The Saints: St Clare of Assisi

1193-1252/ Feast - August 11

Moved by the example of Assisi’s saintly Francis, Clare went to live in poverty with him and his followers against her family’s wishes. After receiving a nun’s habit in 1212, she lived an ascetical life in a monastery near Assisi. Later, her mother and sisters also joined the community, called the Poor Clares. Clare became their superior in 1215. Possibly because of penitential practices, she was sickly from 1225 on. She saved her convent and Assisi from raiding Saracens in 1243 by praying before them with the Eucharist. She was canonized two years after her death.