my blessed soul, and without fail her glorious conductor is not far from her. Then she called one of her daughters and said to her: Fair daughter, seest thou the king of glory whom I see? But the daughter saw him not, for the will of God was that one should see that another saw not, for there was a happy widow and comfortable, which saw him with the eyes of her head among the tears that she wept, and yet nevertheless she was wounded to the heart with a dart full of sweetness and of sorrow. Then she turned her sight toward the door of the house and saw a great company of virgins enter into the house all clad with white clothes, and each of them bare a crown of gold on her head. And among all other, there was one much more clear and fairer than the others which bare a crown of gold windowed, out whereof issued a right great clearness, that all the house was so clearly light, that it seemed the night to be clear day. And this lady that was so clear, approached to the bed whereas the spouse of her son lay, and she inclined upon her and embraced her much sweetly. Then the virgins brought a mantle of right great beauty, and the virgins enforced them to serve and to cover the body of Saint Clare and well to make ready the house. And on the morn was the feast of Saint Laurence, and then died and departed out of this mortal life the holy lady and friend of our Lord, and anon the soul of her was crowned in everlasting joy. The spirit of her was much benignly and joyously loosed and delivered from the flesh, and when the body abode in the earth the soul went with God which was her life. And blessed be the holy company of God that from the valley of this world conducted the holy soul of this lady into the mountain of heaven where the blessed life is. Now is the blessed virgin in the company of them that be in the court of heaven, now hath she changed her poor little life, which hath brought her for to sit at the table where the great delights be. Now hath she, for the little life of humility and of sharpness, the blessed reign of heaven, whereas she is clad and arrayed with the robe of perdurable glory. Anon the tidings were spread abroad that the blessed virgin was departed, and when the people of Assisi heard thereof, they came to the place, both men and women, by so great companies, that it seemed that in the city abode neither man ne woman. And all crying: O, dear lady, and friend of God, and therewith they praised her, and wept much tenderly. The potestate and the provost of the city ran much hastily thither, and with them many companies of knights and of people armed, which all that day and all night kept the body of the holy virgin much honourably. For they would in no wise that the town should not have, by any adventure, damage or hurt in taking away the treasure that lay there. On the morn came the vicar of Jesu Christ and all the cardinals with him, with all the city of Assisi, unto the church of Saint Damian. And when it came there to that they should begin the mass for the blessed Saint Clare, it happed that he that began would have begun the office of them that were dead. And anon the pope said that they ought better do the office of virgins than the office of dead folk, so that it seemed that he would canonise her tofore ere she was buried. Then answered the wise man, the bishop of Hostence, and said it was more accustomed to say of them that be dead in this case, and then they said the mass of requiem, and all the prelates and the bishop of Hostence began to preach, and took their matter how all the world is vanity, and began to praise much greatly this sweet saint, Saint Clare, and how she had despised the world and all that was therein. Then the cardinals that were there went first and did holily the service about the holy body, and the office, like as it is accustomed. And because that them seemed neither right ne reason that the precious body should not be far from the city, they bare it to Saint George’s with so right great feast, singing and praising God in hymns and lauds, and in so great melody, that there was honour enough. And in the same place was first buried the body of Saint Francis. And from this time forthon came much people every day to the tomb of Saint Clare, and giving praisings and laud to our Lord God. And veritably this is a right very saint and glorious virgin, reigning with the company of angels to whom God hath given so much honour in earth. Ah! sweet virgin, pray thou to Jesu Christ for us, for thou wert the first flower of the holy poor ladies which hast drawn to penance without number, and that thou mayst conduct us to the life permanable. Amen.

It was not long after greatly, that Agnes, sister of Saint Clare, was summoned and called to wedding of the very lamb Jesu Christ, and also Saint Clare led her sister unto the joy perdurable, full of delices. There be now the two daughters of Sion which were sisters germane of grace and of nature and be now heritors of the joy of heaven, there where they feel the sweetness of God and enjoy with him. Now is Agnes in the joy and in the consolation that Clare, her sister, had promised to her tofore that she died, for like as Clare brought her out of the world, so brought she herself in the cross of penance by which she is shining in heaven. Thus went Agnes after her sister right soon out of this mortal life full of weeping and of sorrow unto our Lord, which is lite of the soul in heaven, which reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Here follow miracles which were showed after her death.

The tokens and miracles of saints ought to be showed, praised, and honoured and also witnessed, when the works in the life were holy and full of perfection. We find not many signs ne miracles that Saint John the Baptist did, nevertheless he is a much holy saint, and greater than such ones as have been showed for many miracles. And therefore I say that the right holy life and the great perfection of Saint Clare, which she used and demened here in earth, ought well to suffice and witness that she is a very saint, if it were not for the people, which have the more great devotion and more greater faith unto the saints when they see the signs and miracles that God showeth for them. I know well that Saint Clare was in the way full of merits, and that she was ravished in the profoundness of the great clearness and light of heaven, nevertheless though she were resplendissant, well savorous, and right full of great miracles as is well declared by the cardinals of Rome, mine oath of truth that I have made and my conscience, constraineth me that I write to my power the life truly and the miracles of her, how well I pass over many fair things.

Of one that was delivered of the fiend.

There was a child named Jaquemin of Perugia, which had in his body the devil, in such wise that this Jaquemin fell in the fire as he that could not keep him. Sometime he hurtled strongly against the ground, sometime he bit the stones so that he brake his teeth, and otherwhile brake his head, that all his body was bloody, and fouled his mouth and put out his tongue. And sometimes he lay and wallowed, and was round, so that oft he laid his thigh in his neck. And every day twice this malady came to him, and two persons might not keep him ne hold him but that he would despoil and unclothe him maugre them both. There could no physician ne wise man that was in all the country find any remedy ne give counsel to ease him. But the father, which was named Quindelor, when he saw that he could find no counsel nor remedy for this malady, began to cry and call on Saint Clare the holy virgin, and said: To thee that art worthy of all honours, I avow my child which is meschant and caitiff, and pray thee, right sweet saint, that thou wilt send to my child health. And forthwith went to her tomb full of belief to have his request, and laid the child upon the tomb of the virgin and made his prayers. And anon he was delivered of the malady, ne never was sick after of that sickness, ne never hurt him after by reason of that malady.

Another miracle.

Alexandrine of Perugia had in her body a right felonous devil, which had so utterly power over her that he made her descend from a rock that stood upon a river of water, and made her to flee over the water as she had been a bird, and made her to light upon a little bough of a tree which hung over the river, and ceased not to play there. AIso for her sin it happed that she lost her left side, and was lame of that one hand. And she assayed much if she might be healed by any medicine, but alI the medicines that she took availed her not. And then she came to the tomb of Saint Clare with great repentance of heart, and began to require Saint Clare that she would help her, and anon she was healed and redressed in all health. And her side was whole, and hand also, and delivered of the possession of the devil which was in her, and of many other sicknesses and maladies tofore the sepulchre of Saint Clare.

Of one being mad that she healed.

A man born in France came on a time from the court and fell in a malady, that he was out of his wit and might not speak, and so demeaned his body that he might have no rest, and was much over strange and hideous to look on. No man might so hold him but that he brake from them maugre them that held him, and broke asunder cords or any thing that they bound him with, and they of his country brought him to Saint Clare and anon he was healed and well delivered of his malady.

Another Miracle.

There was a man named Valentine Despole, which had a horrible malady, that he fell of the foul evil well six times in a day. And therewith he was lame of one thigh so that he might not go, but was set upon an ass, which brought him whereas Saint Clare lieth, and he was set tofore her tomb three nights and two days, and on the third day, without touching of anybody, his thigh began rumble, and made so great a noise that it seemed that the bone brake, and forthwith he was whole of both diseases

Of a blind man that had his sight again.

Jacob, the son of Spoletine, had been two years blind, so that he must be led, for when he had no leader he went here and there. And on a time the child that led him let him go alone, and he fell so that he brake his arm, and a great wound in his head. And it happed on a night as he slept by the bridge of Margue, there appeared to him in his sleep a lady, and said to him: Jacobel, wherefore comest thou not to me for to be whole? And on the morn he recounted his dream unto two other blind men, all trembling. And the blind men told to him that there was newly dead a lady, in the city of Assisi, for whom God showed many miracles to them that came to her tomb sick and diseased, and when they should depart were all whole. And anon as he heard that he was not slow, but hasted him and came first to Spoleto, and that night he saw the same vision that he had first seen that other night tofore. On a time he went and ran by the way, and for the desire to have his sight he went that night to Assisi. And when he came thither he found so much people in the monastery, and Iying tofore the tomb of the holy virgin, that he might not enter ne come into the monastery ne to the tomb where the virgin lay. And then he laid a stone under his head, and abode there with great devotion, sorrowing and angry that he might not enter. And the same night, as he slept, he heard a voice that said to him: Jacobel, if thou mayst come and enter herein, God shall do well to thee. And on the morn, when he was awaked, he began to pray with great tears that the people would give and make to him way for the love of God, and besought the people, crying them mercy, that they would bring him in. And the people began to make him way. And anon he did off his hosen and shoon and despoiled him by great devotion, and he put his girdle about his neck, and so went to the tomb, and there being in great devotion, fell asleep a little. And Saint Clare appeared to him and said to him: Arise up, for thou art all whole, and anon he arose and saw clearly. And when he saw that he was enlumined, and saw the clearness of the day by the merit of Saint Clare, he praised and glorified our Lord that had done to him so much bounty, and prayed the good people to give praisings and thankings to God.

Of a man that was healed of his hand

There was a man of Perugia which was named Good John. the son of Martin. and went for to fight against them of Foligno, and that one part and that other began the strife, and began to cast stones so great and fast that this John had his one hand all to-frushed and broken of a stone. And because he had great desire to be healed, he dispensed much money on masters and surgeons, but he could find none that could heal him, but that he abode always lame on his hand, ne might do nothing ne work therewith, whereof he had so great sorrow that he hasted him for to have it smitten off many times. But when he heard the great marvels that our Lord had done for Saint Clare, he avowed that he should visit her. And then came to the sepulchre of Saint Clare, the holy virgin, and bare thither an image of wax in his hand, and laid him down upon the tomb, and anon he was perfectly healed of his hand.

Another miracle.

There was a man named Petrius of the castle of Byconne which had been three years sick, and was so enfeebled that by the strength of his malady that he was all dried up, and had so much pain in his reins that he was become so crooked that he went like a beast. For which cause his father led him to the best masters and medicines that he might find and know, and also to such as entremeted of broken bones, and the father would well have spent all his goods on the condition to have his son whole. And when he heard say of the masters that no physic nor no man might heal him of his malady, then he thought to go to Saint Clare, and led his son thither. And so he did, and laid him tofore the sepulchre of the holy virgin. And he had not been long there, but by the grace of God, and by the merits of the holy virgin he was all whole, and arose up guerished of all his malady, and gave laud, thankings, and praisings to our Lord God, and to Saint Clare, and prayed the people to do in like wise because of his health.

Another miracle.

There was also a child of the age of two years in the town of Saint Quirito in the bishopric of Assisi, which was born crooked in the back and lame, which his thighs and feet turned athwart, and went in such wise that it was all out of order, and when he was fallen he could not arise. His mother had ofttimes vowed him to Saint Francis, and was not thereby holpen, and when she heard that God showed new miracles for Saint Clare, she bare her child to her sepulchre and abode there certain days. But within a few days his legs began to grow, and his thighs within the skin were redressed naturally, and he went upright and was all guerished and made whole. And thus he that had been divers times at Saint Francis was healed by the merits of his good disciple Saint Clare, by the virtue of our Lord Jesu.

Of a lame child that never had gone.

A burgess of Augulum named Jacques de Franque had a child of five years of age which had no feet for to bear him, ne had never gone ne might go. Wherefore his father oft wept and sorrowed much at his heart for his deformity, and thought it a reproach to him to have such one disfigured born of his blood. For he lay on the earth and in the ashes, wallowing and addressing him against the wall, desiring by nature to help him, but might and power failed him. Then his father and mother vowed him to S Clare that he should be her servant if by her prayers and merits he might be healed. And as soon as the father and mother had made their vow, the holy virgin healed her servant, so that he had his right limbs and went upright. And anon the father and mother led him to Saint Clare, which went leaping and running, praising our Lord and thanking him, and then the father and mother offered him to our Lord.

Another miracle.

There was a woman of the castle of Bruane named Pleniere which had been long sick in her reins, in such wise that she might not go without help, ne address her but with great pain, and was all crooked. It happed that on a Friday she did her to be borne to the tomb of Saint Clare and prayed her right devoutly that she would help her. And it happed as she prayed she was suddenly made all whole. And on the morn that was Saturday, she went upright all whole on her feet home to her house, whereas the day tofore she was borne for feebleness.

Of her that was healed of the escroceles.

There was a maid of the land of Perugia which had her throat greatly swollen of a malady called escroceles, which she had long, and had about her neck and throat a twenty botches called glanders, so that her neck seemed greater than her head. And oft she had been led to Saint Clare, and the father and mother of the maid had prayed her devoutly to heal their daughter. And it happed on a night as the maid lay tofore the tomb she began to sweat, and the escroceles and the malady began to mollify, and to remove, and anon after, the malady vanished away all clean, and so net that, by the merits of Saint Clare there nas seen sign ne token thereof.

Of a sister of the order.

One of the sisters of the order of Saint Clare, in the time that she lived, had such a malady in her throat, which sister was named Andrea, but it was of one thing marvel, how that among the sisters which were as precious stones, all full of the fervent love of the Holy Ghost, that such one that was so cold might dwell among them as was this Andrea, so foolish, that dishonoureth the other virgins. Then it happed on a night that she distrained herself by the throat that she was almost estrangled, which thing Saint Clare saw and knew by the Holy Ghost, and said to one of her sisters: Now go hastily and take a soft egg and bear it to sister Andrea of Ferrara for to rume her throat, and come again and bring her with thee hither to me. And then she hasted her and found the same Andrea, that she might not speak, for she had almost strangled her with her own hands. And she relieved her as well as she might, and brought her to her good mother. Then Saint Clare said to her: Thou caitiff, go and confess thee of thine evil thoughts, and I wot well that our Lord will heal thee, but amend thy life that thou mayest die of some other malady than this which thou hast suffered so long. And anon as Saint Clare had said these words she began to repent her with good heart, and amended her life marvellously, and was all healed of the escroceles, by the grace of God, but she died anon after of another malady.

Of a wolf that bare away a child.

