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Look into this Mirror
What do you see when you look into
the mirror? Clare saw the reflection of Christ. Her name means clear,
unshadowed light.
When her mother, Ortulana, was pregnant, she went to pray before
the crucifix and heard a voice say, "You will bear a bright light."
Clare was that child, born around 1193 in Assisi, in Umbria - a
name which means, Shadowland. If you visit Assisi today, you will
find the Basilica of St Francis on a spur jutting out at the edge
of the town. But Clare's Church is in the heart of Assisi.
She belonged to a noble family. Her father was a crusader knight.
Her mother, who was a devout woman, had been on pilgrimage to Rome,
Jerusalem and St Michael's at Monte Gargano, quite a feat for a
woman in that time. Clare had two younger sisters, Catherine, (known
later as Agnes), and Beatrix. Her family supported the interests
of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry II, against the Holy See, and as
a result of this, she found herself in 1199 a refugee with the rest
of her family, in Perugia. An amnesty permitted her to return in
1202.
She received the education of a Lombard gentlewoman, and though
in later life she was fond of describing herself as "your worthless
handmaid," she wrote it in unmistakably elegant Latin.
She was about 12 years old when Francis, a son of that merchant
class which had once driven her family out, suffered his bewildering
conversion.
Clare in her Testament, tells us herself that before Francis had
as much as one brother, sang out prophetically in French whilst
rebuilding St Damians:
"Come and help me in the
work of building the monastery of San Damiano, because ladies
are yet to dwell here who will glorify our heavenly Father throughout
his holy, universal Church by their celebrated and holy manner
of life."
We know that via her kinswoman Bona, she sent food for the brothers
who later worked there. Clare's cousin Rufino, regarded by Francis
as a saint, was amongst the first friars, and it may have been from
him that Francis learned of Clare. But Assisi was a small place;
a young woman refusing to marry, refraining form staring out of
windows, and spending her time in prayer and good works, is a light
on a hill top that cannot be hidden.
Walk in the Light
Francis sought to "capture this noble prize from the world". They
met on several occasions - in secret, naturally. On Palm Sunday
of 1212, Clare went to Church attired in her best clothes, but when
the time came for the distribution of the palms, she did not go
forward. Perhaps that was the prearranged signal, perhaps at that
moment she was paralysed with fear. Certainly, she understood the
meaning of the palm. It is the symbol of martyrdom.
That night she fought her way through a pile of heavy pillars and
discarded lumber to a little used door in her Palazzo. Some have
thought it to have been that door by which the dead alone were carried
out, and which, because of superstition, was left otherwise unused.
In the darkness she ran down the hill to St Mary of the Angels.
There, Francis and the brothers waited, with lighted torches; Clare's
hair was cut off and she received the poor habit of the lesser brothers,
held at the waist by a knotted cord. Then they took her to San Paolo
in Bascia, the nearest house of Benedictine women, to have the right
of sanctuary. Clare was going to need it. The following morning,
her relatives came hotfoot. They tried persuasion, threats, and
every means to get her back, "they employed, violent force, poisonous
advice and flattering promises," (Legend of St Clare, 9)
Holding delicately to the altar cloth with one hand, she pulled
off her head covering and revealed her shorn hair. This palpable
argument silenced the opposition. They fell back and left her to
it.
When the fuss had died down, Francis took Clare to San Angelo in
Panzo, a Beguinage. Here she was joined by her fifteen year old
sister, Agnes. And, since there was, no protecting right of sanctuary
there, her uncle, the head of her family, tried to drag Agnes away.
But Glare's prayers prevailed.
Then Francis, hastily summoned, gave Agnes the habit took them to
San Damiano 's.
Building in Faith
Clare had faith. She had given away her heritage and, though
she only had a few companions, she approached the Holy Father, Innocent
III, to grant her an extraordinary privilege; the Privilege of Holy
Poverty; the moral and canonical right not to be forced to
own property. The Pope, more usually inundated with the opposite
sort of request, was so stunned that he assented. "We confirm with
our apostolic authority, as you requested, your proposal of most
high poverty, granting you by the authority of this letter that
no one can compel you to receive possessions."
In 1226 Francis died, and Thomas of Celano, in his first life of
St Francis, attributes this lament to Clare and her sisters:
... O Father of the Poor,
... O lover of poverty,
... when we are tempted who will make us strong?
... You who every temptation knew,
... and well knew how to overcome -
... who will comfort us when we are tried?
... You were our helper in times of distress
... O most bitter going forth,
... O most feared farewell,
... O most dreaded death
One may wonder what there was to weep over. Clare had organised
herself from the first; within a year of her leaving the world,
Francis was all set to go to the Holy Land. Francis had been of
little practical use to Clare. He had been of little practical use
to anyone. Practicality was not his forte. Francis was the wing
of the Spirit on which they had all flown. It is hard to find yourself
a bird with a broken wing.
