Saint Clare of Assisi

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Saint Clare of Assisi, first woman follower of Saint Francis of Assisi and first Franciscan female saint, was born in 1194 in the noble family of Favarone at Assisi in central Italy. Her name, Clare in Latin and Chiara in Italian, means clear, shining or bright. 

At the age of 15 Clare was deeply impressed by the preaching of Saint Francis and wanted to follow him. Having no provision for any woman member in his Order, Francis kept her in suspense for three years. Then, on Palm Sunday, 18 March 1212, she went to Francis and begged him to admit her into his Order. Seeing her earnestness and determination, he agreed. As suggested by Francis, that night she, with her cousin Filippa, escaped from home by the door reserved for taking bodies of dead members out, and went to the church of Saint Mary of the Angels at Portiuncula which Francis had rebuilt. There, in front of the altar, she renounced her costly clothes and beautiful hair, and received from him the Franciscan monastic habit, and into his hands made vow of absolute poverty and dedicated herself to following the poor and humble Christ.

The thirty-year old Francis who had no money, no means and no canonical authority accepted spiritual and material responsibility for her. Clare was temporarily accomodated at the neighboring Benectine convent. Her father and relatives protested angrily, but she did not change her mind. Soon she was followed by her younger sister Agnes who too is a saint. Clare had won complete victory over her own egoism and the craving for earthly possessions. Having chosen a life of radical poverty and obtained from the Pope the privilege of not possessing anything, she, together with Francis, founded the second Franciscan Order, the poor Clares.

For thirty-nine years Clare lived in the enclosure of that convent. All her life she never crossed the boundaries of Assisi where she lived in rigorous austerity, spending her time in prayer, penance and contemplation. God worked many miracles in answer to her prayers.

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