Chiara Offreduccio was born in Assisi in 1194 to Favorino Scifi, the Count of Sasso-Rosso who belonged to an ancient Roman family, and Blessed Ortolana who belonged to the noble family of Fiumi. In 1212, at the age of 18, Clare embraced a life of poverty and austerity, joining an order of Benedictine female religious. She was soon joined at the convent of Saint Damian by her sister Agnes, her mother, an aunt and a niece. With Saint Francis who had consecrated her to God, Clare created the Second Order of Saint Francis, the Poor Ladies or Sisters of Saint Clare, who she governed for 42 years with care and prudence, insisting until the end on the full observance of the Rule.
Her own life was a lesson and an example to others, showing all how to live. She subdued her body in order to grow strong in spirit. Her bed was the bare ground or, at times, a few twigs, and for a pillow she used a piece of hardwood. Her dress was a single tunic and a mantle of poor coarse stuff, and she often wore a rough hair-shirt next to her skin. So great was her abstinence that for a long time she took absolutely no bodily nourishment for three days of the week, and on the remaining days restricted herself to so small a quantity of food that the other religious wondered how she was able to live. Before her health gave way, it was her custom to keep two Lents in the year, fasting on bread and water. Moreover, she devoted herself to watching and prayer, and in these exercises especially she would spend whole days and nights. She suffered from frequent and long illnesses, but when she was unable to leave her bed in order to work she would make her sisters raise and prop her up in a sitting position, so that she could work with her hands and thus not be idle even in sickness. She had a very great love of poverty, never deviating from it on account of any necessity, and she firmly refused the possessions offered by Pope Gregory IX for the support of the sisters.
The greatness of Clare’s sanctity was manifested by many different miracles. She restored the power of speech to one of the sisters of her monastery, to another the power of hearing. She healed one of a fever, one of dropsy, one of an ulcer, and many others of various maladies. She cured of insanity a brother of the Order of Friars Minor. Once when all the oil in the monastery was spent, Clare took a vessel and washed it, and it was found filled with oil by the loving kindness of God. She multiplied half a loaf so that it sufficed for 50 sisters. When the Saracens attacked Assisi and attempted to break into Clare’s monastery, though sick at the time, she had herself carried to the gate, and also the vessel which contained the most Holy Eucharist, and there she prayed, saying: “O Lord, deliver not to beasts the souls of them that praise you, but preserve your handmaids whom you have redeemed with your Precious Blood.” Whereupon a voice was heard saying: “I will always preserve you.” Some of the Saracens fled and others who had already scaled the walls were struck blind and fell down headlong.
Clare survived Saint Francis. When she was dying she was visited by a white-robed multitude of blessed virgins, among whom was one nobler and more resplendent than the rest. Having received the Holy Eucharist and a Plenary Indulgence from Pope Innocent IV, she died on the day before the Ides of August in 1253. After her death she became celebrated by numbers of miracles, and Pope Alexander IV enrolled her among the holy virgins in 1255.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The same year in which Saint Dominic, before making any project with regard to his sons, founded the first establishment of the Sisters of his Order, the companion destined for him by Heaven received his mission from the Crucifix in the church of Saint Damian in these words: “Go, Francis, repair my house which is falling into ruin.” The new patriarch inaugurated his work, as Dominic had done, by preparing a dwelling for his future daughters whose sacrifice might obtain every grace for the great Order he was about to found. The house of the Poor Ladies occupied the thoughts of the Seraph of Assisi even before Santa Maria della Portiuncula, the cradle of the Friars Minor. Thus, for a second time this month, Eternal Wisdom shows us that the fruit of salvation, though it may seem to proceed from the word and from action, springs first from silent contemplation.