In the land of Assisi there was a wolf over sore cruel, which tormented the country and the people and ran upon them and slew and ate them. So there was a woman named Gallane of the Mount of Gallum which had children, and the wolf had ravished and borne away one of them, and had eaten him, wherefore she wept oft. And on a time the wolf came for his prey as he had done tofore for to devour some child. And it happed that this woman was busy in her work which she had in hand, and one of her sons went out, and anon, the wolf caught him by the head and ran with him towards the wood. And a man that was among the vines labouring, heard the child bray otherwise than he had heard any, and came running to the mother of the child, and bade her see if she had all her children, for he said that he had heard the cry of a child otherwise than they be woned to cry. And anon the mother looked and saw that the wolf had ravished her child, and went towards the wood with him like as he did with that other, and cried also high as she might cry: Ah! glorious virgin Saint Clare, save my child and keep him, and if thou do not I shall go drown myself. And therewith the neighbours came out and ran after the wolf, and found the child, whom the wolf had left, and a hound beside him licking his wounds. For the wolf had first taken him by the head, and after took him by the reins, for the more easilier to bear him. and the biting of his teeth appeared both in the head and reins. And then the mother went with him to Saint Clare that had so well holpen her, and brought with her her neighbours, and showed the wounds of the child to all them that would see them, and thanked God and Saint Clare that she had her child again rendered to her.

There was a maid of the castle Convary which sat on a time in a field, and another woman had laid her head in her lap. And in the mean while there came a wolf which was accustomed to run on the people, and came to this maid and swallowed the visage and all the mouth and so ran with her toward the wood. And the good woman that rested in her lap when she saw it, was much abashed and began to call on Saint Clare and said: Help! help! Saint Clare, and succour us, I recommend to thee at this time this maid. And she whom the wolf bare, said unto the wolf: Art not thou afeard to bear me any farther that am recommended to so great and worthy lady? And with that word that the maid said, the wolf, all confused and shamed, set softly the maid down, and fled away like a thief, and so she was delivered. Then let us pray unto this glorious virgin Saint Clare to be our advocate in all our needs; and by the merits of her we may so amend our life in this world that we may come unto everlasting life and bliss in heaven. Amen.

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-golden-legend-the-life-of-saint-clare/

Stories of the Saints for Children – Saint Claire

Favorino Sciffi and his wife, Ortolana, lived in a castle near the town of Assisi. They were nobly born and wealthy. He was a brave warrior, and she a pious woman, given to works of mercy and charity. Yet, with all these blessings, there was one they desired which God had withheld, for no children’s faces gladdened their home.

At length Ortolana went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and at Bethlehem prayed earnestly, that if it was God’s holy Will, she might no longer be childless, and, as an answer to her request, a daughter was born to her, whom she was directed by Heaven to name Clare.

The little infant seemed to bring joy and blessing with her; and as she grew up, it was plain that God’s favours had been early bestowed upon her, for even as a tiny child, she showed a remarkable spirit of penance, refusing herself everything she did not strictly need, for the sake of others, and trying to live retired from human notice, for Christ alone. On reaching the age of reason her love of God became more ardent, and the more she thought of Him so much more did she grow to hate herself.

To accord with her rank, the wealth of her parents, and what they desired for her, Clare was obliged to wear rich and costly clothing, but underneath it were rough hair shirts and other instruments of penance, which she put on for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that she might never forget His cruel sufferings for her.

When Clare was fifteen years of age, her parents determined to have her married; but although many husbands, both rich and noble, were proposed to her, she would not listen to their entreaties, but begged to be allowed to remain at home while she was still so young. The cause of this was, that Clare had fixed her mind upon belonging wholly to God, although as yet she did not know in what way to sacrifice herself to Him; and when, through a relative, she heard of the holy Saint Francis, who had left parents, and friends, and home for the love of Christ, she longed to follow in his footsteps.

At length she went to speak to him, and poured out all her desires into his ear. But Francis asked a hard thing, as a test of her sincerity. “Lay aside your rich garments, put on sackcloth, and go through the town begging alms if you wish me to believe you,” he said.

Clare never hesitated, never wavered. She returned at once to her home, wrapped herself in a coarse piece of sackcloth which covered her, and went through the streets of her native city asking bread for the love of God.

After seeing her once or twice more, and feeling convinced that it was really a divine voice which called her to a life of penance, Francis told her to dress in her richest clothing upon the coming Palm Sunday, go to church for the blessing of the palms, and then come to him at Saint Mary of the Angels, where he would give her the habit of a religious.

Clare obeyed all these directions, dressed herself with so much care that her mother and her younger sister were surprised, and then accompanied her friends to the cathedral, after which she returned home to prepare to leave it for ever. She was in her eighteenth year when she left her father’s house in secret, and gliding softly down the castle stairs, escaped by a small side door which was usually open, but then to her dismay was closed by large stones rolled against it. These, however, she moved sufficiently to pass through, praying to God, without Whose help she could not have made her way, and then, with the Mend who had first told her of Saint Francis, she hurried to the church where he was waiting for her.

Putting off her rich dress, she was clothed in a coarse ash-coloured tunic, girded with a thick cord, her long hair cut off, and a veil put upon her head, and she made her vows to God, whilst her garments and her jewels were distributed amongst the poor. Saint Francis placed her in a Benedictine monastery in Assisi, to which her father pursued her, intending to force her back into the world; but no entreaties shook her resolve to follow Jesus in poverty and suffering. Then Favorino threatened to drag her away by violence, but Clare ran to the altar, and, clinging to it, lifted her veil, showing her head without its covering of hair, as a proof that she belonged for ever to God, and then her friends left her and troubled her no more.

Soon afterwards, when Clare had been removed to another convent, her next sister, Agnes, came to see her, declaring that she would also give herself entirely to God. Then Favorino’s anger burst out afresh, and, calling his family together, lie told them that his second daughter had left her home, and besought them to help him bring her back.

Twelve strong men went with the father to the convent, where they asked to see Agnes, and urged her to return, but when she refused they rushed upon her, seized her by her hair and dragged her out. “Help, help,” cried the frightened girl, as they forced her roughly down the mountain path, but there they stayed, for the slight form had become as heavy as lead at the prayer of her sister Clare, and all their strength united failed to lift her. One of them, fiercer than the rest, raised his sword to kill her, but his arm fell withered to his side, and was only cured later by the intercession of Agnes. Then Clare came forward, and besought them to spare her the torn and bruised form of her sister, and they departed, leaving Agnes to rise, all bleeding and wounded, from the ground, to return to the convent, where Francis gave her to God, clothing her also in the habit of penance.

These two sisters were to be the first of that company of poor and holy women who form the Second Order of Saint Francis, and he placed these at Saint Damian’s, where others joined them, forming a little community of which Clare was abbess.

Afterwards Agnes was sent to Florence to commence a house of the same kind there, and thus the sisters were separated, never meeting again till thirty years later, when the elder was dying. It was a severe life of penance, prayer, and almost unbroken silence, but in it both the sisters found great happiness, because God had placed them there. Clare had so wonderful a spirit of prayer that she would often remain hours wrapt in the thought of the sacred Passion of Jesus; and when the time for rest came, she remained with God, and then went to awaken the sisters, light the lamps, ring the bell, and return to her place for the Divine Office. The devil tried to hinder the union of her soul with God by appearing to her in a hideous form, but Clare said:

“They who serve the Lord need never be afraid,” and he immediately disappeared.

In honour of the Blessed Sacrament, the Saint spent much time in working for the altar, even when upon her sick-bed; spinning with her own hands linen for the use of the churches which needed it.

Though Clare had been compelled to take the place of abbess, she loved better to serve her sisters than to command them, and in sickness she waited upon them most patiently and charitably. Weak as her body was, she treated herself with great severity, eating only herbs or vegetables, sleeping on the ground with a log of wood for her pillow, and never even in the coldest weather wearing any covering upon her feet; yet these mortifications never made her gloomy or unhappy, and her smile was bright and her voice always cheerful

During the time of Saint Clare, the Church was persecuted by the Saracens, and the infidel troops entered Assisi and saw the convent upon the hill before them. They at once determined to attack it, and choosing a dark night, scaled the high walls and made their way into the outer court. At their first shout, the hearts of the defenceless nuns were filled with fear, and they came crowding round the bedside of the holy abbess, who was sick.

“Fear not, my children, Jesus will defend you,” she said; and bade them carry her to the convent gate.

They reminded her of the danger, of her weak health, but it was in vain. Saint Clare made her way to the battlements, assisted by two of her nuns, but first she knelt before the Blessed Sacrament and begged Jesus to protect those who were given to Him, and not allow their fierce and wicked enemies to harm them. As she prayed, a sweet voice like that of a child seemed to come from the tabernacle. “I will protect you for ever,” it said. Then the Saint’s confidence grew stronger, and she cried:

“Lord, defend also this city which maintains us for the love of Thee.”

To which the silvery voice answered:

“This city shall suffer, but it shall be defended by My protection and your prayers.”

Then Clare, full of power from God, took the remonstrance in her hand, and mounting the wall, held it up before the eyes of the infidels, who were just going to leap into the inner court, and, blinded by the light, which streamed in brilliant rays from the Blessed Sacrament, the terrified men fell back, and the convent was left in peace.

Once more a troop encamped beneath the walls of Assisi, under a clever general, but Saint Clare and her nuns scattered ashes upon their heads, and wept, and sighed before God, praying for the deliverance of their city, and their supplication prevailed, and the enemies were driven away utterly defeated.

During a famine the nuns suffered want as well as the other inhabitants of that part, and at length came to their last morsel of bread; but Clare gave orders for it to be divided and one half sent to the friars, whilst the remainder should be distributed amongst the community in portions.

“But, mother, it will need the help of a miracle to divide this bread into sufficient pieces,” said the sister who had received the command; upon which the holy abbess smilingly bade her do what was told her, and the bread multiplied in her hands, so that there was enough for the meal of all the sisters that day. Another time oil was miraculously supplied to them in answer to the prayer of this true servant of God, who turned to Him in her necessity with such trust and love. When Saint Clare had passed forty years in poverty and penance she became very feeble, and grew gradually weaker until her death. During her illness she was always in prayer or asking to have the sacred Passion of Christ read to her, and as her hope of leaving the world became surer, the expression of her face grew radiant with joy.

On the evening of the 10th of August the nuns who were attending her, saw a number of white-robed virgins appear, following Mary, who entered the poor cell, bent over the dying Saint, and kissed her lovingly, as the virgins threw a royal mantle over her worn habit.

Next day Clare died, and her body was carried to the church where her holy Father Francis had been carried years before, whilst the entire populace followed in her honour; and there, some time later, a splendid church was built where her sacred relics were enshrined, and to which her daughters removed that they might dwell by the tomb of their mother and foundress, whose virtues had shone so brightly, whose holiness had brought down God’s blessing upon her Order, and whose name should live ever to the glory of her Lord throughout the Catholic Church.

– from Stories of the Saints for Children, by Mary F Seymour

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/stories-of-the-saints-for-children-saint-claire/

Saint Clare of Assisi, by Father Dominic Devas, O.F.M.

To visit Jerusalem, Rome and Assisi for the first time, and all within a month, is to lodge in the mind a memory not likely soon to be lost. Jerusalem is fortunate in its walls, for the cramped city, within their narrow compass, retains much of its ancient ways and antique buildings steeped still and richly with the emotion of bygone multitudes. Rome is Rome – immortal despite all the ravages of “progress.” Old and new jostle one another so closely that the atmosphere of antiquity can only be caught here and there in this quarter or in that building. The prevailing note is strident and modern. How different is Assisi! As the train moves down out of the hills and then pushes on discreetly up the wide Umbrian valley, it seems to know its place and deliberately to refrain from drawing in too closely to the beautiful white city set midway on the eastern slopes. One feels that a thirteenth-century friar, whom the Jerusalem of today would mystify and modem Rome utterly bewilder, would know Assisi at once and be quite at home there. Comparatively speaking, it has changed little during these intervening centuries; and even that mingled masterpiece of audacity and calm, the church and convent of San Francesco, though Francis did not know it, was certainly known to Saint Clare, even though invisible from her home at Saint Damian’s. Indeed, Clare had a beauty all her own to gaze at if she would. Most cities, hurriedly visited, leave in the memory some vivid core or center, that the name evokes at once and around which the other memories gather tardily and with effort. For some, at least, the so-called Garden of Saint Clare in the convent of Saint Damian fulfills that office for Assisi. It is quite tiny, enclosed by lofty masonry on three sides, but the fourth, bordered by a low wall, looks straight down on to the beautiful plain or wide valley of Umbria, with the outline of the far hills rising mistily out of the blue distances and closing the horizon in – a perfect view quite beyond adequate description in words. It is a place of utter peace, so calm, so alien to the world’s rough noise and ceaseless questionings, so responsive to man’s own inward witness to the invisible that one almost waits for the old door to open softly and to admit Clare herself to her garden with a greeting for the visitor. That may not be, but at least one may strive to recall for a while the memory of a very noble figure in the Franciscan past, and of one whose inspiration, after seven centuries, still glows in the heroic lives of many generous souls.

Clare was born at Assisi in July 1194. Her father was called Favarone; her mother’s name was Ortulana. She had, it would appear, an elder brother called Martin, and in time two younger sisters, Agnes and Beatrice. There was also an uncle, Monaldo. Sixteenth and seventeenth century writers, with their insatiable itch for nobility at all costs, have diligently gotten Clare into the best society. They present her to us as one of the great Sciffi family. Contemporaries knew nothing of this; they were, in fact, more like ourselves, and were content when they found that true nobility of which sanctity is so sure a school, without bothering to look around for escutcheons. All we really know for certain of Clare’s family – and it is illuminating enough in view of her subsequent character – is that she came from great fighting stock. “Pater ejus miles et tota utroque parente progenies militaris” (Her father was a soldier and her ancestry on both sides, military). We know also, from the same source, that the family, from the material point of view, was very well off. One might, then, hazard the suggestion that Clare’s family at Assisi was of much the same local standing as that of Antony at Lisbon – of the urban nobility or, as we should say, of the upper class. How trifling all such inquiries seem when our business is with a soul of such outstanding “greatness” as that of Clare.

Sanctity ennobles souls and makes them truly “generosi” (of high birth) no matter what their earthly origins.

Clare owed much to her mother, Ortulana, a woman of real piety. In her younger days, Ortulana had been on pilgrimage to the holy places in Palestine, and to Saint Michael’s shrine in the south of Italy; and in her day – in marked contrast to our own – to go on pilgrimage both required and was itself an evidence of a spiritual sincerity of no common order. Just before Clare’s birth, Ortulana was in church praying before a crucifix for a safe delivery when an interior voice reassured her. She was to set all fear aside, for her child would be safely bom and become a great light in the world. At the child’s baptism in the Cathedral of San Rufino – and at the same font, still to be seen, wherein Francis was baptized – the little one received the name of Clare. With a sigh for what is so swiftly passing from amongst us, we read how Clare learned the “fidei rudimenta” (rudiments of faith) from her own mother’s lips. No wonder those lessens held so firmly. No wonder similar lessens are apt to sit so lightly on so many of the modern generation when they learn these same rudiments of faith along with Latin grammar, ancient history, and much else. Combining the mdiments of faith with all that other information often causes all of it, in time, to go the way of “school stuff,” carrying those rudiments of faith along with it.

As a child, Clare was unselfishness in giving alms, an early indication of her mastery in the penances she would impose upon herself. As a child, Clare also showed a determination to be thorough with God when she counted her little prayers with loose pebbles to make sure she did not overlook one.

