The Bull of Canonization of St Clare 1254
This manuscript version of the Bull of Canonization is addressed to the French episcopate and was sent to them from Anagni. Similar announcements would have gone to other jurisdictions.
Alexander, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all our venerable brothers, the archbishops and bishops established throughout the kingdom of France: health and apostolic benediction.
Clare, shines with clear light:
luminous by her clear-shining merits,
by the greatness of her glory
and the clarity of her marvellous miracles on earth
lighting up the heavens,.
Clare, her keen and uplifting way of religious life dazzles earth,
while the vastness of God's gifts to her in eternity
blaze rays as from above
and her virtue dawns upon all mortal beings with sublime signs.
Clare, graced here below with the privilege of the highest poverty,
repaid on high by the pearl beyond price
now shown plentiful devotion and honour by all.
Clare: here on earth her brilliant deeds set her apart.
Clare: on high the fulness of the divine light shines upon her.
Clare: the wonder of her amazing deeds reveal her to Christian people.
O Clare, endowed with so many clear titles!
Radiant even before your conversion,
clearer in your manner of living,
clearer still in your enclosed way of life,
and brilliant in splendour after the course of your mortal life!
In this Clare, a clear mirror of example has been given to the world;
by this Clare the sweet lily of virginity is offered among the heavenly delights;
through this Clare wonderous healings are felt here on earth.
O the incandesant clarity of blessed Clare!
The more eagerly she is sought after for particular favours
the more brilliant she is found in each!
This woman, I say, grew bright in the world,
blazeded in her religious life,
spread as a ray of the sun in her home,
flashed like lightning in the enclosure.
She gave light in life;
she is shines brighter after death.
She was relective on earth,
she is resplendent in heaven!
O how great is the power of this light
and how sheer is the sunrise of its shining!
While this light remained certainly in a hidden enclosure,
it shot bright sparks outside.
Set in the enclosure of the monastery,
yet it was shone out throughout the wide world.
Hidden within,
she extended herself abroad.
In fact, Clare was hidden,
yet her life was visible.
Clare was silent,
yet her reputation became widespread.
She was kept hidden in a cell,
but was known throughout the world.
It should not be surprising that a light so enkindled,
so illuminating could not be kept from shining brilliantly
and giving clear light in the house of the Lord;
nor could a vessel filled with perfume be so hidden
that it would not give forth its fragrance
and fill the house of the Lord with a sweet perfume.
Moreover,
since in the harshness of her cloistered solitude,
she broke the alabaster jar of her body with her severity,
the whole Church was made sweet with the fragrance of her holiness.
While she still a young girl in the world, she was doing her best to pass swiftly along the path of purity, through this fragile and tarnished world. Keeping the precious pearl of her virginity with an undiminished modesty, she carefully dedicated herself to works of light in kindness, thus it is that her reputation spread freely to those near and far. After hearing this praise, blessed Francis immediately began to encourage her and to lead her to the perfect service of Christ. Quickly taking up this man’s profounly holy admonitions and desiring to turn entirely from the world with everything earthly in it and to serve the Lord only in freely chosen poverty, she acted on his words as quickly as possible, and in a final way, by selling all she had and distributing it as alms to the poor (cf. Lk 12:33), so that, one with him, all that she was she gave to the service of Christ.
Then, fleeing from the clamour of the world, she went down to the church in the field and, after her hair had been cut off round by the blessed Francis himself, she went to another church. When her relatives tried to bring her back, she at once took hold of the altar cloths, uncovered her shorn head and strongly and in this way resolutely resisted them. She would not let herself to be separated from God’s service because she was already joined to Him with her whole mind.
When she was finally led by the same blessed Francis to the church of San Damiano outside of Assisi, in which she made her beginning, the Lord brought many companions to her for the love and ceaseless adoration of His name. The distinguished and sacred Order of San Damiano, now spread widely throughout the world, came and had its exemplary beginning, then, from this woman.
