Clare of Assisi
A noblewoman of Assisi who left her family to follow Francis’s way of poverty and led the community of women at San Damiano for forty-two years. She was canonized in 1255.
Thomas of Celano, in his life of Francis of Assisi, calls Clare a native of Assisi, noble by family, whom Francis turned to the religious life, and the foundation of the order of “Poor Ladies” that began at the church of San Damiano (Thomas of Celano, First Life of Francis 18–20). The Life written after her death tells that on the night after Palm Sunday she left her home, was received by the friars at the Portiuncula and had her hair cut off there (Life of Saint Clare pp. 13–15). She then lived at San Damiano for forty-two years (Life of Saint Clare pp. 17–18).
The Life places her death on the day after the feast of Saint Lawrence, which is 11 August (Life of Saint Clare p. 71), and her canonization by Pope Alexander IV at Anagni in 1255, two years later (Life of Saint Clare pp. 90–91). See Francis of Assisi and the Friars Minor.
In the timeline
- about 1209, estimated dateFrancis of Assisi and the Friars Minor
Francis of Assisi gives up his property to live by the Gospel in poverty, gathers brothers and wins the approval of Pope Innocent III. Clare founds a sister community, and in 1223 Honorius III confirms the Rule of the Friars Minor.
Primary sources
The Life of Saint Clare
- Life of Saint Clare pp. 13–15archive.org
- Life of Saint Clare pp. 17–18archive.org
- Life of Saint Clare p. 71archive.org
- Life of Saint Clare pp. 90–91archive.org