Clare was to Francis the help like himself, who begot to the Lord that multitude of heroic virgins and illustrious penitents soon reckoned by the Order in all lands, coming from the humblest condition and from the steps of the throne. In the new chivalry of Christ, Poverty, the chosen Lady of Saint Francis, was to be the queen also of her whom God had given him as a rival and a daughter. Following to the utmost limits the Man-God humbled and stripped of all things for us, she nevertheless felt that she and her sisters were already queens in the kingdom of Heaven: “In the little nest of poverty,” she used lovingly to say, “what jewel could the bride esteem so much as conformity with a God possessing nothing, become a little one whom the poorest of mothers wrapped in humble swathing bands and laid in a narrow crib?” And she bravely defended against the highest authorities the privilege of absolute poverty which the great Pope Innocent III feared to grant. Its definitive confirmation obtained two days before the Saint’s death came as the long-desired reward of forty years of prayer and suffering for the Church of God.
This noble daughter of Assisi had justified the prophecy by which 60 years previously her mother Hortulana had learnt that the child would enlighten the world. The choice of the name given her at her birth had been well inspired. “Oh how powerful was the virgin’s light,” said the sovereign Pontiff in the Bull of her Canonisation, “how penetrating were her rays! She hid herself in the depth of the cloister, and her brightness transpiring filled the house of God.” From her poor solitude which she never quitted, the very name of Clare seemed to carry grace and light everywhere, and made far-off cities yield fruit to God and to her father, Saint Francis.
Embracing the whole world where her virginal family was being multiplied, her motherly heart overflowed with affection for the daughters she had never seen. Let those who think that austerity embraced for God’s sake dries up the soul read these lines from her correspondence with Blessed Agnes of Bohemia. Agnes, daughter of Ottacar I, had rejected the offer of an imperial marriage to take the religious Habit, and was renewing at Prague the wonders of Saint Damian’s. “O my mother and my daughter,” said our Saint, “if I have not written to you as often as my soul and yours would wish, be not surprised: as your mother’s heart loved you, so do I cherish you. But messengers are scarce, and the roads full of danger. As an opportunity offers today, I am full of gladness, and I rejoice with you in the joy of the Holy Ghost. As the first Agnes united herself to the immaculate Lamb, so it is given to you, O fortunate one, to enjoy this union (the wonder of Heaven) with Him, the desire of whom ravishes every soul, whose goodness is all sweetness, whose vision is beatitude, who is the light of the eternal light, the mirror without spot! Look at yourself in this mirror, O queen! O bride! Unceasingly by its reflection enhance your charms. Without and within adorn yourself with virtues. Clothe yourself as beseems the daughter and the spouse of the supreme King. O beloved, with your eyes on this mirror, what delight it will be given you to enjoy in the divine grace!.. Remember, however, your poor Mother, and know that for my part your blessed memory is forever engraved on my heart.”
Not only did the Franciscan family benefit by a charity which extended to all the worthy interests of this world: Assisi, delivered from the lieutenants of the excommunicated Frederick II and from the Saracen horde in his pay, understood how a holy woman is a safeguard to her earthly city. But our Lord loved especially to make the princes of holy Church and the Vicar of Christ experience the humble power, the mysterious ascendency, with which He had endowed His chosen one. Saint Francis himself, the first of all, had in one of those critical moments known to the Saints, sought from her direction and light for his seraphic soul. From the ancients of Israel there came to this virgin not yet 30 years old such messages as this: “To his very dear Sister in Jesus Christ, to His mother, the Lady Clare handmaid of Christ, Hugolin of Ostia, unworthy bishop and sinner. Ever since the hour when I had to deprive myself of your holy conversation, to snatch myself from that heavenly joy, such bitterness of heart causes my tears to flow that if I did not find at the feet of Jesus the consolation which His love never refuses, my mind would fail and my soul would melt away. Where is the glorious joy of that Easter spent in your company and that of the other handmaids of Christ?.. I knew that I was a sinner, but at the remembrance of your super-eminent virtue, my misery overpowers me and I believe myself unworthy ever to enjoy again that conversation of the Saints, unless your tears and prayers obtain pardon for my sins. I put my soul, then, into your hands. To you I entrust my mind that you may answer for me on the day of judgement. The Lord Pope will soon be going to Assisi. O that I may accompany him and see you once more! Salute my sister Agnes (i.e. Saint Clare’s own sister and first daughter in God). Salute all your sisters in Christ.”
