The Lady Clare was a native of Assisi, born around the year 1193. When she was 18, Francis came to preach at the church of San Georgio in Assisi. She sought him ought and asked for his help that she too might live after the manner of the holy gospel, as Francis had preached.

0n Palm Sunday evening she ran away from home and went to the Portiuncla about a mile out of town where Francis was living with his community of Poor Friars. He and the brothers met her at the door of the chapel with lighted tapers.

Entering before the altar she put off her rich clothes and Francis cut her long hair, and gave her a penitential habit, a tunic of sackcloth tied with a cord. Not having a convent of her own, she went to live temporarily with the Benedictines at St. Paul.

No sooner had this secret become public then her family came to retrieve her from the convent. It is said she resisted by holding on to the altar as they attempted to drag her away. Pulling her clothes half off, they were startled to see her hair cut.

I belong now to Christ, she said. And the more they tried to persecute her, the more God would strengthen her to resist. They abandoned their efforts and left without her. Soon afterward Francis moved her to another convent. There her younger sister Agnes joined her drawing again another persecution.

Eventually Francis placed them in a poor house near the Church of San Damiano on the outskirts of town. Here she was joined by others including her own mother. Within a few years Clare established convents throughout Italy, France, and Germany.

The Poor Clares, as they came to be called, wore neither stockings, shoes, nor sandals nor any covering on their feet. They slept on the ground, observed perpetual abstinence from meat, and never spoke except when obliged to do so by necessity and charity.

Discretion came with experience, and years later she wrote," Since our bodies are not of brass and our strength is not the strength of stone, but rather we are weak and subject to corporal infirmities, I implore you vehemently in the Lord to refrain from that exceeding rigor of abstinence which I know you practice, so that living and hoping in the Lord you may offer him a reasonable service and a sacrifice seasoned with the salt of prudence.

Clare had a wonderful devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and was often seen coming from prayer with her face radiant like that of Moses coming from conversation with God on the Mountain. Even when sick in bed for the last 27 years of her life, she made fine linen corporals and cloths for the altar, which she distributed among the churches of Assisi.

Clare bore years of suffering with sublime patience. For the last 17 days of her live she was able to eat nothing and during that weary time of labor, the faith and devotion of the people increased greatly. Almost every day prelates and cardinals came to call on her firmly convinced the dying woman was truly a great saint.

Her sister Agnes stayed with her as well as three of Francis’ friars, Brothers Leo, Angelo, and Juniper who read aloud to her from the Passion of St. John as they had done for Francis on his death bed 27 years before.

It was the day preceding the Feast of St. Lawrence that she received her laurel crown, for on that day the temple of her body was vacated as her most holy soul went forth, and exalting in its freedom, soared on the wings of gladness to the place which God had prepared for it.