The life of today’s saint, Clare, is intimately bound up with that of St. Francis of Assisi. By a very young age, Clare (who lived in Assisi) already knew that she wanted NO part of marriage to a man–that the only lifelong commitment she would ever make to a male would be to Jesus. Even as a young girl, Clare had heard of St. Francis, and kept asking until she finally found an older woman willing to take her to meet Francis. Clare did this in secret, knowing that her family would most definitely not approve.
Francis welcomed this girl for who she was and for what she desired. Unlike Saint Equitius, featured in my August 11 blog post, Francis was not afraid to be around and to interact with females. Seeing over time that Clare was sincere in her desire to serve God, Francis arranged that she should celebrate this sacred decision at a special Palm Sunday service. The family, not knowing what was in store, gladly attended that Palm Sunday worship, only to find their Clare dedicating herself to Christ and claiming her place among her sister-nuns!
Butler reports that her wealthy family and A-List friends were appalled. He writes that they “came in a body to draw her out of her retreat. Clare resisted their violence, and held the altar so fast as to pull the holy cloths half off it, when they endeavored to drag her away. . . . They reproached her, that by embracing so poor and mean a life she disgraced her family; but she bore their insults, and God triumphed in her.” Francis immediately placed Clare in what he thought was a safe house–but her kinfolk found her again and repeated their wretched behavior. Francis found her yet a third harbor, and there Clare finally prospered in safety, becoming the Clare she felt God was calling her to be.
And this Clare flourished in amazing and wonderful ways. She established a Franciscan-like Order (none previously had existed for women), and followed the principle that there is never any reason for a community of faith to have any monetary or material savings whatsoever! Whatever their labors might bring them each day, everything beyond their necessities went immediately and unquestioningly to the poor–each and every night. One can well imagine her extended family’s reaction, as Butler relates, “when her large fortune fell to her, by the death of her father after her profession [of faith], she gave the whole to the poor, without reserving one single farthing for the monastery.”
Not only did this upset her family, but it seemed extreme even to the pope! [Editorial note: No wonder! The Vatican is perhaps the greatest repository of priceless treasures in the world.] Pope Gregory IX even offered to allocate a yearly budget to underwrite Clare’s monastery–yet this amazing woman stood up to the pope (arguably the most powerful man in the world at that time)!! Clare kindly but clearly told Gregory IX, “Thanks, but no thanks” and successfully (!!) declared that this (bribe) would destroy the very fabric of faith in her community. Gregory, it turns out, knew when to just back the heck off!
When, at length, Clare fell sick with the illness that eventually took her life, she made the following declaration of her faith: “There is nothing insupportable to a heart that loveth God, and to him that loveth not, everything is insupportable.”
What a saint! What a remarkable, indomitable, loving, and powerful woman! Ave Clare!