It was this woman, encouraged by blessed Francis,
who gave the beginning to this new and holy observance;
this woman who was the first and firm foundation of this religious form of life in its greatness;
this woman who stood as the cornerstone of this tall tower.
This woman, noble by birth, but nobler still by manner of life,
kept under this rule of holiness the virginity she had always protected from the first.
Her mother, named Ortulana, setting herself deeds of devotion, followed her daughter’s footprints and afterwards accepted this religious way of life. In this excellent garden which had produced such a plant for the Lord, she happily ended her days. But after a few years, that blessed Clare, very much urged by the insistence of the same Saint Francis, accepted the government of the monastery and the sisters.
This woman
was undoubtedly an outstanding and most celebrated tree
with far reaching branches
that brought forth the sweet fruit of a religious way of life
in the field of the Church (cf. Dt 4:8).
So many disciples of the faith ran and still run
from everywhere to its refreshing shade
and taste its fruit with delight (cf Ct. 2:3).
This clear spring of the Spoleto valley
provided a new fountain of living water
for the refreshment and comfort of souls (cf. Wis 3:13),
a great confluence of many streams in the territory of the Church,
has watered the nursery-gardens of that place.
This was a lofty candelabra of holiness,
burning brightly in the tabernacle of the Lord (cf. Heb 9:2),
to whose shining splendour
many run to light their lamps (cf. Mt 25:7)
It is true!
In a field of faith,
this woman planted and cultivated a vineyard of poverty,
in which rich fruits of salvation abound for harvest.
This woman set up a garden of humility in the walled space of the Church,
beset by immense need.
Here she produced a great abundance in the area of religion,
where a wide refreshment of spiritual nourishment was served.
This woman,
the first of the poor,
the leader of the humble,
the teacher of the continent,
the abbess of the penitents,
governed her monastery and the family entrusted to her within it
with loving kindness and prudence,
in the fear and service of the Lord,
with full observance of the Order:
vigilant in care,
eager to serve,
intent on lifting up others,
working to bring to what is needful to mind,
constant in compassion,
discreet in silence,
mature in speech,
and skilful in all things concerning right government,
wanting to serve rather than to be served,
to honour than to be honoured.
Her life was an education and a lesson to others who learned the rule of living in her book of life (Rev 21:27). While other were taught to behold the path in this mirror of life.
Although in the body on earth,
nevertheless she lived in spirit in heaven.
She was a chalice of humility,
a fortress of chastity,
a fire of charity,
the sweetness of kindness,
the strength of patience,
the bond of peace,
and the covenant of communion in her family:
meek in word,
gentle in deed,
and lovable and tolerant in everything.
Because each one is stronger after overcoming an enemy, she had only the bare ground and sometimes twigs for her bed, and a piece of hard wood as pillow for her head in order to grow stronger in spirit after her body was made weaker. Content with one tunic with a mantle made of poor, discarded, and coarse material, she used these lowly clothes to cover her body. Near her flesh she wore a rough shirt made out of horsehair.
More than moderate also in food and disciplined in drink, she restrained herself so much by abstinence from these things that for a long time she did not taste any food three days a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. While, on the other days when she limited herself to a meagre portion, others marvelled that she was able to survive on so slight a diet.
Moreover, she especially spent day and night giving herself unrelentingly to vigils (cf. 2 Cor 11:27) and prayers. When she was finally laid low with illness which lasted for a long time and she could not raise herself by her own efforts, she was lifted up with the help of her sisters. With supports for her back, she worked with her own hands (cf. 1 Cor 4:12), not to be idle even in ill health. Then, out of the linen made by her skill and labour, she had many corporals made for the sacrifice of the altar and had them distributed throughout the plains and mountains of Assisi.
An extraordinary lover of poverty and its zealous planter, she so rooted it in her spirit, so fixed it in her desires that, more steadfast in its love and more ardent in its arms, she never departed from her stronger and more profound union with it for any necessity. She could not be induced by any persuasion to consent to have any possessions in her monastery, even though Pope Gregory of happy memory, our predecessor, thinking about the abundant want of her monastery, generously wanted to endow sufficient and suitable possessions for the support of her sisters.