When Clare was about fifteen years of age, Francis came back from Rome with verbal approval for his way of life from Pope Innocent III and began gathering followers around him at his new home – Saint Mary of the Angels, the Portiuncula. Assisi was now ashamed no longer of her wayward son. Amongst the earliest to be drawn towards one who was already beginning to lead souls with a touch as sure and direct as that which the world has seen more lately in the Cure d’Ars, was the young girl Clare. We have a fine example here of that remarkable insight into the character Francis possessed, and for which only the tardiest recognition has been forthcoming. To handle a soul like Clare’s with such unerring skill, such perfect assurance, and such complete success was a great achievement; and is an instance alike of the value of sound direction, when it may be had, and of the chief source of its efficacy. For some three years, Clare, accompanied by her maid, frequently visited Francis when he was staying at the Portiuncula. There is little difficulty in following their talk. It was all, as Celano puts it, “vivo sermone,” (with speech alive and vivacious). Francis spoke to Clare of the world’s emptiness, of life with God, and of Jesus Christ, “Quern amor humanavit” (whom love made man).

The issue could hardly be doubted. On Palm Sunday, 18 March in 1212, Clare, dressed in splendor beyond the ordinary, went with the crowds to the cathedral for the distribution of palms. When the time came to receive her palm, she felt she could not rise with the rest and move up towards the sanctuary. Issues so vast and novel for this girl of eighteen were to be put to the test that night. Therefore, it hardly surprises us to find her here, for once in her life, overwrought. The chronicler quietly covers all with a discreet “prae verecundia” (just shyness) and there she remained in her place, more conspicuous now than ever. The Bishop of Assisi was officiating. This was Guido, true friend of both Francis and Clare, and close sharer of their counsels. Seeing Clare still kneeling in her place, he came down the sanctuary and placed the blessed palm into her hand. It came to her from God’s minister as a pledge of conflict and of victory. That night, with one to bear her company, Clare left her home by a disused door and came straight to Francis at the little chapel of Saint Mary of the Angels. He and the brothers were waiting with torches to receive her. She came to the tiny altar, and, at the hands of Francis, vowed herself to God absolutely, irrevocably, keeping nothing back. The actions were swift, but the work itself unhurried. Three years had gone to the fashioning of it, years of prayer, reflection and wise counsel; and now at length the gauge Christ had cast into that generous soul was taken up and His gentle challenge, Come, follow Me, met. And it was at Mary’s own shrine that the dedication was made, so that, as the Chronicler puts it, Mary might become the Mother of this family also, the religious daughters of Clare; as already she was the Mother of the family which Francis had gathered around this little chapel of hers in the woods.

When the ceremony was over and Clare had set aside her worldly adornments, she was conducted at once to a neighboring convent of Benedictine nuns, dedicated to Saint Paul. Soon enough her warlike relatives discovered her retreat and appeared at Saint Paul’s, determined to regain her, by force if need be. Clare was adamant, clinging to the very coverings of the altar, and baring her head that all might see it, shorn in token of her consecration. The conflict continued for several days, when at length, realizing the futility of trying to shake her resolution, her relatives left her in peace to God, and returned to Assisi. In reality, this strange scene – soon to be repeated in the case of Clare’s sister and with even greater violence – is very typical of an age wherein thought was the handmaid of action and not – as so often today – its substitute. One remembers Saint Bernard and the opposition he met with and triumphed over so completely, or the revolting endeavors employed to hamper the young Thomas Aquinas in achieving his purpose, to see how this sort of physical constraint was common enough. Today it finds its softened counterpart in the worldwise endeavors to distract from foolish visions of the cloister those whose future careers we have hopefully mapped out on other lines. There is nothing anti-clerical in either case, but just two different fashions of showing displeasure at personal disappointment. Shortly after this conflict – likely enough because of it, for it greatly disturbed the peace of the house, and, who knows, might perhaps have been renewed – Clare moved to the convent of Saint Angelo di Panso, which was also Benedictine. Here she made her earliest conquest.

Between Clare and her younger sister, Agnes, there had long existed a complete harmony of thought and will. The latter shared in all her sister’s hopes and plans, and must have known full well of her devotion to Francis and of her purpose to consecrate her life to God under his guidance. Once the venture had been made, Clare did not cease to pray for Agnes that she might soon join her. Her prayers were heard; and we are thus confronted with the first notable instance of the wonderful efficacy of Clare’s prayer. Little more than a fortnight after Clare herself had left her home, and whilst she was still with the Benedictine nuns of Saint Angelo di Panso, Agnes fled alone and in secret from the house of Assisi and joined her sister. It was 2 April 1212, and she was fifteen years of age.

Most people are familiar with the scene that followed and the violent efforts – miraculously frustrated – that were made to drag the unwilling Agnes away from the life of her choice. During all the shouting and tumult, Clare prayed, and praying won. The only consoling feature in this brutal assault on one so young is the absence of the immediate family of Clare. The villain of the piece was the uncle, Monaldo, who disappears henceforward from history. Let us hope the double miracle, the sudden weight of Agnes so that strong men could not lift her, and his own arm raised to strike and itself struck temporarily useless and for long afterwards often in pain, might have helped turn his mind to better things. Such events, however, were disquieting for the generous hosts of the two sisters, and doubtless served to hasten on the needful work of preparation going on all the while at Saint Damian’s, Assisi. A few days after the rough scene with Agnes, all was sufficiently ready and the two sisters entered the walls of that historic house, still redolent of Francis’s own work and rich with his prophetic utterance that soon it would shelter holy women dedicated to God.

At the convent of Saint Damian, then, just outside the walls of her native town, in the same eventful year of 1212, Clare dropped anchor at last. In the beautiful words of her first biographer, “broke the alabaster vase of her body so the whole church was filled with the odor of the ointment.” That this was not merely rhetoric is shown by the number of those who came so soon to Saint Damian’s to associate themselves with Clare and Agnes in their new life. It is also equally shown in the strange, indefinable way in which Clare’s influence and example reached, entered, and permeated other convents of women, who were already pursuing an ordered way of life and who had already been long established in the Church, and led to their inclusion in the new Order.

Once enclosed within the walls of her new home, Clare never left it; and it now remains to treat – and how superficial, even at the best, must such treatment be – of the forty years and more she spent there. As one looks back over these seven hundred years of Franciscan history, Clare still towers over it all serene and radiant, with something of that brilliance which so plainly impressed those of her own day. She was of the very few in whom Francis found an utterly congenial spirit, and among these very few she entered as fully as any into the Franciscan ideal; she was a perfect flower on the Franciscan tree. Saint Bonaventure tells us that Francis aimed at combining in his Order three hitherto disparate movements.

1) He would have the following of Christ in an ordered conventual life, such as he established at Saint Mary of the Angels.

2) He would add a measure of the eremitical life by initiating such solitary homes as those of the Carceri or La Verna.

3) On this twin basis, he would build up a vast missionary enterprise that would stretch out brave arms to the most remote corners of the known world.

That Clare, enclosed at Saint Damian’s, could share in the ideals of conventual life and retirement is plain enough, but, for her, life was also to be apostolic. Clare’s old friend, Cardinal Ugolino, now Pope Gregory IX, would often appeal to Clare for help in the many cares and difficulties of his pontificate. As the chronicler puts it, “sciebat enim quid potest amor,” (he knew the power of love), and looked to Clare and her daughters to help the Church everywhere by their apostolate of prayer and sacrifice. One is reminded at once of an earlier Gregory, the seventh, the great and saintly Hildebrand, and of his beautiful letters to the monastic house he loved so well, to Cluny and its abbot, Hugh . Hugh is implored to secure the prayers of those ‘whose holy lives assure fulfillment’ for himself as representing that ‘universal mother’, the Church. And again one is reminded of our late Holy Father Pope Pius XI, and of the confidence he assured us he felt in these other martyrs, as admirable and so numerous, who are hidden within the cloister of a religious house . . . innocent victims indeed, with no other desire save to turn aside from the world – as many times they have done – the rigors of divine justice Clare was well aware of this and of the work for souls that lay at her hands to do. Her cloistered life was no life of idle dreaming, aloof from the world’s cares and the countless needs of souls. We have a tiny but vivid illustration of this in a later incident in Clare’s life.

Assisi was being beset by a marauding band, nominally Imperial troops, under the immediate command of one Vitalis de Ad versa. Saint Damian’s itself – we shall see why later – they would not touch, but the walled city was thought to be an easier objective than any convent of women with someone like Clare within. Yet, in attacking the city, they were still reckoning with Clare. The needs of Assisi were ever her own, and so she set herself with her daughters to pray earnestly for its safety. The bandits found, to their surprise, that they could make no headway against the city, and soon abandoned the assault and went elsewhere for easier conquests.

It was certainly a delight for the inmates of Saint Damian’s to listen as they did, from behind the grille, to the accounts the friars brought to them of the labors and even the martyrdom of the sons of Francis in distant lands. Their interest did not end there. By prayer, love, and sacrifice they entered into those very labors themselves. Though she emphasized the life of contemplative solitude, Clare was not, and her family never was, aloof from Franciscan activities. In his anxious musings as to whether he should surrender his active life for the delights he so relished of complete retirement, it was to Clare that Francis turned instinctively for guidance. From Clare he received the only answer a real Franciscan could give, “non sibi soli vivere sed aliis proficere,” as the liturgy puts it; i.e., to live for others rather than himself. And Clare’s advice to Francis has become timeless and for all.

Clare was always cheerful in look as well as manner, and Francis in his sorrows felt, like many others, the consoling and uplifting force that emanated from her. It was in a hut, by night, in the garden of Saint Damian’s, that Francis, suffering sorely in the eyes, and sleepless and worried with the rats which infested the place, revealed his yet untroubled soul in the sweet, brief Canticle of Praise. And if the charming legend that tells of Clare leaving Saint Damian’s to sup with Francis and the brethren at the Portiuncula lacks historic foundation, it does emphasize the truth of the perfect harmony that knit together these two great souls and of the immense help each drew from the other in their persevering loyalty to great ideals. The wood around Saint Mary of the Angels, all brilliantly lit that night with a supernatural glow, which brought the neighboring peasants, as the legend tells us, in hot haste with water to extinguish the fancied conflagration, is but a telling symbol of that warmth of love that true Franciscanism was in fact to carry throughout the world. These holy souls loved the world too much to remain in it and be served by it; and so they left it that, aloof from it, they might serve it the better.

As numbers grew, Clare – all unwillingly – accepted the inevitable office of Superior which Francis wished her to hold, and became the first Abbess in the new Order. She was an ideal Superior, for she recognized at the outset that “office” implies not more liberty for self but more devoted service to others. She led, and therefore never needed to drive. She had the discerning eye that detects at once the genuinely sick and was prompt to succor them with liberal dispensations. Equally, she knew when any were discouraged, and comforted them out of the strength of her own brave heart. She was ready on occasion to rise and rouse from sleep the younger ones, and then to hasten herself to the little choir to light the lamps for the Night Office, that grand prayer of the Church she loved so well and of the efficacy of which she was so completely assured.

On cold nights, she would steal quietly amongst her sisters, as they slept, and adjust the coverings to keep them warm. Despite much sickness, she was untiring in manual work especially in weaving corporals and making silk burses to be distributed amongst poor churches.

Her teaching mirrored her life. She spoke of self-mastery and of the need of penance, but wisely, with detail adjusted to the individual. Because she knew some practice to be wise in her own case, she did not conclude at once that it must be wise for all. One can see her smile when an over-zealous sister who had been allowed to have her own way and borrow Clare’s hair-shirt, returned it to her within three days with no more to say upon the subject. Much more anxious was she to ensure in her community peace of heart and that spirit of detachment from home and country that does not diminish our love for these but rises to a higher level than ever the charity we have for all. There were miracles, too, to enhance, if need be, the position Clare came to hold both within and outside her cloister. The bread was multiplied on one occasion, the oil on another. This latter was particularly remembered because, before Clare had appeared on the scene, the anxious sister in charge had sent an urgent message to the lay brother, whose business it was to go on quest for the nuns, to come at once. This he did, but on his arrival discovered, to his annoyance, that his hot haste had been needless. Clare had forestalled him, and he was not wanted after all. Little wonder he found the sister’s joke – as he thought it – rather out of place.

It would be a difficult thing to speak of Clare’s prayers, as also of her temptations. Even had she possessed and used that gift of descriptive writing and intimate self- revelation that distinguished Saint Teresa of Avila, it would remain true of Clare, as it still remains true of Teresa, that of these things, by far the greater part must ever be ” the secrets of the King” known only to Christ and to the soul.

Like Saint Francis, veritable Apostle of the Holy Eucharist in the thirteenth century, Clare also had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. This has become immortalized in a famous scene, often reproduced on stone and canvas. The earliest life of the saint makes it quite evident that Clare did not actually carry the pyx or ciborium containing the Blessed Sacrament – though we may easily pardon this later adornment of the story – but she accompanied the chaplain, whom she had summoned that he might confront the rough intruders with Him in whom all her confidence lay. It was a bold, unprecedented step; but it throws into high relief Clare’s simple, childlike grasp of spiritual realities. As she stood erect and imperturbable for one tense moment facing the mob, she heard a tiny voice, as of a little child, saying, “I shall shield you always.” The triumph was complete and instantaneous. The wild Saracen auxiliaries, in the pay of Frederick II, who had thus rudely attempted, as they roved lustful and undisciplined over the countryside, to assault the calm of Saint Damian’s, fled pell-mell from the scene, utterly overwhelmed by the two silent figures and the sacred burden they bore. Emperor Frederick was at the time in one of his bouts of fruitless hostility toward the Holy See and Assisi and its district were under Papal suzerainty.

Although this well-known incident has rightly grouped Saint Clare among the many saints who showed conspicuous devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, her love was far from depending on such unexpected crises. It was with Clare as with Francis; devotion to the Blessed Sacrament glowed warm and life-long in her soul, and marked emphasis is laid by the chronicler on her Holy Communions. Another devotion remarked in Clare was to the Sacred Passion, and embedded therein a special love of the Five Wounds – that grand old devotion once so popular in Catholic England. There is extant a Prayer in Honor of the Five Wounds of Christ, attributed to our saint, but its authenticity is doubtful.

With all her tenderness and deep piety Clare was, however, a very determined woman, with a very strong will, definitely knowing her own mind, and overriding opposition with a strong hand even though it lay in high quarters. When, on one occasion, whatever the reason; the chaplain, Father Philip d’Andria, was withdrawn from Saint Damian’s, Clare was stirred to immediate action, and forced the issue at once by dismissing the lay brothers who, in those times, were allotted to the convent to ‘quest’ alms for the sisters. Clare relished the conferences of Father Philip “If our spiritual nourishment is to be neglected,” was her argument, “let them trouble no more about our corporal sustenance.” The Clares could not be left to die of starvation; a chaplain was reappointed and the brothers resumed their very essential duties.