The great Cardinal Hugolin, though more than 80 years of age, became soon after Gregory IX. During his 14 years pontificate, which was one of the most brilliant as well as most laborious of the thirteenth century, he was always soliciting Clare’s interest in the perils of the Church, and the immense cares which threatened to crush his weakness. For, says the contemporaneous historian of our Saint: “He knew very well what love can do, and that virgins have free access to the sacred court: for what could the King of Heaven refuse to those to whom He has given Himself?” At length her exile, which had been prolonged 27 years after the death of Francis, was about to close. Her daughters beheld wings of fire over her head and covering her shoulders, indicating that she too had reached seraphic perfection. On hearing that a loss which so concerned the whole Church was imminent, Pope Innocent IV came from Perugia with the Cardinals of his suite. He imposed a last trial on the Saint’s humility by commanding her to bless, in his presence, the bread which had been presented for the blessing of the sovereign Pontiff. Heaven approved the invitation of the Pontiff and the obedience of the Saint, for no sooner had the virgin blessed the loaves than each was found to be marked with a cross. A prediction that Clare was not to die without receiving a visit from the Lord surrounded by His disciples was now fulfilled. The Vicar of Jesus Christ presided at the solemn funeral rites paid by Assisi to her who was its second glory before God and men. When they were beginning the usual chants for the dead, Innocent would have had them substitute the Office for holy Virgins, but on being advised that such a canonisation, before the body was interred, would be considered premature, the Pontiff allowed them to continue the accustomed chants. The insertion, however, of the Virgin’s name in the catalogue of the Saints was only deferred for two years.
O CLARE, the reflection of the Spouse which adorns the Church in this world no longer suffices you. You now behold the light with open face. The brightness of the Lord plays with delight in the pure crystal of your soul, increasing the happiness of Heaven and giving joy this day to our valley of exile. Heavenly beacon, with your gentle shining enlighten our darkness. May we, like you, by purity of heart, by uprightness of thought, by simplicity of gaze, fix on ourselves the divine ray which flickers in a wavering soul, is dimmed by our waywardness, is interrupted or put out by a double life divided between God and the world. Your life, O Virgin, was never thus divided. The most high poverty which was your mistress and guide preserved your mind from that bewitching of vanity which takes off the bloom of all true goods for us mortals. Detachment from all passing things kept your eye fixed on eternal realities. It opened your soul to that seraphic ardour in which you emulated your father Francis. Like the Seraphim, whose gaze is ever fixed on God, you had immense influence over the Earth, and Saint Damian’s, during your lifetime, was a source of strength to the world. Deign to continue giving us your aid. Multiply your daughters. Keep them faithful in following their Mother’s example, so as to be a strong support to the Church. May the various branches of the Franciscan family be ever fostered by your rays, and may all Religious Orders be enlightened by your gentle brightness. Shine on us all, O Clare, and show us the worth of this transitory life and of that which never ends.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:
At Catania in Sicily, the birthday of St. Euplius, deacon, under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. He was a long time tortured for the confession of the Lord, and finally obtained the palm of martyrdom by being put to the sword.
At Augsburg, St. Hilaria, mother of the blessed martyr Afra. Because she watched at the sepulchre of her daughter, she was cast into the fire for the faith of Christ, together with her maid-servants Digna, Euprepia and Eunomia.
On the same day there suffered also in that city Quiriacus, Largius, Crescentian, Nimmia and Juliana, with twenty others.
In Syria, the holy martyrs Macarius and Julian.
At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs, the count Anicetus and his brother Photinus, with many others, under the emperor Diocletian.
At Faleria in Tuscany, the Saints Gracilian, and Felicissima, virgin, who, for the confession of the faith, had their mouths bruised with stones, and being afterwards struck with the sword, received the palm of martyrdom.
The same day, the holy martyrs Porcarius, abbot of the monastery of Lerins, and five hundred monks, who were slain for the Catholic faith by barbarians, and were thus crowned with martyrdom.
At Milan, the demise of St. Eusebius, bishop and confessor.
At Brescia, St. Herculanus, bishop.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
