No matter what church denomination you belong to, you are likely familiar with some of the saints; perhaps your church is named after one of them. Today, I will introduce you to one of them, Clare of Assisi, and yes, she was a companion to Francis of Assisi.

St. Clare of Assisi was born July 16, 1194, Assisi, in Spoleto, Italy, she died August 11, 1253, in Assisi, she was canonized 1255 and her feast day is celebrated on August 11. She was abbess and founder of the Poor Clares, an order cloistered nuns who live according to a strict rule established in the 13th century by St. Francis of Assisi for the Franciscans.

 St. Clare is the patron saint of people with eye disorders and embroiderers. In 1958 Pope Pius XII declared her the heavenly patron of television, citing an incident before Clare’s death when she miraculously heard and saw the Christmas midnight mass in the basilica of San Francesco, located a distance from her convent, on the far side of Assisi, Italy.

She and Saint Francis were close friends, and as Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote, “to love does not mean to look at each other, but to look together in the same direction.” I think this is a perfect description of the friendship between Francis and Clare and is good advice for us all in our relationships. “to look together in the same direction.”

Some say Francis called her his “pianticella” his little plant and that in his Canticle of the Creatures, he described Sister Water as useful and humble and precious and chaste, as was Clare. She and Francis both had an extreme love for the Eucharist, she is said to have heard a voice from the Ciborium telling her, “I will protect you always.” It is said that Assisi was saved from the Saracens, not by soldiers, but by Clare, who met them with a monstrance in her hand. 

Like Francis, she was born wealthy, but chose voluntary poverty as her way of life, hence her order became known as the Poor Clares. Clare’s name means luminous, bright, and transparent. She was a light for Saint Francis and for Saint Agnes of Prague, to whom she corresponded in a series of letters for which she is perhaps best known. I would like to share a few quotes from Clare’s letters to Agnes. 

“You are the spouse, and mother, and sister of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Place your mind before the mirror of eternity…gaze upon that mirror each day…in that mirror blessed poverty, holy humility, and inexpressible charity shine forth…that mirror, suspended on the wood of the cross—look and see if there is any suffering like my suffering.”

“Draw me after you, let us run in the fragrance of your perfume, O Heavenly Spouse, I will run and not tire, until you bring me into the wine cellar.”

“With swift pace, light step, unswerving feet….may you go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly on the path to….happiness.”

While Clare wrote these letters to another sister, they can be applied to all of us. In fact. I used Clare’s letters to Agnes to share with a group of seminarians!

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