More striking still was Clare’s attitude in the matter of poverty. Nothing would move her in her determination to win and to hold the unusual privilege of having no conventual property at all. Innocent III, tentatively, and probably only by word of mouth, acceded to her wish; but Gregory IX definitely proposed that, in view of their circumstances, some material source of regular revenue was most desirable. No, Clare would have none of it.

“If it is your vow that makes you anxious,” said the Pope, “I can dispense you from that.”

“Holy Father,” replied the saint, “I have no sort of desire to be dispensed from the lifelong following of Christ.”

Wise Pope Gregory – who knew courage when he met with it and prized it at its right worth – left it at that. Then, as Clare lay dying, Pope Innocent IV visited her and left to her in writing the Holy See’s assent to her cherished Privilege of Poverty. She had strained for this all her life. Now at last it was hers, and she was utterly at peace.

The years moved swiftly on. After her husband’s death, Ortulana joined her daughter at Saint Damian’s. Clare had great supernatural powers from God and to be marked by her with the Sign of the Cross was a swift way to relief from mental or physical suffering. Sometimes Clare would send the sufferer to her mother so Ortulana might mark the Cross on the brow of the patient, and thus vicariously was the work of healing done. Francis himself had unbounded confidence in Clare’s power of intercession, and on one occasion sent to her a Brother Stephen who was much afflicted in mind.

He returned to Francis completely cured. The sign of the Cross worked wonders at Saint Damian’s, and both Agnes and Ortulana were often the vehicles of God’s mercy to the stricken.

What was the Rule of Life followed at Saint Damian’s? This question, if pursued, would lead us into a great morass of discussion and argument. It is enough to recall two established facts. Clare certainly received a Rule of Life of some kind from Saint Francis not long after settling at Saint Damian’s, and it can hardly be doubted that, apart from recognizing the wholly enclosed life of the Sisters, it resembled the Rule of Life he had given the friars themselves. As with them, so with the Clares, oral approval from Pope Innocent III must suffice. Mention is made of this rule later on by Pope Gregory IX in a letter he wrote to Blessed Agnes of Bohemia. He speaks there of the “formula vita” (way of life) that Francis had given to Clare and her daughters at Saint Damian’s. Then, before the saint’s death, a definite rule was drawn up under her direction and fully in accord with her life-long hopes and ideals; and this was confirmed in writing by Pope Innocent IV in 1253.

The entire exterior fabric of Poor Clare life is “contemplative.” Its whole purpose is to facilitate and foster the contemplative life of each individual nun. It is bent uniquely to that goal. Yet, this is far from implying that it is the one exclusive path thereto. The interior life with God is open to every sincere soul whether in the world or in the cloister. We have universities everywhere that profess to be seats of learning, to encourage and to provide special facilities for the acquisition of learning. Yet, learning may be pursued elsewhere by all with the necessary aptitude and desire for it. So it is in the things of the spirit. A “contemplative order” claims no monopoly on contemplation. Yet, its purpose is to eliminate as many obstacles as possible and to provide as many helps as possible to enable its members to develop a deep interior life. In a word, as our Lord once said to Saint Margaret of Cortona, it is to be a “collegium divini amoris” (a university of the love of God), helping those who live in it, and inspiring emulation from those who are outside.

It now remains to speak of Clare’s wonderful and most happy death in August 1253.

She had long been ailing and often in pain, but now at last it was evident that the end was near. It is astonishing to read of the many and distinguished visitors who felt it a privilege to be able to visit the dying saint. Nothing shows more clearly, how deeply her example and her long cloistered life, and her fine personality, which no mere walls could close in, had impressed all classes round about her little convent. The odor of the ointment had indeed filled all God’s house. She lives in the pages of Celano, more vividly than ever as death draws near. Her words remained indelibly imprinted upon the minds of all who heard her.

The Franciscan priest, Father Raynaldo, came to condole with her in her sufferings and – most foolishly – to exhort Clare of all people to the anemic virtue of mere resignation.

To this, she replied, “Father, since, through His servant Francis, I came to know the sweetness of my Lord Jesus Christ, no trial has ever been a burden to me, no austerity has ever been irksome to me, no sickness, my dearest Brother, has ever been bitter to me.”

Her words are almost fierce in their vigor and martial in their ring. They unveil for us very clearly a splendid example of the “mulier fords” (strong woman) of Holy Scripture. They reveal the fact, so often overlooked, that for soft, languishing, sentimental souls, the convent offers no refuge at all.

A visitor of another kind was Brother Juniper. What a joy it is to find him portrayed here – as he really was – “egregius Domini Jaculator” (Christ’s Lancer), full of quick wit and very human sympathies, but far from being the mere knockabout comedian he is described elsewhere.

When he entered the sickroom, Clare jokingly greeted him by asking what spiritual toy he had up his sleeve. As all the saints have a way of talking deeply without being solemn and ponderous, the conversation that followed between these two grand souls was of just that sort, and it left Clare wonderfully comforted.

Another visitor was Cardinal Raynaldo, Bishop of Ostia, who later became Pope Alexander IV. He gave Clare Holy Communion and later preached words of comfort to all her nuns. He was the Order’s Protector, and Clare profited by his visit to implore him to do his utmost to win for her definite and official assent to her cherished Privilege of Poverty. He promised and succeeded.

Finally, Pope Innocent IV himself visited. Here, indeed, we have the climax of this great stream of visitors, drawn, as by a magnet, to Saint Damian’s. A personal visit from the Pope himself was an absolute unprecedented honor done to the dying Clare. On the morning of the day he came, Clare received Holy Communion at the hands of the Minister Provincial. When the Pope entered her cell, he drew near the couch on which the saint lay, and, with immense reverence, she kissed his feet. Once was not enough; and, to satisfy her ardor, he raised his foot onto a little foot stool, so she might more easily reach and kiss it again. Clare’s love of the Holy See was very real and most ardent, as was that of Francis, and her loyalty was absolute. The Pope knew this, and by such courtesy, acknowledged it. She then begged the Holy Father to grant her, in God’s name, full forgiveness for all her sins.

“Would my need was as yours,” he answered, and willingly gave her plenary absolution. Before he left, Clare received from him that cherished approbation from the Holy See of her Order and of her beloved Poverty. No wonder, when all was over and Clare could reflect in peace on the events of that great day, that she expressed her sense of immense privilege in having been allowed with so short a space to receive her Lord and Master in Holy Communion, and then to have seen His Vicar on earth. As ever, Clare’s thoughts could not rest for long upon herself. She had others and the future in mind. From her sick bed, Clare, like Francis before her, blessed from her heart all houses of Clares “actual or to be.”

Still the stream of visitors flowed in and out. Now that the end was so plainly at hand, a few privileged ones remained, notably those famous sons of Francis, Leo and Angelo. It was a wonderful group, for we must remember that Agnes was with them at Saint Damian’s again. As is natural, Agnes felt most the coming separation.

“Do not weep,” Clare says to her. “Soon will you follow me.” Then the dying saint murmurs on, half to herself, hardly aware of others. “Go forth with confidence,” they hear her repeat. “Go forth with confidence; thou hast a good guide for the road. Go forth, for He who created thee has sanctified thee; He watches over thee; and, as a mother her child, so He too with tender love has cherished thee. Blessed art Thou, my Lord, my Creator.”

As the last moments draw near we are not surprised to find how thin grow the veils hiding from human eyes God’s invisible creation around us. The dying have sight more keen than the living. To the dying Clare comes the vision splendid of the King. Enraptured, she gazes forward then turns to the sister at her side, “Daughter,” she whispers, “do you see, as I, the King of Glory?” Then, suddenly she is struck, as with a blow, by a shaft of intense sorrow. How can littleness, such as hers, ever have access to such splendor? Averted eyes move towards the open doorway of her cell. Lo! It is filled with Angels grouped together, white and brilliant, and in their midst, Mary. The Blessed Virgin draws near the bed, bends over it, and kisses the dying saint. In that flood of Heavenly radiance, Clare passes. It is 11 August, the morrow of Saint Laurence’s day.

The burial was a triumph. One might have fancied some great prince was being carried to his grave, so vast and distinguished was the gathering. Innocent IV was there and many Cardinals. In fact, the Pope was so carried away by his enthusiastic faith in Clare’s sanctity that, but for Cardinal Raynaldo, who deemed it premature, he would have substituted in the burial service the Office of Virgins for the usual Office for the Dead.

All went forward, however, as prescribed in the Ritual. The body of the saint was taken to the Church of Saint George, or probably, to the little chapel adjoining, in which the body of Saint Francis had rested for four years. When, for greater security, the Clares later moved to Saint George from their convent of Saint Damian, this little chapel was incorporated into their new home; and the body of Clare rests there to this day.

Two years later, and after the usual careful investigation into the many miracles wrought by the saint, Clare was solemnly canonized at Anagni by her old friend Cardinal Raynaldo, reigning now as Pope Alexander IV.

NOTE – Recent research has established the fact that, during the communal rising at Assisi, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, Clare’s family was among those forced to take refuge in Perugia, and their house in Assisi was sacked. Clare, then, certainly spent some of her childhood years in Perugia and it is likely that her warlike father and uncle were engaged in the victorious battle of 1202 against the communal forces of Assisi in whose ranks the young Francis himself was fighting, and in which he was made prisoner. When hostilities were over, one of the conditions imposed on Assisi was to allow the peaceable return of those who had been driven out. Thus the same occasion brought back, though in very different groups, both Francis and Clare to their native town and Assisi, even in those distant days, could watch the return of prisoners-of-war and displaced persons.

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-clare-of-assisi-by-father-dominic-devas-o-f-m/

Virgin Saints and Martyrs – Saint Clara

It has been often remarked how that a saint who initiates a reform, or does some great work, has a faithful woman to assist, or carry on his work, and complete it. What he designed for all alike, he was competent only to apply to men, and she carried out his ideas among women. Thus Saint Bridget supplemented the achievements of Saint Patrick, and Saint Hilda those of Saint Aidan. Benedict’s twin sister Scholastica worked side by side with her brother; and, as we shall now see, Saint Clara was the spiritual sister and help-mate of Saint Francis. The moon, according to David, is an ever faithful witness in heaven; and yet the moon wanes and for a time disappears. The moon much resembles the Church.

“The moon above, the Church below,

A wondrous race they run;

And all their radiance, all their glow,

Each borrows from its sun.”

As the moon wanes, so there are periods when the Church proves dull, dark, and without much token of spiritual life; but this is for a time only, and precedes a restoration of illumination. The period when Saint Francis appeared was one of those of darkness in the Church. The enthusiastic faith of the barbarian kings and nobles, bred of the self-devotion and earnestness of the first missionaries among them, had led to their endowing the Church largely. This was done to enable her to carry on the great work of evangelisation without care for the material concerns of life. But it led to an unfortunate result. As the bishoprics were wealthy, and seats of power, ambitious and greedy men of the noble class rushed into Holy Orders for the sake of these material advantages, and in entire disregard of the religious responsibilities attached to such offices. And as with the prelates, so with the clergy. They seemed to think that the things of Jesus Christ were best served by making themselves comfortable; they were ignorant, careless, and worldly. The great ecclesiastics made a display of their wealth, and exercised their power tyrannically. “The Church might still seem to preach to all,” says Dean Milman; “but it preached in a tone of lofty condescension, it dictated rather than persuaded; but, in general, actual preaching had fallen into disuse; it was in theory the special privilege of the bishops, and the bishops were but few who had either the gift, the inclination, or the leisure from their secular, judicial, or warlike occupations to preach even in their cathedral cities; in the rest of their dioceses their presence was but occasional – a progress or visitation of pomp and form, rather than of popular instruction. The only general teaching of the people was the ritual.

“But the splendid ritual, admirably as it was constituted to impress by its words or symbolic forms the leading truths of Christianity upon the more intelligent, or in a vague way upon the more rude and uneducated, could be administered, and was administered, by a priesthood almost entirely ignorant, but which had learned mechanically, not without decency, perhaps not without devotion, to go through the stated observances. Everywhere the bell summoned to the frequent service, the service was performed, and the obedient flock gathered to the chapel or the church, knelt, and either performed their orisons or heard the customary chant and prayer. This, the only instruction which the mass of the priesthood could convey, might for a time be sufficient to maintain in the minds of the people a quiescent and submissive faith, nevertheless, in itself, could not but awaken in some a desire of knowledge, which it could not satisfy…. And just at this time the popular mind throughout Christendom seemed to demand instruction. There was a wide and vague awakening and yearning of the human intellect. Here that which was heresy stepped in and seized upon the vacant mind. Preaching in public and in private was the strength of all the heresiarchs, of all the sects. Eloquence, popular eloquence, became a new power which the Church had comparatively neglected or disdained, since the time of the Crusades. The Patropassians, the Henricians, the followers of Peter Waldo, and the wilder teachers at least, tinged with the old Manichaean tenets of the East, met on this common ground. They were poor and popular; they felt with the people, whether the lower burghers of the cities, the lower vassals, or even the peasants and serfs; they spoke the language of the people, they were of the people. All these sects were bound together by their common aversion to the clergy – not only the wealthy, worldly, immoral, tyrannical, but the decent yet inert priesthood, who left the uninstructed souls of men to perish.”

It was when, apparently, the bulk of the population was hesitating whether to break away from the Church, and when certain ardent spirits began to question whether the Church could be the Kingdom of God, wherein appeared so much of evil, that almost simultaneously two men stood forth to arrest the evil. The story was told afterwards that the pope in a dream had seen the Church under the form of a building tottering to its fall, but that two men rushed forward and sustained it. These men were Dominic and Francis. The former founded an order of preachers, by which Christendom in the West was overspread with a host of zealous, active, and devoted men, whose function was popular instruction.

Francis, seeing the universal greed after lands and money, took the vow of poverty, made that a capital point in his institution. The grasping after possessions should never curse his society, and he donned, and made his disciples don, the poor, coarse dress of the common labourer, to show that they were to be ever of the people, and for the people, even for the lowest. And he aimed first of all to encourage piety – the striving of the soul after God – and to show that within the Church that flame could burn brightest and give out most heat. But he taught as well. It was due to his great desire to bring home to the people the truth of the Incarnation, that he devised the crèche of Christmas, and composed the first Christmas carols. And he was a preacher – fervent, inspired, convincing. His heart so overflowed with love, that even birds and beasts were attracted to him, and his love extended to them – “his sisters and brothers,” as he termed them.

The story of the conversion of Saint Francis, the wealthy merchant’s son, is well known. He was a young man, just at the age when the deepest feelings of man’s nature begin to make themselves articulate. One evening he was revelling with his companions of the same age with himself. When supper was over, the merry party dashed out of the hot, lighted room into the open air. The dark indigo-blue vault of heaven overhead was besprent with myriads of stars, and Francis suddenly halted, looked up, and remained silent in contemplation of this wondrous canopy.

“What ails you, Francis?” asked one of the revellers.

“He is star-gazing for a wife,” joked another.

“Ah!” said Francis gravely, “for a wife past all that your imagination can conceive.”

His soul with inarticulate cravings strained after something higher than a merchant’s life behind a counter, a nobler life than revelling and drunkenness. Then probably he first conceived the idea of embracing poverty, and of devoting his whole life to his poor brothers.

