Clare (1194-1253)
Virgin and founder of the Minoresses, better known as the Poor Clares.
She was born at Assisi of the Offreduccio family, but nothing is known of her early life. When she was eighteen she was so moved by the preaching of Francis of Assisi that she joined him at the Portiuncula, where she renounced all her possessions and took the habit of a nun.
Clare became abbess in 1216 to her followers in a small house adjacent to the church of San Demiano, Assisi, which Francis had restored. This community of women lived according to the rules and spirit of Francis; it soon included among its members Clare's mother and two sisters.
The way of life was one of extreme poverty and austerity, believed to be harder than any other nuns of the time.
Like the Franciscan friars, Clare's nuns soon spread to other parts of Europe, especially Spain, with 47 convents in the 13th century, also Bohemia, France and England, where four convents were founded in the late 13th and 14th centuries.
Clare was a person of great sanctity; on two occasions she is said to have saved Assisi from foreign armies, simply by appearing on the city walls with the Sacrament.
She was canonised only two years after her death and the order, which bears her name, is still regarded as one of the most strict in the Western Church.
Recently she has been named as the patron saint of television.
Her feast day is the 11th August.
Written and contributed by Phillip Lloyd.
