No man’s shadow

Joey Carlson
MSMU Class of 2025

(3/2023) St. Clare of Assisi is known to many simply as St. Francis’ lesser-known companion, or perhaps to a few who have encountered a Poor Clare. In many ways, however, St. Clare had more influence than St. Francis. While the Franciscan order spent centuries fighting amongst themselves about what their rule of life should be, and whether or not they should actually give up all of their possessions as St. Francis had insisted, the Poor Clares never strayed from St. Francis’ original rule of total poverty. The unity in the mission of these little nuns was accomplished singlehandedly by St. Clare, their first member, abbess for forty years and the inspiration for the founding of the order.

St. Clare of Assisi was the spiritual daughter of St. Francis, literally called alter Franciscus (other Francis) for her undying commitment to poverty and prayer for the poor. At age 17, she heard Francis preach and was so moved that she begged him to let her live the same lifestyle through which Francis so perfectly showed the love of Christ. Clare was the daughter of a wealthy family who had been distinguished since the days of the Roman empire, and she was apparently very beautiful and was already going to be wed. Clare snuck out of the family castle by night, where she was met by friars carrying torches, exchanging her jeweled belt for a common rope. The patriarchs of her family pursued her with soldiers and arms, even breaking into the chapel where Clare was praying. In a dramatic scene, Clare pulled her new veil away to reveal her long hair cut short, a sign of her fidelity to her husband, Jesus Christ. Her father and uncle left in a huff, and nineteen days later, her sister Agnes came to join her in the convent (her story is well worth telling another time). Francis himself had been persecuted by Church higher-ups and noblemen who saw his commitment to total poverty as a challenge to their privileged lifestyle, so when Clare asked to join his order, he knew that she, as a woman, would receive even more resistance. For this reason, he decided that she would maintain a monastic life of prayer, penance, and poverty, separate from the world, unlike the men, who would spend less time in prayer and more time in service. Clare’s order eventually became known as the Poor Clares.

Though it may seem that Clare was relegated to an inferior position, as if her femininity was a scandal to be locked away, in Catholic theology, contemplation of the Divine is the highest calling human beings can answer. The Poor Clares would become, in many ways, the very lifeblood of the Franciscan movement, and by the close of the century, hundreds of monasteries had been set up across Europe, providing for the poor what the mendicant Franciscans could not – unceasing supplication and prayer before the Throne of God. In this new religious environment, women played a privileged role, with many having a distinct authority over the men surrounding them. This was not unseen in Christianity’s history (Mary, after all, was the spiritual mother of the apostles and held unique authority even over those bishops of the Church). The Poor Clares carried a distinctly female spirituality, and this age in the Church’s life saw lowly and holy women dictating even to the Pope (St. Catherine of Sienna, not a Poor Clare, but a contemporary, ordered the pope to directly contradict the king of France, and he did). St. Clare herself was visited by popes often, and she, a lowly woman not unlike the Mother of God, chastised, encouraged, and received reverence from the Vicar of Christ. St. Clare, visited by popes and bishops, washed the feet of her own sisters, and for all her austerities, never ceased valuing charity as the highest good.

Francis was correct that St. Clare would endure much in order to live her unique charism of total poverty. Francis’ original rule of life for Franciscans did not allow any ownership of private property, and Clare insisted that her order follow suit. Religious rules of life must be endorsed by the pope. Various popes attempted to write rules for St. Clare’s order while she was alive, but none of them forbade private property as Clare desired. For forty years, she fought for her rule of life, and finally, the pope endorsed the rule that she herself had written for her sisters two days before she died in 1253. She is the first woman to write a rule of life for a Catholic religious order.

To give you an idea of how holy St. Clare was, it took nine years after the death of St. John Paul II for him to be declared a saint by the Church, and 19 years for Mother Teresa; Clare was canonized two years after her death. The pope personally sped up the process because he was so impressed by this little Italian woman!

To close, "a well-known story concerns her prayer and trust. Clare had the Blessed Sacrament placed on the walls of the convent when it faced attack by invading Saracens. ‘Does it please you, O God, to deliver into the hands of these beasts the defenseless children I have nourished with your love? I beseech you, dear Lord, protect these whom I am now unable to protect.’ To her sisters, she said, ‘Don’t be afraid. Trust in Jesus.’ The Saracens fled" (fransiscanmedia.org).

There is a new book out on her life: The Light of Assisi: the Story of Saint Clare. The catchphrase of the book is "the story of a woman who stood in no man’s shadow." Her name, of course, means ‘clear’ or ‘bright’, thus the irony in the title. If there is anyone who imagines that women played some subsidiary role in the life of the Church during the Dark Ages, I would encourage them to encounter this true light of faith, councilor to popes, servant of the servants of God, and spiritual mother of all who, in their love for God, serve the poor with joy and perseverance.

Read other articles by Joe Carlson