The first great gathering of the Order he founded was in 1212, and that same year saw the establishment of a sisterhood in connection with the Society. It came about thus: –

Favorino Scefi was a man of noble family in Assisi, given to the profession of arms, and a good swordsman; his wife, Hortulana, had presented him with three daughters, Clara, Agnes, and Beatrix, but no son.

One day – it was Palm Sunday – in the before-mentioned year, when Clara was aged eighteen, she and her mother were present when Francis preached. The effect of his sermon on her young heart was overwhelming and ineradicable. From this moment she resolved to leave the world and its splendours, and the prospect of marriage, and to devote her whole life to God and to the advancement of His kingdom.

What she was to do, what God’s designs were, all was dark before her; only in her was the intense longing to place herself in His hands, that He might use her as He saw fit. And it appeared to her that her desire had been known and her self-offering accepted. As already said, it was Palm Sunday, and the custom was for the bishop to bless the palms that were presented him by the deacon, and to distribute them among those who came up in single file to the altar steps. Clara, shy and retiring, hung back. The bishop’s eye rested on her. All at once he stepped down into the nave, the acolytes bearing their tapers before him, and carrying a palm branch, he placed it in the hands of the shrinking maiden.

To her it was as a consecration.

In the evening she ran to the chapel of the Portiuncula, where Francis and his disciples were installed; she fell on her knees and implored to be received, and given work to do. In a paroxysm of devotion she plucked off her little ornaments, and tore away her rich dress.

Francis, unable as he was unwilling to refuse her offer of herself, cast over her a coarse habit, and she was enrolled in the ranks of the Champions of Poverty.

But where was the young girl to be put? He had no other female adherents. He accordingly took her to the Benedictine nunnery of Saint Paolo, where she was to remain till he had considered what to do with her.

The parents of Clara were indignant and annoyed when they learned what she had done, and they endeavoured by every means to induce her to return to them. They even employed violence. She escaped from them to the altar, and laid hold of the cloth that covered it. They tried to drag her away, but she clung with such tenacity as to tear the very cloth to which she clung.

Clara now removed to another convent of Benedictins, Saint Angelo di Panso, where she spent a fortnight in prayer and silence, considering the step she had taken.

At the end of that time her sister Agnes, two years younger than herself, came and entreated to be allowed to remain with her. The father was very angry, and called the members of the family together to consult on the matter. Nothing, however, could be done; the two girls were resolute.

In the meantime Saint Francis was busy preparing a dwelling for them near a little church of Saint Damian that he had restored. When this was complete he removed them to it. Many girls and even women now joined the sisters, and constituted a little community. Francis was appealed to for a rule by which they might form their lives, but this he was unwilling to give. Let them, said he, take Clara herself as their example.

Presently, little Beatrix arrived. She could not bear to be alone in the now desolate home, she yearned to be with her sisters. She also was accepted. After the death of her husband Hortulana also joined them, so that mother and daughters were united again.

As the fundamental rule of Francis was absolute poverty, his brothers were obliged to beg their bread. They went round the town and country with sacks, asking for scraps of food; and as it would not be seemly for the sisters of the house at Saint Damian to do the same, the friars were constrained to divide their crusts with them.

Gregory IX very sensibly objected to the friars going in and out of the convent, and he forbade it. “Very well,” said Clara; “if holy brothers may not minister to us the Bread of Life, they shall not provide us with the bread that perishes,” and she refused the crusts and broken meat they had collected on their rounds. What was to be done? The whole convent would starve. In a few days the Poor Clares would be dead. An express was sent to the Pope. Gregory could defy an emperor, and that such an one as Frederick Barbarossa; but he was no match for an obstinate woman. He gave way.

The rule imposed on the sisterhood by Saint Clara was one of dreary penance. Their services in church were to be without music, even on the high festivals. She would not allow those who were ignorant to learn to read, so that to such these services were unintelligible.

In fact, extravagance marked all she did. She did not suffer the sisters ever to interchange a word with each other without permission, and they were all shut up in their convent, which they might not leave. It is true that Saint Francis did slightly modify some of this severity. But his own rule of absolute poverty was a mistake. He intended it as a protest against the money and land grabbing which prevailed, not among laymen only, but among ecclesiastics, and also among the monks; but he went too far. He turned his friars into mere beggars. If he had insisted that they should be poor and work for their livelihood, that would have been well; but to employ them as tramps, begging from door to door, and sponging on the honest, hard-working people, was a fatal mistake, and led to very bad results.

So also Clara, in the hope of keeping her sisters devoted only to the service of God, dissuaded, nay, forbade, reading. In place of cultivating the intellect – a splendid gift of God – she made those under her direction bury their talents.

Insensibly, the Manichaean heresy had penetrated all minds, and made men and women think that the body was evil and must be tortured and bullied, and all that was human trampled underfoot, that the soul alone should be cared for. The result was the production of hysterical, ecstatic beings, who were helpless to do anything for themselves, and were, so far as their minds went, idiots.

Saint Clara’s work would have been worse than useless, positively mischievous, had it not been for one thing. Saint Francis, in order to extend religion among the people, had instituted a third branch of his institution, of which the second was that of the Poor Clares. This third order comprised men and women living in the world – in fact, a great guild of pious people, observing very simple rules, which bound all together in the service of God, His Church, and the poor and sick. This spread like wildfire: everywhere men and women, husbands and wives, young men and girls, rich and poor, nobles and merchants, day-labourers and needlewomen, joined this community, encouraged each other in good works, and learned, by knowing each other, to lose class exclusiveness.

311Inevitably the charge of the female members of the third order devolved on the Poor Clares. Then other duties sprang up. There were plenty of little orphan girls adrift; these had to be cared for, and the Clares took charge of them. The devout desired to have their daughters taught by them, and they were constrained to open schools, – and thus to cultivate their own minds, and abandon the rule of silence, or at least to modify it. Consequently the order of Poor Clares did a great deal of good, but not in the way in which Saint Clara desired.

The time was one of furious intestinal war in Italy between the factions of Guelph and Ghibelline, and there were far more women than men, as the latter had fallen. Children were left without fathers, wives lost their husbands, girls were deprived of their natural protectors, and the convent served as an asylum for these unfortunates, who otherwise would have succumbed.

In 1220 occurred a scene bearing some resemblance to that of the last meeting of Saint Benedict and his sister. Saint Clara felt a great desire to be with Saint Francis and to eat with him; but he constantly refused. At length his companions, seeing how this troubled her, said to him, “Father, it seems to us that this sternness is not in accordance with Christian charity. Pay attention to Clara, and consent to her request. It is but a small thing that she desires of you – just to eat with her. Remember how that, at your preaching, she forsook all that the world offers.”

Saint Francis answered, “As it is so in your eyes, so let it be. Let the feast be held at the Church of the Portiuncula, for it was in that that she took the vows.”

When the appointed day arrived, Saint Clara went forth from her convent with one companion, and came to the place appointed, and waited till Francis should arrive. After awhile he appeared, and he caused their common meal to be prepared on the grass. He seated himself beside Clara, and one of his friars beside the nun who had attended Saint Clara. Then all the rest of the company gathered about them.

During the first course Saint Francis spoke of God so sweetly, so tenderly, that all were rapt in ecstasy, and forgetting their food, remained wondering and thinking only of God.

When the repast was ended, Clara returned to San Damiani greatly comforted. This was her only meeting, for other purposes than those of ghostly counsel, with her friend and father.

Saint Francis died in 1226, six years after the meeting; but Clara lived on for more than a quarter of a century after his decease.

Concerning the austerities practised by Saint Clara it is unnecessary to write: a knowledge of them would provoke disgust; but they have probably been vastly exaggerated, for had they been what is represented, she could not have lived forty-two years of self-torture. As she died she was heard murmuring that she saw our Lord surrounded with virgins crowned with flowers, and that one, whose wreath was “like a windowed censer,” bowed over her and kissed her.

She died in 1257.

We cannot say of Saint Clara that she originated a great work of utility. She supplemented the undertaking of Saint Francis, and carried his extravagances to a further extreme. But she was sincere, she held to her purpose; and although her foundation was one void of common-sense and right principles, yet, because well intended, it worked itself into one of utility, and continues to the present day in the Latin Communion doing good service.

– text and illustration taken from Virgin Saints and Martyrs, by Sabine Baring-Gould, F Anger, illustrator, published in New York, 1901

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/virgin-saints-and-martyrs-saint-clara/

Giotto, Sainte Claire, fresque, chapelle Bardi, basilique Santa Croce, Florence.

Santa Chiara Vergine

11 agosto

Assisi, 1193/1194 - Assisi, 11 agosto 1253

Ha appena dodici anni Chiara, nata nel 1194 dalla nobile e ricca famiglia degli Offreducci, quando Francesco d'Assisi compie il gesto di spogliarsi di tutti i vestiti per restituirli al padre Bernardone. Conquistata dall'esempio di Francesco, la giovane Chiara sette anni dopo fugge da casa per raggiungerlo alla Porziuncola. Il santo le taglia i capelli e le fa indossare il saio francescano, per poi condurla al monastero benedettino di S.Paolo, a Bastia Umbra, dove il padre tenta invano di persuaderla a ritornare a casa. Si rifugia allora nella Chiesa di San Damiano, in cui fonda l'Ordine femminile delle «povere recluse» (chiamate in seguito Clarisse) di cui è nominata badessa e dove Francesco detta una prima Regola. Chiara scrive successivamente la Regola definitiva chiedendo ed ottenendo da Gregorio IX il «privilegio della povertà». Per aver contemplato, in una Notte di Natale, sulle pareti della sua cella il presepe e i riti delle funzioni solenni che si svolgevano a Santa Maria degli Angeli, è scelta da Pio XII quale protettrice della televisione. Erede dello spirito francescano, si preoccupa di diffonderlo, distinguendosi per il culto verso il SS. Sacramento che salva il convento dai Saraceni nel 1243. (Avvenire)

Patronato: Televisione

Etimologia: Chiara = trasparente, illustre, dal latino

Emblema: Giglio, Ostia

Martirologio Romano: Memoria di santa Chiara, vergine, che, primo virgulto delle Povere Signore dell’Ordine dei Minori, seguì san Francesco, conducendo ad Assisi in Umbria una vita aspra, ma ricca di opere di carità e di pietà; insigne amante della povertà, da essa mai, neppure nell’estrema indigenza e infermità, permise di essere separata.

La sera della domenica delle Palme (1211 o 1212) una bella ragazza diciottenne fugge dalla sua casa in Assisi e corre alla Porziuncola, dove l’attendono Francesco e il gruppo dei suoi frati minori. Le fanno indossare un saio da penitente, le tagliano i capelli e poi la ricoverano in due successivi monasteri benedettini, a Bastia e a Sant’Angelo. 

Infine Chiara prende dimora nel piccolo fabbricato annesso alla chiesa di San Damiano, che era stata restaurata da Francesco. Qui Chiara è stata raggiunta dalla sorella Agnese; poi dall’altra, Beatrice, e da gruppi di ragazze e donne: saranno presto una cinquantina. 

Così incomincia, sotto la spinta di Francesco d’Assisi, l’avventura di Chiara, figlia di nobili che si oppongono anche con la forza alla sua scelta di vita, ma invano. Anzi, dopo alcuni anni andrà con lei anche sua madre, Ortolana. Chiara però non è fuggita “per andare dalle monache”, ossia per entrare in una comunità nota e stabilita. Affascinata dalla predicazione e dall’esempio di Francesco, la ragazza vuole dare vita a una famiglia di claustrali radicalmente povere, come singole e come monastero, viventi del loro lavoro e di qualche aiuto dei frati minori, immerse nella preghiera per sé e per gli altri, al servizio di tutti, preoccupate per tutti. Chiamate popolarmente “Damianite” e da Francesco “Povere Dame”, saranno poi per sempre note come “Clarisse”. 

Da Francesco, lei ottiene una prima regola fondata sulla povertà. Francesco consiglia, Francesco ispira sempre, fino alla morte (1226), ma lei è per parte sua una protagonista, anche se sarà faticoso farle accettare l’incarico di abbadessa. In un certo modo essa preannuncia la forte iniziativa femminile che il suo secolo e il successivo vedranno svilupparsi nella Chiesa. 

Il cardinale Ugolino, vescovo di Ostia e protettore dei Minori, le dà una nuova regola che attenua la povertà, ma lei non accetta sconti: così Ugolino, diventato papa Gregorio IX (1227-41) le concede il “privilegio della povertà”, poi confermato da Innocenzo IV con una solenne bolla del 1253, presentata a Chiara pochi giorni prima della morte. 

Austerità sempre. Però "non abbiamo un corpo di bronzo, né la nostra è la robustezza del granito". Così dice una delle lettere (qui in traduzione moderna) ad Agnese di Praga, figlia del re di Boemia, severa badessa di un monastero ispirato all’ideale francescano. 

Chiara le manda consigli affettuosi ed espliciti: "Ti supplico di moderarti con saggia discrezione nell’austerità quasi esagerata e impossibile, nella quale ho saputo che ti sei avviata". Agnese dovrebbe vedere come Chiara sa rendere alle consorelle malate i servizi anche più umili e sgradevoli, senza perdere il sorriso e senza farlo perdere. A soli due anni dalla morte, papa Alessandro IV la proclama santa.

Chiara si distinse per il culto verso l'Eucarestia. Per due volte Assisi venne minacciata dall'esercito dell'imperatore Federico II che contava, tra i suoi soldati, anche saraceni. Chiara, in quel tempo malata, fu portata alle mura della città con in mano la pisside contenente il Santissimo Sacramento: i suoi biografi raccontano che l'esercito, a quella vista, si dette alla fuga.

Autore: Domenico Agasso

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/24000

BENEDETTO XVI

UDIENZA GENERALE

Aula Paolo VI
Mercoledì, 15 settembre 2010

Santa Chiara d'Assisi

Cari fratelli e sorelle,

una delle Sante più amate è senz’altro santa Chiara d’Assisi, vissuta nel XIII secolo, contemporanea di san Francesco. La sua testimonianza ci mostra quanto la Chiesa tutta sia debitrice a donne coraggiose e ricche di fede come lei, capaci di dare un decisivo impulso per il rinnovamento della Chiesa.

Chi era dunque Chiara d’Assisi? Per rispondere a questa domanda possediamo fonti sicure: non solo le antiche biografie, come quella di Tommaso da Celano, ma anche gli Atti del processo di canonizzazione promosso dal Papa solo pochi mesi dopo la morte di Chiara e che contiene le testimonianze di coloro che vissero accanto a lei per molto tempo.

