Feast of Saint Clare

Saint Clare Rescuing a Child Mauled by a Wolf,
Painting by Giovanni di Paolo: Painted between 1455-1460,

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?

‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour. I tell you solemnly, there are some of these standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom.’ (Matt. 16:24-28)

SAINT CLARE

Feast day, 11th August in the new calendar, 12th August in the Traditional calendar.

As God had raised at the side of St. Benedict his sister St. Scholastica, so He placed by St. Francis of Assisi, St. Clare, whom he made superioress of the second Order founded by him.

The Saint was born at Assisi, at the end of the twelfth century. On a visit to the Patriarch St. Francis, she expressed to him her desire of becoming the spouse of Christ. As he had not yet instituted nuns of his Order, he sent the young virgin to the Benedictine nuns of St. Paul, and later on to the Benedictine monastery of St. Angelo de Panso, in the neighbourhood of Assisi.

Her sister, Agnes, having joined her, St. Francis placed them in a small house adjacent to the church of St. Damian. Very soon their mother and many other persons joined them. Their rule entailed austerities unknown until then in monasteries for women. They walked bare-footed, slept on the ground, observed perpetual abstinence, and made poverty the basis of their lives, so that by detachment they might give themselves more to God.

The extraordinary devotion of St. Clare to the Blessed Sacrament was rewarded by a miracle. On the day when the Saracens, who were besieging Assisi tried to enter the Convent of St. Damian, she held up the ciborium and put them to flight.

On August 11, 1253, she was visited by a choir of virgins, in white robes, among whom was one who surpassed in beauty all the others, and she went to meet her Spouse. Two years after she was canonized by Pope Alexander IV.

[Here is a post from last year giving a more detailed description of the life of this holy foundress of the Poor Clares: https://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2022/08/11/beautiful-saint-clare-a-true-heroine/ ]