Clare of Assisi, Saint

Clare of Assisi, Saint

(born July 16, 1194, Assisi, duchy of Spoleto—died Aug. 11, 1253, Assisi; canonized 1255; feast day August 11) Founder of the order of Poor Clares (Clarissines). Born to a noble family, she became devoted to her fellow Assisian St. Francis. She refused to marry and in 1212 fled to the Porziuncola Chapel, where St. Francis received her vows. She later became abbess of a female religious community that included her sister, St. Agnes, and her mother. Her order, the Second Order of St. Francis, or Poor Clares, adopted the absolute poverty of St. Francis but was strictly cloistered, unlike its counterpart, the Franciscans. Still allied with the Franciscans, the Poor Clares are noted for their poverty and their life of penitential prayer led for the good of church and society.