Nata nel 1193, Chiara apparteneva ad una famiglia aristocratica e ricca. Rinunciò a nobiltà e a ricchezza per vivere umile e povera, adottando la forma di vita che Francesco d’Assisi proponeva. Anche se i suoi parenti, come accadeva allora, stavano progettando un matrimonio con qualche personaggio di rilievo, Chiara, a 18 anni, con un gesto audace ispirato dal profondo desiderio di seguire Cristo e dall’ammirazione per Francesco, lasciò la casa paterna e, in compagnia di una sua amica, Bona di Guelfuccio, raggiunse segretamente i frati minori presso la piccola chiesa della Porziuncola. Era la sera della Domenica delle Palme del 1211. Nella commozione generale, fu compiuto un gesto altamente simbolico: mentre i suoi compagni tenevano in mano torce accese, Francesco le tagliò i capelli e Chiara indossò un rozzo abito penitenziale. Da quel momento era diventata la vergine sposa di Cristo, umile e povero, e a Lui totalmente si consacrava. Come Chiara e le sue compagne, innumerevoli donne nel corso della storia sono state affascinate dall’amore per Cristo che, nella bellezza della sua Divina Persona, riempie il loro cuore. E la Chiesa tutta, per mezzo della mistica vocazione nuziale delle vergini consacrate, appare ciò che sarà per sempre: la Sposa bella e pura di Cristo.

In una delle quattro lettere che Chiara inviò a sant’Agnese di Praga, la figlia del re di Boemia, che volle seguirne le orme, parla di Cristo, suo diletto Sposo, con espressioni nunziali, che possono stupire, ma che commuovono: “Amandolo, siete casta, toccandolo, sarete più pura, lasciandovi possedere da lui siete vergine. La sua potenza è più forte, la sua generosità più elevata, il suo aspetto più bello, l’amore più soave e ogni grazia più fine. Ormai siete stretta nell’abbraccio di lui, che ha ornato il vostro petto di pietre preziose… e vi ha incoronata con una corona d’oro incisa con il segno della santità” (Lettera prima: FF, 2862).

Soprattutto al principio della sua esperienza religiosa, Chiara ebbe in Francesco d’Assisi non solo un maestro di cui seguire gli insegnamenti, ma anche un amico fraterno. L’amicizia tra questi due santi costituisce un aspetto molto bello e importante. Infatti, quando due anime pure ed infiammate dallo stesso amore per Dio si incontrano, esse traggono dalla reciproca amicizia uno stimolo fortissimo per percorrere la via della perfezione. L’amicizia è uno dei sentimenti umani più nobili ed elevati che la Grazia divina purifica e trasfigura. Come san Francesco e santa Chiara, anche altri santi hanno vissuto una profonda amicizia nel cammino verso la perfezione cristiana, come san Francesco di Sales e santa Giovanna Francesca di Chantal. Ed è proprio san Francesco di Sales che scrive: “È bello poter amare sulla terra come si ama in cielo, e imparare a volersi bene in questo mondo come faremo eternamente nell'altro. Non parlo qui del semplice amore di carità, perché quello dobbiamo averlo per tutti gli uomini; parlo dell'amicizia spirituale, nell'ambito della quale, due, tre o più persone si scambiano la devozione, gli affetti spirituali e diventano realmente un solo spirito” (Introduzione alla vita devota III, 19).

Dopo aver trascorso un periodo di qualche mese presso altre comunità monastiche, resistendo alle pressioni dei suoi familiari che inizialmente non approvarono la sua scelta, Chiara si stabilì con le prime compagne nella chiesa di san Damiano dove i frati minori avevano sistemato un piccolo convento per loro. In quel monastero visse per oltre quarant’anni fino alla morte, avvenuta nel 1253. Ci è pervenuta una descrizione di prima mano di come vivevano queste donne in quegli anni, agli inizi del movimento francescano. Si tratta della relazione ammirata di un vescovo fiammingo in visita in Italia, Giacomo di Vitry, il quale afferma di aver trovato un grande numero di uomini e donne, di qualunque ceto sociale che “lasciata ogni cosa per Cristo, fuggivano il mondo. Si chiamavano frati minori e sorelle minori e sono tenuti in grande considerazione dal signor papa e dai cardinali… Le donne … dimorano insieme in diversi ospizi non lontani dalle città. Nulla ricevono, ma vivono del lavoro delle proprie mani. E sono grandemente addolorate e turbate, perché vengono onorate più che non vorrebbero, da chierici e laici” (Lettera dell’ottobre 1216: FF, 2205.2207).

Giacomo di Vitry aveva colto con perspicacia un tratto caratteristico della spiritualità francescana cui Chiara fu molto sensibile: la radicalità della povertà associata alla fiducia totale nella Provvidenza divina. Per questo motivo, ella agì con grande determinazione, ottenendo dal Papa Gregorio IX o, probabilmente, già dal papa Innocenzo III, il cosiddetto Privilegium Paupertatis (cfr FF, 3279). In base ad esso, Chiara e le sue compagne di san Damiano non potevano possedere nessuna proprietà materiale. Si trattava di un’eccezione veramente straordinaria rispetto al diritto canonico vigente e le autorità ecclesiastiche di quel tempo lo concessero apprezzando i frutti di santità evangelica che riconoscevano nel modo di vivere di Chiara e delle sue sorelle. Ciò mostra come anche nei secoli del Medioevo, il ruolo delle donne non era secondario, ma considerevole. A questo proposito, giova ricordare che Chiara è stata la prima donna nella storia della Chiesa che abbia composto una Regola scritta, sottoposta all’approvazione del Papa, perché il carisma di Francesco d’Assisi fosse conservato in tutte le comunità femminili che si andavano stabilendo numerose già ai suoi tempi e che desideravano ispirarsi all’esempio di Francesco e di Chiara.

Nel convento di san Damiano Chiara praticò in modo eroico le virtù che dovrebbero contraddistinguere ogni cristiano: l’umiltà, lo spirito di pietà e di penitenza, la carità. Pur essendo la superiora, ella voleva servire in prima persona le suore malate, assoggettandosi anche a compiti umilissimi: la carità, infatti, supera ogni resistenza e chi ama compie ogni sacrificio con letizia. La sua fede nella presenza reale dell’Eucaristia era talmente grande che, per due volte, si verificò un fatto prodigioso. Solo con l’ostensione del Santissimo Sacramento, allontanò i soldati mercenari saraceni, che erano sul punto di aggredire il convento di san Damiano e di devastare la città di Assisi.

Anche questi episodi, come altri miracoli, di cui si conservava la memoria, spinsero il Papa Alessandro IV a canonizzarla solo due anni dopo la morte, nel 1255, tracciandone un elogio nella Bolla di canonizzazione in cui leggiamo: “Quanto è vivida la potenza di questa luce e quanto forte è il chiarore di questa fonte luminosa. Invero, questa luce si teneva chiusa nel nascondimento della vita claustrale e fuori irradiava bagliori luminosi; si raccoglieva in un angusto monastero, e fuori si spandeva quanto è vasto il mondo. Si custodiva dentro e si diffondeva fuori. Chiara infatti si nascondeva; ma la sua vita era rivelata a tutti. Chiara taceva, ma la sua fama gridava” (FF, 3284). Ed è proprio così, cari amici: sono i santi coloro che cambiano il mondo in meglio, lo trasformano in modo duraturo, immettendo le energie che solo l’amore ispirato dal Vangelo può suscitare. I santi sono i grandi benefattori dell’umanità!

La spiritualità di santa Chiara, la sintesi della sua proposta di santità è raccolta nella quarta lettera a Sant’Agnese da Praga. Santa Chiara adopera un’immagine molto diffusa nel Medioevo, di ascendenze patristiche, lo specchio. Ed invita la sua amica di Praga a riflettersi in quello specchio di perfezione di ogni virtù che è il Signore stesso. Ella scrive: “Felice certamente colei a cui è dato godere di questo sacro connubio, per aderire con il profondo del cuore [a Cristo], a colui la cui bellezza ammirano incessantemente tutte le beate schiere dei cieli, il cui affetto appassiona, la cui contemplazione ristora, la cui benignità sazia, la cui soavità ricolma, il cui ricordo risplende soavemente, al cui profumo i morti torneranno in vita e la cui visione gloriosa renderà beati tutti i cittadini della celeste Gerusalemme. E poiché egli è splendore della gloria, candore della luce eterna e specchio senza macchia, guarda ogni giorno questo specchio, o regina sposa di Gesù Cristo, e in esso scruta continuamente il tuo volto, perché tu possa così adornarti tutta all’interno e all’esterno… In questo specchio rifulgono la beata povertà, la santa umiltà e l’ineffabile carità” (Lettera quarta: FF, 2901-2903).

Grati a Dio che ci dona i Santi che parlano al nostro cuore e ci offrono un esempio di vita cristiana da imitare, vorrei concludere con le stesse parole di benedizione che santa Chiara compose per le sue consorelle e che ancora oggi le Clarisse, che svolgono un prezioso ruolo nella Chiesa con la loro preghiera e con la loro opera, custodiscono con grande devozione. Sono espressioni in cui emerge tutta la tenerezza della sua maternità spirituale: “Vi benedico nella mia vita e dopo la mia morte, come posso e più di quanto posso, con tutte le benedizioni con le quali il Padre delle misericordie benedisse e benedirà in cielo e in terra i figli e le figlie, e con le quali un padre e una madre spirituale benedisse e benedirà i suoi figli e le sue figlie spirituali. Amen” (FF, 2856).

Saluti:

Je salue les francophones présents et plus particulièrement les participants au pèlerinage promu par la Conférence épiscopale de Guinée, et conduits par l’Evêque de N’Zérékoré, Mgr Guilavogui, et ceux du Diocèse de Nancy, en France, guidés par Mgr Papin. Je n’oublie pas les pèlerins de la Martinique, de Dijon et d’ailleurs. Puisse Dieu vous bénir ! Bon séjour à Rome !

I welcome the pilgrimage group from Iran, in the company of Archbishop Thomas Meram. My cordial greeting also goes to the participants in the international symposium of Benedictine Nuns and Sisters. I also greet those taking part in the biennial meeting of KPMG International. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially the pilgrim groups from England, Scotland, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and the United States of America, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.

Ganz herzlich begrüße ich die deutschsprachigen Pilger und Besucher; und aus den Niederlanden die Verantwortlichen und Seminaristen des Theologischen Instituts Sint Willibrord des Bistums Haarlem-Amsterdam in Begleitung von Bischof Joseph Maria Punt. Allein die Heiligen können die Welt dauerhaft zum Besseren verändern, denn durch sie werden Kräfte wirksam, die nur die Liebe zu Christus wecken kann. Gehen wir in ihre Schule und lassen wir uns von ihnen zum Herrn führen. Euch allen wünsche ich eine gesegnete Zeit in Rom.

Saludo a los peregrinos de lengua española, en particular a los profesores y alumnos de la Arquidiócesis de Salta, y a los sacerdotes de la diócesis de Autlán, acompañados por su Pastor, Monseñor Gonzalo Galván Castillo. Os invito a agradecer a Dios el precioso papel que, con sus obras y oraciones, desempeñan las Clarisas, como tantas otras religiosas de clausura, para bien de toda la Iglesia.

Muchas gracias.

A minha saudação a todos peregrinos de língua portuguesa, nomeadamente para os grupos vindos do Brasil e para os fiéis da Torreira e da diocese da Guarda, em Portugal. Que a graça de Deus, pela intercessão de Santa Clara, fortaleça a vossa vida para mostrardes a todos a felicidade que é amar Jesus Cristo. De coração, dou-vos a minha Bênção, extensiva às vossas famílias e comunidades.

Saluto in lingua polacca:

Drodzy polscy pielgrzymi. Dziś przypada wspomnienie Matki Bożej Bolesnej. Powracają na pamięć słowa ukrzyżowanego Pana: „Niewiasto, oto syn Twój”, „Oto Matka twoja”. Chrystus sam zawierza swojej Matce Jana, a wraz z nim wszystkie pokolenia uczniów. Zaprośmy Ją do domu naszej codzienności, aby Jej opieka i wstawiennictwo były dla nas wsparciem w czasie pomyślnym i w dniach cierpienia. Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus.

Traduzione italiana:

Cari pellegrini polacchi. Oggi commemoriamo la Beata Maria Vergine Addolorata. Ritornano alla memoria le parole del Signore crocifisso: “Donna, ecco il tuo figlio”, “Ecco la tua Madre”. Cristo stesso affida alla Madre Giovanni e con lui tutte le generazioni dei discepoli. InvitiamoLa nella casa del nostro quotidiano, perché la sua protezione e la sua intercessione siano per noi un sostegno nel tempo della serenità e nei giorni di sofferenza. Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!

Saluto in lingua slovacca:

S láskou vítam slovenských pútnikov, osobitne z Nitry, Smoleníc, Suchej nad Parnou, Vranova - Čemerného ako aj Chrámový zbor Fraňa Madvu z Nitrianskeho Rudna.

Bratia a sestry, dnes Slovensko slávi slávnosť svojej hlavnej patrónky, Sedembolestnej Panny Márie. Ježiš ju dal za Matku každému z nás. Ona nech vás matersky sprevádza na ceste k Nemu. Rád žehnám vás i vašich drahých.

Pochválený buď Ježiš Kristus!

Traduzione italiana :

Con affetto do un benvenuto ai pellegrini slovacchi, particolarmente a quelli provenienti da Nitra, Smolenice, Suchá nad Parnou, Vranov - Čemerné, come pure al Coro Fraňo Madva da Nitrianske Rudno.

Fratelli e sorelle, oggi la Slovacchia celebra la solennità della sua Patrona principale, la Vergine Addolorata. Gesù l’ha donata come madre ad ognuno di noi. Ella vi accompagni maternamente sulla via verso di lui. Volentieri benedico voi ed i vostri cari. Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!

Saluto in lingua croata:

S radošću pozdravljam sve hrvatske hodočasnike, a na poseban način policajce i djelatnike Policijske uprave iz Splita. Dragi prijatelji, neka Božji blagoslov bude uvijek nad vama i nad vašim obiteljima te vas trajno čuva u radosti i miru. Hvaljen Isus i Marija!

Traduzione italiana:

Con gioia saluto tutti i pellegrini Croati, e in modo particolare i poliziotti e gli ufficiali della Questura di Split. Cari amici, la benedizione di Dio sia sempre su di voi e sulle vostre famiglie e vi custodisca nella gioia e nella pace. Siano lodati Gesù e Maria!

Saluto in lingua lituana:

Nuoširdžiai sveikinu maldininkus iš Lietuvos. Brangūs bičiuliai, linkiu, kad kelionė į Romą sus tiprintų jumyse įsitikinimą, jog esate Kristaus Bažnyčios nariai. Laiminu jus kiekvieną.

Traduzione italiana:

Rivolgo un cordiale saluto ai pellegrini provenienti dalla Lituania, Cari amici, auspico che la vostra visita a Roma rafforzi la consapevolezza della vostra appartenenza alla Chiesa di Cristo. A ciascuno la mia Benedizione

* * *

Rivolgo un cordiale benvenuto a tutti i pellegrini di lingua italiana. In particolare, saluto i rappresentanti dell’Associazione Mondo Libero; i fedeli della diocesi di Chiavari, accompagnati dal loro Vescovo Mons. Alberto Tanasini; gli esponenti dell’Associazione Nazionale Bersaglieri. A tutti assicuro la mia preghiera perché il Signore accompagni sempre con la sua grazia le vostre aspirazioni e i vostri propositi.

