Chiara Offreduccio (16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253), known as Clare of Assisi (sometimes spelled Clara, Clair or Claire; Italian: Chiara d'Assisi), is an Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi.
Inspired by the teachings of St. Francis, St. Clare founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition. The Order of Poor Ladies was different from any other order or convent because it followed a rule of strict poverty. Clare wrote their Rule of Life, the first set of monastic guidelines known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares. Her feast day is on the 11th of August every year.
Clare was born in Assisi to the Offreduccio household during the High Middle Ages, the eldest daughter of Favarone or Favorino Sciffi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, and his wife Ortolana. Traditional accounts say that Clare's father was a wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in Assisi and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio. Ortolana belonged to the noble family of Fiumi, and was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and the Holy Land. Later in life, after being widowed, Ortolana entered Clare's monastery.
Clare's younger sisters, Beatrix and Catarina, followed her into religious life. (The latter took the name Agnes and became an early abbess in the order. She established it in additional communities, and was declared a saint herself in the mid-18th century.)
As children, Clare and her sisters were taught the ways of Christianity by their mother; they all became very religious and devoted to prayer. When Clare was 12 years old, her parents wanted her to marry a wealthy young man; however, she protested and said that she did not want to marry until she turned 18. As a teen, she heard Francis preach during a Lenten service in the church of San Giorgio at Assisi.
Inspired by his words and knowing that marriage was rapidly approaching, Clare went to Francis and asked him to help her to live after the manner of the Gospel. On the evening of Palm Sunday, 20 March 1212, with the consent of Guido II, bishop of Assisi, Clare left her father's house accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion, and proceeded to the chapel of the Porziuncula to meet Francis. There, her hair was cut, and she exchanged her rich gown for a plain robe and veil. Fully cutting a woman's hair was a symbolic act showing that she was no longer bound by the laws of man or society but rather that she followed the will of God.
Francis placed Clare in the convent of the Benedictine nuns of San Paulo, near Bastia. Her father, along with other members of her family, attempted to convince her to return home. At first, they tried to persuade her by enticing her with wealth, and the privileges of nobility through marriage, but she resisted each attempt, professing that she would have no other husband but Jesus Christ.
Finally, when they tried to use force she clung to the altar of the church and threw aside her veil to show her cropped hair. It was only after seeing her cropped hair that her family relented and left her in peace. In order to provide the greater solitude Clare desired, a few days later Francis sent her to Sant'Angelo in Panzo, another monastery of the Benedictine nuns on one of the flanks of Subasio.
Her sister Catarina unexpectedly joined Clare 16 days later and took the name 'Agnes'. This caused a tremendous uproar in Clare's family as now two of their girls had refused marriage and left the family. Clare's uncle Monaldo, who was head of the family, came to Sant'Angelo with a group of men to bring Agnes back. He confronted Agnes forcefully while Clare was praying for her sister's safety. In the end, Monaldo left empty-handed as he and his men failed to force Agnes to return home.
The sisters remained with the Benedictines until a small dwelling was built for them next to the church of San Damiano, which Francis had repaired some years earlier. The dwelling was built hastily, as Francis and the Benedictines feared further conflict with Monaldo and other relatives of Clare and Agnes. Other women joined the sisters, and they became known as the "Poor Ladies of San Damiano". They lived a simple life of poverty, austerity, and seclusion from the world, according to a Rule which Francis gave them as a Second Order (Poor Clares).
San Damiano became the centre of Clare's new religious order, which was known in her lifetime as the "Order of Poor Ladies of San Damiano". San Damiano is traditionally considered the first house of this order; it may have been affiliated with an existing network of women's religious houses organised by Hugolino (who later became Pope Gregory IX). Hugolino wanted San Damiano as part of the order he founded because of the prestige of Clare's monastery. San Damiano emerged as the most important house in the order, and Clare became its undisputed leader. By 1263, just ten years after Clare's death, the order had become known as the Order of Saint Clare.
Unlike the Franciscan friars, whose members moved around the country to preach, Clare's sisters lived in enclosure, since an itinerant life was hardly conceivable at the time for women. Their life consisted of manual labour and prayer. The nuns went barefoot, slept on the ground, ate no meat, and observed almost complete silence. This was in accordance with the strict teachings of poverty assigned to Clare by Francis. Francis and Clare believed that through poverty they could become closer to Jesus as they would live the way he did. They were not inconvenienced by this lifestyle, but rather they believed it was a blessing, as they were following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
For a short period, the order was directed by Francis himself. In 1216, however, Clare reluctantly accepted the role of abbess of San Damiano. As abbess, Clare had more authority to lead the order than when she was the prioress and required to follow the orders of a priest heading the community. Clare did not care for titles or power within the Order, and took on the role of abbess only on the instruction of Francis. Clare referred to herself by such terms as mother, handmaid, or servant rather than an abbess. She was very shy and did not like giving orders. On the rare occasions when she would give orders, she would do so with great humility and shyness. Clare would purposefully save the most tedious tasks for herself because she always wished to take care of her sisters. Clare sought to imitate Francis's virtues and way of life so much so that she was sometimes titled alter Franciscus, 'another Francis'. She also played a significant role in encouraging and aiding Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure, and she took care of him during his final illness.
After Francis's death, Clare continued to promote the growth of her order, writing letters to abbesses in other parts of Europe, including Agnes of Prague, with whom she had formed a close friendship. However, with Francis gone, she faced another challenge.
The Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, decreed that any new religious communities that had not yet been approved would have to adopt an established order. This established order was very similar to the Rule of Saint Benedict, which was the common rule that monasteries followed. Clare vigorously fought to keep her rule of strict poverty. Ultimately, when the other priests and bishops refused to accept her rule of strict poverty, she sought to get a special privilege from the pope. If granted, this special privilege of poverty ("Privilegium Paupertatis") from the pope would allow her order to keep living in strict poverty as they wanted. Although Innocent III had approved Clare's privilege and his successor Honorius III had no issue with it, Honorius III's successor Gregory IX did have a problem with Clare's lifestyle of strict poverty. Gregory IX was the Cardinal Huglino who had previously known and worked with Clare and her order at San Damiano.