Escape on Palm Sunday
On the night of Palm Sunday in 1212, Clare slipped out of her family’s house. She didn’t use the usual door. With a trusted friend, she cleared the heavy wood and stones from another door herself and went out into the dark.
She hurried to a little church in the woods, where Francis and his brothers were waiting with torches. There she gave up her fine clothes, and Francis cut off her long hair as a sign that she belonged to God.
Source: The Legend of St Clare (13th century, attributed to Thomas of Celano; tr. Paschal Robinson, 1910); Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience on St Clare, 15 September 2010
Holding on to the altar
Clare’s family was furious. Her relatives came to drag her home. Clare held tight to the altar cloth and showed them her cut hair. They saw she would never change her mind, and they left.
Soon her younger sister Agnes joined her. Years later, her other sister Beatrice and even her mother Ortolana came to live with her too.
Source: The Legend of St Clare (13th century, attributed to Thomas of Celano; tr. Paschal Robinson, 1910); Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), “St. Clare of Assisi”
Soldiers at the wall
Around 1240 an army of soldiers attacked Assisi and began climbing the wall of Clare’s convent at San Damiano. The sisters were terrified. Clare was ill in bed, but she asked to be brought to the door, with the Eucharist in a silver box.
She knelt there and prayed: “Defend, O Lord, I beseech Thee, these Thy servants whom I in this hour am unable to defend.” The soldiers ran away.
Source: The Legend of St Clare (13th century, attributed to Thomas of Celano; tr. Paschal Robinson, 1910)
Christmas from her sickbed
One Christmas night, Clare was too sick to get up and go to church with her sisters for the night prayers. Lying alone in bed, she could hear the friars singing in their church far away, and she saw the Christmas crib as if she were there.
That’s why, in 1958, Pope Pius XII named her the patron saint of television.
Source: The Legend of St Clare (13th century, attributed to Thomas of Celano; tr. Paschal Robinson, 1910); Pope Pius XII, Apostolic Letter naming St Clare patron of television (1958, in French)
Nothing but God
Pope Gregory IX offered to give Clare’s sisters land and money, so they would always be safe. Clare said no, thank you. She wanted to be poor like Jesus and to trust God for everything.
She wrote a rule of life for her sisters, and two days before she died, the Pope approved it. She was the first woman in the Church’s history to write a rule and have it approved by a pope.
Source: The Legend of St Clare (13th century, attributed to Thomas of Celano; tr. Paschal Robinson, 1910); Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience on St Clare, 15 September 2010; Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), “St. Clare of Assisi”
When it was hard
Clare was ill for most of her life in the convent, often too sick to get out of bed. She didn’t let it make her bitter. Propped up in bed, she sewed beautiful cloths for altars and gave them to churches all around Assisi.
She also had to stand up to her family, and later to popes and cardinals who thought her way of life was too hard. She stayed gentle, joyful and firm.
Source: The Legend of St Clare (13th century, attributed to Thomas of Celano; tr. Paschal Robinson, 1910); Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), “St. Clare of Assisi”
Go forth without fear. For thou hast a good guide for thy journey.
Try this
- Clare made beautiful things with her hands even when she was sick in bed. Make something to give away this week: a card, a drawing, a cake.
- She’s the patron saint of television, but try “Clare’s evening”: no screens at all, just family, a candle and a story.
A prayer
St Clare, you gave up riches to follow Jesus with a joyful heart. Help us to want what really matters, and to be cheerful when things are hard. Pray for us.
For grown-ups: more about St Clare of Assisi
Clare di Favarone di Offreduccio (born in 1193 or 1194, died 1253) left home on the night of Palm Sunday 1212 and was received by Francis at the Portiuncula. After a few weeks in two Benedictine convents, she lived the rest of her life at San Damiano, outside Assisi, leading the community now known as the Poor Clares.
She fought for decades for the “privilege of poverty”, the right of her community to own nothing, and her Form of Life was approved by Pope Innocent IV on 9 August 1253, two days before her death. She was canonised in 1255. In art she often holds a monstrance, though the Eucharist she carried in 1240 was in a small silver and ivory container; monstrances came into use later. Her body rests in the Basilica of Santa Chiara in Assisi.
Where these stories come from
- The Legend of St Clare (13th century, attributed to Thomas of Celano; tr. Paschal Robinson, 1910)
- Pope Pius XII, Apostolic Letter naming St Clare patron of television (1958, in French)
- Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience on St Clare, 15 September 2010
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), “St. Clare of Assisi”