Desidero ora salutare con particolare affetto i giovani, gli ammalati e gli sposi novelli. Facciamo oggi memoria della Beata Vergine Maria Addolorata, che con fede sostò presso la croce del suo Figlio. Cari giovani, non abbiate paura di restare anche voi come Maria presso la Croce. Il Signore vi infonderà il coraggio di superare ogni ostacolo nella vostra quotidiana esistenza. E voi, cari ammalati, possiate trovare in Maria conforto e sostegno per apprendere dal Signore Crocifisso il valore salvifico della sofferenza. Voi, cari sposi novelli, rivolgetevi con fiducia nei momenti di difficoltà alla Vergine Addolorata, che vi aiuterà ad affrontarli con la sua materna intercessione.

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APPELLO DEL SANTO PADRE

Seguo con preoccupazione gli avvenimenti verificatisi in questi giorni in varie regioni dell’Asia meridionale, specialmente in India, in Pakistan ed in Afghanistan. Prego per le vittime e chiedo che il rispetto della libertà religiosa e la logica della riconciliazione e della pace prevalgano sull’odio e sulla violenza.

© Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100915.html

CHIARA d'Assisi, santa

di Ugolino Nicolini - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 24 (1980)

CHIARA d'Assisi, santa. - Nacque ad Assisi nel 1193 da Favarone di Offreduccio di Bernardino e da Ortolana. Sulla famiglia le notizie, non numerose ma autentiche, ci vengono quasi esclusivamente dal Processo di canonizzazione. È ignoto il casato del padre, che era certamente di antica nobiltà feudale; parimenti sconosciuta la famiglia della madre Ortolana (fattasi anch'ella suora, più tardi, nel monastero della figlia). Del gruppo familiare di C. fecero parte sicuramente le sorelle Agnese e Beatrice come anche le nipoti - forse per parte di cugino - Balvina e Amata. Altro particolare, chiarito sufficientemente dagli studi di G. Abate e del Fortini, anche se con qualche divergenza, è quello della casa paterna di C., che sorgeva sulla piazza di S. Rufino in Assisi.

Si è detto che il Processo costituisce la migliore fonte per la biografia di C., data la ricchezza e la completezza delle notizie che fornisce. A poco più di due mesi dalla morte di C., il 18 ott. 1253, Innocenzo IV incaricava ufficialmente Bartolomeo, vescovo di Spoleto, di istruire il processo. Questo venne svolto dalla commissione presieduta dal vescovo in sei giorni, dal 24 al 29 novembre e sostanzialmente in due luoghi: nel monastero di S. Damiano, dove C. era vissuta e morta, furono interrogate quindici suore (a più riprese), e nella chiesa di S. Paolo dentro le mura della città deposero altri cinque testimoni, cittadini di Assisi, quattro uomini e una donna. Il Processo, scoperto e pubblicato con adeguato commento critico dal Lazzeri nel 1920, ci è pervenuto in un volgarizzamento umbro-perugino del Quattrocento. Una contenuta ammirazione, soffusa di devozione e affetto per la santa badessa, della quale le suore davano testimonianza, ha conferito al testo una mirabile patina di semplicità e realismo, doti che qualche volta sono state sfruttate dalla cattiva letteratura di edificazione, facendo rimpiangere la originaria redazione latina, ben più adatta allo studio analitico delle singole deposizioni. È ovvio che dal Processo derivarono direttamente la bolla di canonizzazione di Alessandro IV (Anagni, 19 ott. 1235?) e la Legenda sanctae Clarae virginis attribuita, con molta fondatezza, al biografo di s. Francesco, fra' Tommaso da Celano. Altra genesi si prospetta invece per la Legenda versificata, il cui testo potrebbe dipendere, nella redazione pervenutaci, da una delle varie stesure - attestate da più manoscritti - della Legenda in prosa, e addirittura da una che precedette la canonizzazione (Bughetti).

Fin dalla prima giovinezza C. aveva seguito lo svolgimento della vicenda del suo concittadino Francesco, che a conclusione di una crisi profonda e misteriosa, aveva abbandonato la casa paterna, la mercatura e i sogni cavallereschi. Che l'ambiente familiare di C. fosse pervaso da grande spirito religioso, e non chiuso nelle ferree consuetudini feudali, potrebbe dimostrarlo il fatto che nella casa nobile e opulenta era emersa una forte personalità femminile: la madre di C., Ortolana, che aveva avuto la possibilità di fare grandi pellegrinaggi e raggiungere anche la Terrasanta. Le figlie di Ortolana, come personalità, carattere e fermezza, non saranno inferiori alla madre.

Non è facile stabilire il preciso momento dell'incontro - ricostruire l'iter cronologico, indagare le componenti psicologiche - delle due esperienze spirituali più significative del Duecento, quello appunto di Francesco e di Chiara. Circa la domanda su chi, tra i due, abbia preso l'iniziativa dell'incontro, l'analisi più attenta non trova discordanze di rilievo nelle fonti. Secondo le deposizioni rese nel Processo, fu Francesco ad andare da C., secondo l'agiografo il desiderio d'incontrarsi, frutto di superiore ispirazione, sarebbe nato contemporaneamente; "voto conveniunt parili" si dice nella Legenda versificata, "visitat ille istam, et saepius ista illum" nella Legenda in prosa. Ma, evidentemente, ciò che conta è che Francesco e C. s'intendono alla perfezione sul modo di "convertirsi", di fare penitenza, di fuggire il mondo. La fanciulla decide di affidarsi alla guida del giovane convertito (cfr. Leg., 6). Tale decisione provoca conseguenze e scelte a catena e irreversibili: la domenica delle palme del 1211 (28 marzo), secondo il consiglio di Francesco, C. va in chiesa con le altre nobildonne; durante la distribuzione delle palme, mentre le altre donne processionalmente si avvicinano al vescovo celebrante, C. rimane immobile al suo posto; il vescovo allora si dirige verso lei, consegnandole la palma. Il gesto poteva essere un segnale convenuto tra C., il vescovo e Francesco, anche se l'agiografo lo interpreta per un segno premonitore dei privilegi di cui sarebbe stata arricchita da Dio la fanciulla di Assisi. Difatti, la notte seguente C. fugge dal palazzo forse in compagnia di Pacifica di Guelfuccio, che diventa suora con lei. Nella chiesa rurale di S. Maria degli Angeli (Porziuncola) Francesco le taglia i capelli davanti all'altare della Vergine, la consacra alla penitenza e la conduce poi nel monastero benedettino di S. Paolo delle badesse presso Bastia, da dove i parenti tentano di strapparla. Dopo pochi giorni passa a S. Angelo di Panzo, altro monastero benedettino alle pendici del Subasio, poi, finalmente, nella chiesa di S. Damiano, anch'essa nella campagna presso Assisi.

"Qui - dice la Legenda - fissando l'àncora del suo spirito come in un porto sicuro, non ondeggia più nell'incertezza di ulteriori mutamenti, non esita per l'angustia del luogo, non si lascia impaurire dalla solitudine". La chiesa di S. Damiano è il luogo dove si era verificato, secondo Tommaso da Celano, l'inizio dell'esperienza religiosa di Francesco. "Qui - continua la Legenda -"incarcerò il suo corpo per tutta la vita che aveva innanzi, celandosi dalla tempesta del mondo".

Chiunque ripercorra le fonti biografiche clariane, dal Processo alla bolla di canonizzazione, alla Legenda, si trova di fronte al problema di una vita - quella di C. - trascorsa per quarantadue anni (ventinove dei quali in stato d'infermità) nel nascondimento di un chiostro, alla quale fa riscontro una crescita grandiosa del movimento da lei suscitato. Il vescovo che raccolse le deposizioni delle suore durante gli interrogatori del processo, l'autore della biografia e il curiale che scrisse la bolla di canonizzazione si trovarono di fronte alla realtà di una distanza cronologica - tra l'epoca della conversione e quella della morte che avrebbe potuto fare perdere il senso della vita trascorsa giorno dopo giorno, forse sentirono che il tempo aveva livellato anni, mesi e stagioni per mostrare soltanto gli attimi memorabili, rarissimi e diversi rispetto al vivere quotidiano. La lotta, insieme con Francesco, per ottenere o difendere il Privilegiumpaupertatis;la sosta del santo presso S. Damiano circa due anni prima della morte, la partenza della sorella Agnese per Firenze, la morte di Francesco e il passaggio del corteo funebre per S. Damiano; la morte della madre Ortolana e l'arrivo della sorella minore Beatrice, qualche lettera scritta alla beata Agnese di Praga, l'assalto di milizie sbandate di saraceni al seguito dell'esercito imperiale al monastero e l'assedio posto alla città di Assisi, la visita del cardinale Rainaldo e, poco prima della morte, quella del pontefice Innocenzo IV: sono questi alcuni momenti della vita di C. immersa, per tanti anni, nella mera quotidianità, rischiarata dalla fede, mediante la quale ella riusciva, secondo le unanimi testimonianze, a rendere gioiosa la sua esistenza.

L'impostazione della vita monastica a S. Damianoera stata data da Francesco con una Forma vivendi e con delle Observantiae regulares, di cui la critica storica ha discusso a lungo al fine di illuminarne l'originalità in rapporto ai movimenti penitenziali femminili dell'epoca. Le testimonianze esterne all'Ordine delle clarisse (ma così furono chiamate solo più tardi) tra il 1211 e il 1220 risalgono sostanzialmente a quelle di Giacomo da Vitry e ai provvedimenti adottati dal cardinale Ugolino (vescovo ostiense) per i monasteri di S. Damiano, di Porta Camollia di Siena, di Monticelli presso Firenze, della Gattaiola a Lucca e di Monteluce a Perugia.

Senza pretendere di portare nuovi chiarimenti nella discussione, è necessario almeno riassumerne gli elementi essenziali. Della primitiva Forma e delle Observantiae ben poco ci è direttamente pervenuto; delle ultime, che furono adottate a Monticelli, parla anche C. in una lettera ad Agnese di Praga. Ma i due suddetti nuclei di norme che costituivano il modus vivendi di S. Damiano erano rinforzati e caratterizzati essenzialmente dal fermo proposito di Francesco e di C. di escludere ogni possibilità di dotazione patrimoniale; si trattava cioè di adottare anche per le clarisse il principio della povertà assoluta, personale e comunitaria, come Francesco aveva voluto per i frati minori. Tuttavia, dopo il concilio lateranense IV del 1215, che con il canone 13 aveva proibito l'introduzione di nuove forme di vita religiosa organizzata e l'obbligo, per eventuali fondatori, di adottare una delle regole in vigore, il cardinale Ugolino, su delega papale, preparò una nuova Formula vitae.Si trattava di strutturare la nuova organizzazione di Francesco anche sotto l'aspetto giuridico e di legittimarla canonicamente. Per questo la Formula ugoliniana si accompagnava alla regola benedettina secondo la riforma cisterciense; il cardinale Ugolino la impose ai cinque monasteri dell'Umbria e della Toscana, sopra nominati. Il testo di questa Formula è ben conosciuto. Nel 1228 già era trascritto nella bolla spedita alle "damianite" di Pamplona in Spagna; lo stesso Gregorio IX è autore di un'altra stesura inviata al monastero di Ascoli Piceno nel 1239, come Innocenzo IV si può considerare padre di una terza redazione con le bolle del 1245 inviate ai monasteri di Pamplona e di Salamanca (Vasquez, Omaechevarria). Il nucleo primitivo della Forma di s. Francesco attraverso complicate vicende, studiate più o meno attentamente, si evolve e poi viene riassorbito sostanzialmente nella Regula del 1252-53 che, a pieno diritto, secondo l'autorità della Sede apostolica, è detta "la forma di vita e il modo di santa unità e di altissima povertà che il beato padre vostro Francesco vi consegnò a voce e in scritto da osservare" (Regula, 16). Più acutamente, oggi si tende a individuare il modus vivendi istituito da Francesco a S. Damiano confrontandolo con quello descritto da lui stesso nella Regula pro eremitoriis data, brevi, devote e umanissime indicazioni per i frati viventi in solitudine (Lainati).

Più complessa, senza dubbio, la questione che concerne il privilegium paupertatis.Se anche per i frati, pur pellegrini e itineranti, Francesco ben presto ebbe bisogno di un'approvazione pontificia, la cosa diventava più delicata per i monasteri femminili o "hospitia", come li chiamava Giacomo da Vitry; al concetto di monastero si accompagnano la "stabilitas loci", il patrimonio fondiario, i possedimenti. "Stabili" erano anche C. e le sue compagne sia di S. Damiano sia degli altri quattro monasteri; ma sotto quale giurisdizione, con quali leggi? (Callebaut). Il concilio lateranense IV doveva essere rispettato ad ogni costo; sembra, anzi, che Innocenzo III già prima dell'apertura del sinodo si sforzasse di normalizzarele situazioni che avrebbero cozzato con i suoi progetti. Così con il titolo di badessa fatto assumere a C. verso il 1215 e con il privilegium paupertatis sicuramente accordatole - mediante il quale stabiliva che nessuno la potesse obbligare a ricevere possedimenti -, Innocenzo III escogitava degli strumenti giuridici atti "a conciliare la realizzazione dell'ideale evangelico-francescano con la norma del concilio e, in sostanza, ad unire il vecchio con il nuovo" (Callebaut). È ben noto che il documento introduceva una tale novità nel modo di sostentamento di fondazioni monastiche femminili (almeno di quella di S. Damiano), che lo stesso cardinale Ugolino, anche quando fu papa Gregorio IX, cercò di eliminarlo o di mitigarlo; con C. non vi riuscirono né lui né Innocenzo IV. D'altra parte, che lo stesso cardinale Ugolino fosse un ammiratore irriducibile della regola benedettina secondo la riforma cisterciense si desume anche dall'estrema asciuttezza del testo con cui rinnovò a C. il detto privilegium il17 sett. 1228 e dall'intervento del 9 febbr. 1237 con cui, in nome delle buone consuetudini cisterciensi, proibiva alle clarisse l'uso della carne. Non è chiaro, invece, lo scopo dell'altro privilegio concesso dallo stesso Gregorio IX a S. Damiano il 2 dic. 1234, con cui vietava agli uffici della Curia papale di citare in giudizio le suore senza la menzione del detto privilegio.