In truth, because a great and splendid light cannot be hidden from displaying the brilliance of its rays, the power of holiness shone in her life through many and various miracles.
Thus she restored the voice of one of the sisters of the monastery after it had been almost totally lost for a long time. She restored the ability of speaking to another who had long lost the use of her tongue. She opened the deaf ear of another. She cured one struggling with a fever, one swollen with dropsy, one infected with a (tubercular) fistula, and others oppressed with various illnesses by making the sign of the Cross over them. She healed a certain brother of the Order of Minors from mental illness.
When once, by accident, their was no oil in the monastery she called for the brother assigned to gather alms for them. She took a jar, washed it, and placed it empty by the cloister door so that the same brother would take it for begging oil. When he went to pick it up, he found it filled with oil, a gift of divine generosity.
Again, one day when only half a loaf of bread was available for feeding the sisters in that monastery, she directed that half of it be distributed in pieces among the sisters. He who is “the living bread” (Jn 6:41) and “gives food to the hungry” (Psalm 145:7) multiplied it in the hands of the one who broke it so that there were then fifty sufficient portions made and distributed to the sisters seated at table (cf. Lk 9:14)
The pre-eminence of her merits was made known through these and other signs while she was still living. When she was about to die, a white-robed choir of blessed virgins crowned with glittering crowns, among which one seemed to be more eminent and brilliant, was seen to enter the house where that handmaid of Christ lay ill. She was seen to draw close to Clare’s bed and on her behalf to show, as it were, the duty of visitation and comforting the sick with a very real human zeal.
After her death, however, a certain man suffering from epilepsy and unable to walk because of a withered leg, was brought to the tomb. There he was cured from both infirmities; his leg made a noise as if it were breaking. The hunchbacked and the paralysed, the mentally afflicted and posessed received perfect health in that same place.
Someone who had lost the use of his right hand by a violent blow so that it was totally useless had it completely restored to its original state through the merits of the saint. Another who had long lost the light of his eyes in blindness came to her tomb under the guidance of another. After he recovered his sight there, he returned home without a guide.
This virgin worthy of veneration shines with these and so many other glorious deeds and miracles. What her mother heard when she was carrying her and was praying, appears to have come true: that she would give birth to a light that would illumine the entire world.
Therefore
let Mother Church rejoice
because she had begotten and reared such a daughter
who as a parent fruitful with virtues,
has produced many daughters
for religious life by her example
and has trained them for the perfect service of Christ
through her thorough teaching.
Let the many devout faithful be glad
because the King and Lord of heaven
has chosen their sister and companion as His spouse
and has led her with glory
to His high and light-bright palace.
Finally,
let the many men and women saints rejoice
because the espousals of a new royal bride
are being celebrated in their midst in heaven.
Therefore, because it is fitting that the universal Church venerate on earth her whom the Lord exalted in heaven; because her holiness of life and miracles are most evident from a thorough and careful investigation, a distinct examination and a solemn discussion - even though, both near and far, her deeds were widely known before this. By the common advice and assent of our brothers and all the prelates who were then at the Holy See, and relying firmly upon the divine omnipotence, We, by the authority of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and our own have directed she be inscribed in the catalogue of the holy virgins.
Therefore We admonish and earnestly exhort all of you, by command of the apostolic letters addressed to you, that you devoutly and solemnly celebrate the feast of this same virgin on the twelfth day of August and that you have it celebrated with veneration by your subjects, so you may merit to have a devout and hard-working helper before God.
And that a multitude of people may come together ever more eagerly and in greater numbers to pray at her tomb, and that her feast day may be honoured with greater numbers, We, relying on the mercy of the Omnipotent God and on the authority of His Apostles, Peter and Paul, grant an indulgence of one year and forty days from the punishment due to their sins to all who are truly repentant and have confessed their sins, and who humbly seeking her aid go each year with reverence to this tomb on the feast of this same virgin or during its octave.
Given at Anagni, the twenty-sixth day of September, in the first year of our pontificate.