Who Was St. Clare?

The first woman to write a Rule for women, and the spiritual partner of Francis.

Depiction of St. Clare holding the monstrance — St. Clare of Assisi, founder of the Poor Clares.

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1-Minute Summary: St. Clare (1194–1253) was the first woman to write a monastic rule for women. She fled her noble family to follow Francis, living a cloistered life of radical poverty at San Damiano for 42 years. She is the spiritual co-founder of the Franciscan movement.

The Plant of St. Francis

Chiara Offreduccio was born in 1194 to a noble family in Assisi. Just as Francis had rejected his merchant wealth, Clare rejected her noble status. Inspired by Francis's Lenten preaching in 1212, she secretly left her father's palace on Palm Sunday night.

Timeline

1194: Born in Assisi.
1212: Palm Sunday escape; joins Francis.
1216: Abbess of San Damiano.
1224: Saved San Damiano from Saracen invaders with the Eucharist.
1253: Pope approves her Rule; she dies two days later.
1255: Canonized by Pope Alexander IV.

The Great Escape

Clare met Francis and his friars at the Porziuncola. there, her hair was cut, and she exchanged her rich gown for a rough tunic and veil. Francis placed her in a Benedictine convent for safety, where her father and uncles tried to drag her out by force. She clung to the altar, revealing her shorn hair as a sign of her consecration to God.

San Damiano

Francis eventually installed Clare at San Damiano, the little church he had rebuilt. There she was joined by her sister Agnes and eventually her widowed mother, Ortolana. This community became the order of the "Poor Ladies," later known as the Poor Clares.

Clare lived a cloistered life at San Damiano for 42 years. Despite never traveling, her influence was immense. Popes and cardinals came to consult her.

Why this matters on the Via di Francesco

While Francis was the wanderer, Clare was the anchor. Her presence at San Damiano provided spiritual stability for the movement. As you walk into Assisi and visit San Damiano, remember that this small church was the "heart" of the early Franciscan world.

Key Locations on the Trail

Assisi

Where Clare was born, where pilgrims arrive, and where San Damiano and the Porziuncola shape the wider visit.

Francis

Read the companion Francis story that gives Clare's decision its context.

Plan

Return to practical planning after the story context.

The Privilege of Poverty

Clare's greatest struggle was legal, not physical. She fought for decades for the "Privilege of Poverty"—the right for her community to own nothing, relying entirely on providence. At the time, church authorities believed women's convents needed property for security.

Two days before her death in 1253, she finally received the papal bull approving her Rule—the first monastic rule written by a woman. She died clutching it.

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The Patron Saint of Television? In 1958, Pope Pius XII named St. Clare the patron saint of television. Legend says that one Christmas Eve, when she was too ill to attend Mass, she saw and heard the service from the Basilica of St. Francis projected on the wall of her cell.