Il movimento spirituale iniziatosi con l'esperienza di C. ebbe un successo enorme nell'ambiente femminile non solo italiano, ma europeo. Soltanto a fermarsi sull'aspetto quantitativo, non è facile spiegare come nel 1253, alla morte di C., in Italia fossero sorti almeno sessantasei monasteri (Pratesi), con un numero di suore non inferiore a trenta per ciascuna casa; a S. Damiano ne vivevano cinquanta. Le fonti legislative, narrative e letterarie sulla presenza della donna nella società medievale ci informano ampiamente, dallo Speculum virginum, redatto probabilmente verso il 1100, fino all'autore della Legenda di s. Chiara, circa la funzione della verginità e circa la condotta della monaca nel monastero (Verdon): il lavoro la preghiera, la mortificazione, il vitto, il riposo, insomma tutti gli aspetti della vita religiosa sono descritti minutamente e il quadro che ne risulta è una grande e unanime esaltazione dei vantaggi della vita monastica stessa rispetto alle condizioni della vita secolare. Ma se tutto ciò è riconducibile alla visione tradizionale della esperienza religiosa claustrale ed è sicuramente connesso anche a cause di sviluppo demografico, economico e sociale in genere, non lo è per l'esperienza fatta da C. a S. Damiano, fenomeno unico e irripetibile, come, per altro, quello di Francesco.

Per quanto poi il santo di Assisi avesse promesso ogni assistenza a C., il suo modo di comportarsi denotava una certa trascuratezza agli occhi dei compagni e di C. stessa. Tuttavia, nell'inverno del 1224-25, Francesco soggiornò a S. Damiano a lungo per curarsi la malattia degli occhi; in quel periodo compose il Cantico delle creature e "dettò altresì alcune sante parole con melodia, a maggiore consolazione delle povere signore del monastero". Nell'ottobre dell'anno 1226, all'indomani della morte di Francesco, i cittadini di Assisi, trasportando le spoglie del santo dalla Porziuncola alla chiesa di S. Giorgio, passarono per S. Damiano perché C. e le compagne potessero rivedere e baciare il corpo del loro padre attraverso la grata appositamente aperta. Tommaso da Celano tramanda anche il "pianto" detto da C. sulle spoglie mortali di Francesco.

Non si sa nulla di particolare circa le reazioni di C. di fronte alla glorificazione di Francesco, alla canonizzazione fatta da Gregorio IX in Assisi nel luglio del 1228, alla costruzione della grande basilica. È naturale supporre, tuttavia, che la sua testimonianza vivente dell'ideale evangelico di Francesco, specialmente in materia di povertà, desse adito ad interpretazioni rigoriste, fino a coinvolgerla in uno schieramento ben definito, quello degli spirituali. Del resto C. stessa nel 1231, di fronte alla bolla Quo elongati di Gregorio IX, che interpretava in modo alquanto restrittivo il cap. XI della Regula bollata dei frati minori circa i rapporti di questi con i monasteri, reagì drasticamente, allontanando anche i fratelli questuanti con i quali l'Ordine l'assisteva economicamente.

Dopo la morte di Francesco, C. rimase sola a lottare per conservare la purezza dell'ideale evangelico tra le "povere donne", specialmente per quanto riguardava il privilegium paupertatis in vigore a S. Damiano. La Formula vitae ugoliniana guadagnava sempre più consensi tra i monasteri, in modo particolare, come è ovvio, dopo che l'autore nel 1227 fu eletto papa. Il suo cappellano, il cisterciense frate Ambrogio, continuò a rappresentarlo nel proposito fermo di dotare i monasteri con adeguati possedimenti ma C. si oppose e ottenne dal papa, come si è accennato sopra, la conferma del privilegio; si oppose anche alla nuova Regula emanata da Innocenzo IV nel 1247, la quale, anche se aveva eliminato il richiamo alla regola di s. Benedetto, contenuto - con valore puramente formale - nella suddetta Formula ugoliniana, aveva riaffermato l'autorizzazione ai monasteri di possedere in comune beni immobili e di percepirne i frutti. Per più motivi tale Regula innocenziana non incontrò il favore delle monache, e non solo di quelle di S. Damiano; ragion per cui lo stesso pontefice, viste inutili le sue molte pressioni, nel 1250 dichiarò che non intendeva imporla. C. in questo periodo si vide autorizzata a rielaborare quella "sua" Regula che, secondo la deposizione di suor Filippa nel Processo, potébaciare due giorni prima di morire, inserita nella bolla papale fattale pervenire da Innocenzo IV.

Molti interrogativi ha suscitato la genesi di questa Regula del 1252-53. Come dice espressamente il pontefice, il testo era quello approvato dal cardinale Rainaldo (vescovo ostiense, poi Alessandro IV), protettore dei frati minori e delle clarisse, sottoscritto a Perugia il 16 sett. 1252. Il cardinale a sua volta afferma che la Regula non è altro che quella data alle suore di S. Damiano da s. Francesco. Secondo il Lazzeri, Francesco, l'anno successivo all'approvazione della Regula dei frati minori da parte di Onorio III, avrebbe curato la stesura della Regula delle "povere donne", la quale ricalca ordinatamente quella dei minori: stesso numero di capitoli (dodici, che neppure in questa figurano con la indicazione numerica), stessa titolazione dei capitoli, stesso formulario della Cancelleria pontificia. Si deve ritenere, tuttavia, che C. abbia vegliato personalmente sulla stesura del 1252 per "fermare e sottolineare con chiarezza i legami" considerati "essenziali per il nuovo Ordine: osservanza del Vangelo, obbedienza al papa e alla Chiesa, obbedienza a s. Francesco e ai successori di lui. Tutte le suore poi sono tenute ad obbedire alla abbadessa che esprime tali impegni e legami" (Olgiati).

Tra il 1235 e l'anno della morte si colloca un periodo di una certa attività scrittoria di Chiara. Suoi scritti autentici si considerano oltre la Regula del 1252-53, quattro lettere alla beata Agnese di Praga; non autentici sono ritenuti il Testamento (ricalcato su quello di s. Francesco) e la lettera a Ermentrude. Le quattro lettere ad Agnese non sfuggono alla questione fondamentale che la critica storica si è posta a mo' di interrogativo preliminare: su quale cultura o su quale formazione intellettuale si basa la spiritualità di Chiara? Gli studi, le analisi, gli approfondimenti in questo settore, proprio come è accaduto per gli scritti di s. Francesco, non hanno raggiunto alcuna certezza. Stimolata anche dalla necessità di dare un volto uniforme al suo Ordine che si diffondeva in tutta l'Europa, C. intraprese la corrispondenza epistolare con la figlia del re di Boemia Ottocaro, Agnese, la quale fin dal 1234 aveva fondato un monastero e ne aveva assunto la guida seguendo la Forma vitae di S. Damiano. Al di là di alcune notizie storiche sulle Observantiae in vigore nel monastero di Assisi, le lettere mettono in evidenza i propositi che muovono l'azione di C., i principî che illuminano l'attitudine del suo spirito, insomma il suo mondo interiore, che è sempre un "riflesso" del mondo di Francesco (Breton, Lainati).

Due fatti strepitosi irrompono in modo assolutamente insolito nella vita di C. e del suo monastero, l'una e l'altro immersi nella preghiera e nel silenzio; entrambi gli episodi si riferiscono ad azioni di guerra. Sono narrati in modo distinto dalle suore che depongono nel Processo e dall'autore della Legenda (alla quale ultima attinge per il suo racconto il cronista fra' Elemosina), e cronologicamente collocati "in quel periodo travagliato che la Chiesa attraversò in diverse parti del mondo sotto l'impero di Federico [II]" e quando specialmente la "valle Spoletana beveva più spesso delle altre il calice dell'ira" (Legenda, 21). Il primo episodio sembra alludere all'incursione di milizie sbandate di saraceni, al seguito dell'esercito imperiale, che assalgono il monastero di S. Damiano; nel secondo si parla espressamente dell'assedio posto ad Assisi da Vitale d'Aversa, valoroso comandante dell'esercito di Federico II. In entrambi i casi la liberazione o la salvezza (del monastero e della città) sono attribuiti all'intervento prodigioso della preghiera di Chiara.

Arrivata la Curia romana a Perugia da Lione nel novembre del 1251, C., tramite il cardinale Rainaldo, aumenta le pressioni per avere la conferma della Regula, che dal cardinale stesso ottiene, come detto sopra, nel settembre dell'anno successivo, forse in una delle visite da lui fatte al monastero. Ma ormai C., dopo ventinove anni di malattia, è giunta agli estremi. Innocenzo IV nel maggio del 1253 si trasferisce in Assisi con la Curia e più tardi si reca a visitare la inferma; essa gli chiede la bolla per la Regula approvata dal cardinale Rainaldo. Il 9 agosto due frati gliela portano e C. muore in pace l'11 agosto. La notizia della morte fa accorrere a S. Damiano il papa con la Curia e tutta la città. Innocenzo IV, secondo il racconto dell'agiografo, ordinando di recitare l'ufficio delle vergini, non quello dei morti, manifesta la volontà di canonizzarla subito. Con maggiore calma e prudenza si percorse, in seguito, tutto l'iter delle formalità per giungere, nell'autunno del 1255, alla bolla di canonizzazione Clara clarispraeclara meritis nella quale, prima di narrare succintamente la vita, l'autore, con sfoggio di artifici retorici, usa undici volte la parola "Clara" e diciannove dei vocaboli derivati.

Fonti e Bibl.: Si deve premettere che essendo la biografia clariana collegata, almeno nel capitolo della conversione, con quella di s. Francesco, tutta la bibliografia francescana dovrebbe essere qui citata, cosa, evidentemente, impossibile. Si farà quindi una scelta, avvertendo che tutte le riviste di studi francescani che escono attualmente nelle lingue principali alimentano ininterrottamente la ricerca e la discussione anche sulla figura e l'azione di s. Chiara.

L. Wadding, Annales Minorum, ad Claras Aquas 1931, II, pp. 88-96; III, pp. 338-357, 421-425; Thomas de Celano, Vita prima sancti Francisci e Vita secunda s. Francisci, in Analecta franciscana, X(1941), pp. 17, 92; S. Bonaventura, Legenda maior sancti Francisci,ibid., pp. 573, 611, 625; Regula pro eremitoriis data, a cura di K. Esser, in Die Opuscula des hl. Franziskus von Assisi, Grottaferrata 1976, pp. 405-12; Z. Lazzeri, Il processo di canonizz. di s. C. d'Assisi, in Arch. franc. histor., XIII (1920), pp. 403-507; Lettres de Jacques de Vitry, a cura di R. B. C. Huygens, Leiden 1960, p. 76; Escrítos de s. C. y documéntos contempor., a c. di I. Omaechevarria, Madrid 1970; Textus opuscul. s. Francisci et s. Clarae Assis., a c. di G. M. Boccali, Assisi 1976; Fonti francescane. Cronache e altre testimon. del primo secolo francescano. Scritti e biografie di s. C. d'Assisi, sez. quarta, a cura di C. A. Lainati-F. Olgiati, II, Assisi 1977, pp. 2207-2465; Opuscula s. Francisci et scripta s. Clarae Assisiensium, a cura di G. M. Boccali-L. Canonici, Assisi 1978; E. Frascadore-H. Ooms, Bibliogr. delle bibliografie francescane, Firenze-Quaracchi 1964-1965, nn. 1845, 2556-70; G. G. Sbaraglia, Bullarium franciscanum, I, Romae 1759, pp. 37, 143, 209, 771; L. Oliger, De origine Regularum Ordinis S. Clarae, in Arch. franc. hist., V (1912), pp. 181-209, 413-47; B. Bughetti, Legenda versificata s. Clarae Assisiensis,ibid., pp. 237-60, 459-81, 621 ss.; L. Bracaloni, Storia di S. Damiano in Assisi, Todi 1926; A. Callebaut, St. François et les privilèges,surtout celui de la pauvreté concédé à s. Claire par Innocent III, in Arch. franc. hist., XX(1927), pp. 182-93; G.Abate, La casa paterna di s. C. e falsific. storiche dei sec. XVI e XVII intorno alla medesima santa e a s. Francesco d'Assisi, in Boll. della Deput. di st. patria per l'Umbria, XLI (1944), pp. 34-160; F. Casolini, Il protomonastero di s. C. in Assisi. Studi e cronaca, Milano 1950; E. Grau, Das Privilegium paupertatis Innocenz III., in Franziskanische Studien, XXXII (1950), pp. 337-49; K.Esser, Die Briefe Gregors IX., an die hl. Klara von Assisi,ibid., XXXV (1953), pp. 274-95; G. Abate, Nuovi studi sull'ubicaz. della casa paterna di s. C. d'Assisi, in Boll. della Deput. di st. patria per l'Umbria, L (1953), pp. 111-44; A. Fortini, Nuove notizie intorno a s. C. d'Assisi, in Arch. franc. hist., XLVI (1953), pp. 3-43; E. Franceschini, I due assalti dei Saraceni a S. Damiano e ad Assisi, in Aevum, XXVII (1953), pp. 289-306; S. C. d'Assisi. Studi e cronaca del VII centenario,1253-1953, Perugia 1954 (in questo vol. gli studi diZ. Lazzeri, La "Forma vitae" di s. C. e le regole sue e del suo Ordine, pp. 79-121; A. Van Dijk, Il culto di s. C. nel Medioevo, pp. 155-205; E.Franceschini, Biografie di s. C., pp. 263-74; R.Pratesi, Le clarisse in Italia, pp. 339-77; V. Breton, La spiritualità di C., pp. 61-78); A. Fortini, Nuova vita di s. Francesco, Assisi 1959, pp. 315-426; I. Omaechevarria, La regla y las reglas de la Orden de santa Clara, in Collect. franc., XLVI(1976), pp. 93-119; I. Vázquez, La "Forma vitae" hugoliniana para las clarisas en una bula desconocida de 1245, in Antonianum, LII (1977), pp. 94-125; J. Verdon, Les sources de l'hist. de la femme en Occident aux Xe-XIIIe siècles, in La femme dans les civilis. des Xe-XIIIe siècles. Actes du colloque tenu à Poitiers les 23-25 sept. 1976, Poitiers 1977, pp. 129-61; A. Bartoli Langeli, La realtà sociale assisiana e il patto del 1210, in Assisi al tempo di s. Francesco. Atti del V Convegno internaz., Assisi,13-16 ott. 1977, Assisi 1978, p. 333; I. Omaechevarria, L'Ordine di s. C. sotto diverse regole, in Forma sororum, XV (1978), pp. 141-53; G. Mancini, Dalla "Forma vitae" iniziale alla maturità delle grandi regole,ibid., pp. 129-139; Enc. catt., III. coll. 1419-21; Dictionn. d'Hist. et de Géogr. Eccl., XII, coll. 1032-36; Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, VI, col. 314; Bibliotheca sanctorum, III, Coll. 1201-17; Diz. degli Istituti di perfezione, II, coll. 885-92; Dict. de spiritualité ascétique etmystique, V, coll. 1401-1409; Enc. dantesca, I, p. 954.

SOURCE http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/santa-chiara-d-assisi_(Dizionario-Biografico)

Écrits de Sainte Claire : http://www.clarissesval.ca/%C3%89crits%20de%20Sainte%20Claire.htm

Sainte-Claire d'Assise, la Foi prise au Mot [archive] (KTO TV, 29/09/2013) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRebs6vDuME

Saint Clare of Assisi, by Nesta De Robeck : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-clare-of-assisi-by-nesta-de-robeck/

Voir aussi : https://www.christianiconography.info/clare.html