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Clare of Assisi - Giotto |
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Clare of Assisi - Giotto |
The Following is adapted from: The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. Cross, Livingstone; (OUP, 1983).
CLARE (1193/4–1253), foundress of the ‘Poor Clares’. About 1212, moved by the teaching of St Francis of Assisi, she gave up all her possessions and joined him at the Portiuncula. He placed her first in a Benedictine house before moving her to San Damiano outside the walls of Assisi. When other women wishing to live on Franciscan lines came to join her, she was made abbess (c.1215), a position she held until the end of her life. Many daughter houses were founded in Europe during the 13th cent., including 47 in Spain. The austerity of the rule went far beyond any that women had previously undertaken, and, although many of the daughter houses obtained dispensations from the original ban upon communal property, the community of ‘San Damiano’, with those of Perugia and Florence, obtained at St Clare’s wish the ‘privilegium paupertatis’ from Gregory IX, which enabled them to maintain their original state of entire poverty. She was canonized by Alexander IV in 1255. Feast day, 11 (formerly 12) Aug.
The authenticity of the rule and four letters is accepted; that of the Testament, Blessing, and another letter is contested. Eng. tr., from the edn. of I. Omaechevarria, OFM (Madrid, 1970), Francis and Clare, The Complete Works, tr. R. J. Armstrong, OFM Cap., and I. Brady, OFM (Classics of Western Spirituality, 1982), pp. 189–234, with introd., pp. 169–85. They are also available in Eng. trs. of primary docs. on her life cited below. Separate edn. of her writings, with Fr. tr. and introd., by M.-F. Becker and others (SC 325; 1985). Contemporary Life, attributed to Thomas of Celano, pr. in AASS, Aug. 2 (1735), pp. 754–67; also ed. from MS 338 of the Bibl. Comunale of Assisi by F. Pennacchi (Assisi, 1910). Eng. tr. of Clare’s writings and other material by R. J. Armstrong, OFM Cap., Clare of Assisi: Early Documents (New York [1988]; 2nd edn., St. Bonaventure, NY [1993]), incl. the Life attributed to Thomas of Celano, pp. 184–240 (2nd edn., pp. 246–308), the Process of Canonization, pp. 125–75 (2nd edn., pp. 132–85), the Bull of Canonization, pp. 176–83 (2nd edn., pp. 238–45), and (2nd edn. only) the Versified Legend [see below], pp. 186–237. B. Bughetti, OFM (ed.), ‘Legenda Versificata S. Clarae Assisiensis, Saec. XIII’, AFH 5 (1912), pp. 237–60 and 459–81; 14th cent. metrical Life ed. L. Oliger, OFM, ibid., 12 (1919), pp. 110–31. Life, written in 1494, by Ugolino Verino (1442–1505), ed., with introd. and notes, W. Seton (Chelsea, 1921). Z. Lazzeri, OFM, ‘Il processo di canonizzazione di S. Chiara d’Assisi’, AFH 13 (1920), pp. 403–507. M. Bartoli, Chiara d’Assisi (Bibliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina, 37; 1989; Eng. tr., 1993). Other studies by E. Gilliat-Smith (London, 1914), N. de Robeck (Milwaukee, 1951), F. Casolini (Assisi, 1953), and E. A. van den Goorbergh, OSC, and T. H. Zweerman (Assen, 1994; Eng. tr., Leuven, 2000). L. Hardick, OFM, ‘Zur Chronologie im Leben der hl. Klara’, Franziskanische Studien, 35 (1953), pp. 174–210, with other arts. on the rule and order, pp. 145–73 and 211–383. A. Fortini, ‘Nuove notizie intorno a S. Chiara di Assisi’, AFH 46 (1953), pp. 3–43. Santa Chiara d’Assisi: Studi e cronaca del VII centenario 1253–1953 (Assisi [1954]), esp. pp. 37–310, with docs., pp. 519–42. L. Iriarte [OFM Cap.], ‘Clara de Asís en la tipología hagiográfica femenina’, Laurentianum, 29 (1988), pp. 416–61. P. Sabatier, ‘Le Privilège de la pauvreté’, Revue d’histoire franciscaine, 1 (1924), pp. 1–54. R. B. and C. N. L. Brooke, ‘St Clare’, in D. Baker (ed.), Medieval Women, dedicated and presented to … Rosalind M. T. Hill (Studies in Church History, Subsidia, 1; Oxford, 1978), pp. 275–87. J. Mueller, Clare’s Letters to Agnes (St. Bonaventure, NY [2001]), incl. text and Eng. tr. F. Casolini in Dict. Sp. 5 (1964), cols. 1401–9, s.v. ‘Frères Mineurs, 6. Sainte Claire et les Clarisses. 1. Sainte Claire’, with further bibl.This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1990