The Map of History
The community around Clare grew steadily. The early sources
of our Franciscan history make life in the 13th Century sound like
a garden of birds and troubadours. In reality it was a bloody battlefield
in which the armies of the Emperor waged a semi-continuous war with
the forces of the Pope. Assisi was on everyone's marching route.
They lived in constant fear, too , of "Tartars, Saracens and other
enemies of God and of Holy Church", (testimony of Sr Fiippa. 18.
Acts of Ganonisation) The heirs of Gengiz Khan were sweeping over
Europe from the east, and the princes of Arabia rising up from the
south. Spain and Portugal were at this time, Moorish conquests.
The Crusades had failed, a fact few were willing to admit. And the
last thing the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II wished to do was
to wage a holy war.
It was an apocalyptic time in which to live. Innocent III, the visionary
creator of the "Modern Papacy," was trying to rid the Church of
secular intervention and reform the clergy. At the IV Lateran Council
he saw himself as the scribe in Ezekiel's Vision, marking the saved
with the sign of the Tau, a sign which St Francis appears to have
used as his autograph, and which has become a symbol of our order.
And in the midst of this stands Clare, vowing poverty in a deliberately
chosen life of enclosure - a profound paradox.
The dissensions which now rent the Franciscan Brothers had begun
before Francis had died. It was Clare who was now the focus of Francis'
first companions. Leo and Angelo called her "Our Abbess", and the
breviary from which Francis had prayed was lodged with the sisters
at San Damiano as a symbol of the middle course which in actuality,
their Father had chosen. Francis had not wanted to own storehouses,
or advise princes, or ride horses, but also, he had possessed a
breviary, prayed the Divine Office and been willing to let men like
St Anthony, teach the brothers.
The order was divided between some who virtually wanted to own universities,
and others, who thought that even the Pope, was not allowed to define
poverty.
Lady Poverty
Clare, frail in health, possessing no weapons but prayer, and
perpetually enclosed, stood in the middle, in utter fidelity to
Lady Poverty.
She had her own trials. The order's first Cardinal Protector became
Pope in 1227. He loved Clare. In 1220, after celebrating Holy Week
with the sisters, he wrote:
"My very dear sister in
Christ! From the very hour, when the necessity of returning
here, separated me from your holy conversation and tore me away
from that joy of heavenly treasure, such a bitterness of heart,
such an abundance of tears and such an immensity of sorrow have
overcome me.... I entrust my soul to you and commend my spirit
to you, as Jesus on the cross commended his spirit to the Father ..."
But he also felt it was his
duty to look after her.
He afflicted her with the Rule of St Benedict, an excellent institution
the objectives of which could not even be said to run parallel to
those of the Franciscan way. Above all it saw poverty in a wholly
different light. It was also very rigid; poverty is a freeing gift
and the poor must adapt themselves to what God gives to them; only
the rich can order their days as they please.
Houses of the sisters had sprung up in many of the places where
the brother Friars had preached. Some of those to hear the good
news were already Benedictine women religious. Not all of these
had contact with San Damiano 's.
Clare's sister Agnes was sent to Monticelli, and, apparently, to
several other houses in Italy as a herald of poverty. Clare is also
known to have sent sisters to Prague and to Spain. Prague was the
home of the most distinguished convert to Lady Poverty: St Agnes,
a Bohemian princess who had rejected the hand of the Emperor Frederick
II in order to follow her vocation.
Before and after the death of Pope Gregory IX, both Agnes and Glare
separately entreated the Holy See for a more authentic rule of life.
They were not successful.
Eventually, around 1250, Clare began to write her own rule. She
was the first (and only, strangely enough) woman to do so. It was
presented to Pope Innocent IV as Clare neared her death. The Holy
Father was in Perugia, and bringing an entourage of Cardinals, he
came to visit Clare. When she begged him for absolution from her
sins, he said with tears, 'Would that I had as little need of absolution,
as you!"
Back in Perugia, Innocent signed the confirmation of Clare's rule
and a friar, in haste, brought it to her. She kissed the papal seal
many times.
Brothers Angelo, Leo and Juniper were among those at her bedside.
Clare spoke to her soul, saying,
"Go
without anxiety, for you have a good escort for your journey.
Go, for He who created you has made you holy.
And, always protecting
you as a mother her child, He has loved you with a tender love.
May you be blessed, O Lord, you who have created my soul!"
She died on
the 10th August, 1253.
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Primary
Sources
- Clare of Assisi:
Early Documents. Ed. and Trans. Regis J Armstrong OFM Cap. Paulist
Press.(Also contains hill academic bibliography.)
Interesting Reading
- St Clare of
Assisi. Nesta de Robeck. Franciscan Herald Press
- Clare her Light
and her Song. Sr Maty Seraphim PCPA. Franciscan Herald Press
- Clare a light
on the Way. Ty Main Duw. CTS Publications
- New Light -
a cartoon life of St Clare. Ty Main Duw. TMD Publications.
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