Saint of the Day: St. Clare of Assisi

Co-founder of the Poor Clares (1193-1253)

Her life

+ Clare was born into a noble family in Assisi, Italy. She was influenced by the preaching and witness of St. Francis of Assisi and resolved to follow him in his life of poverty.

+ In time, Clare became the founding member and spiritual mother for a new community of nuns: the Poor Ladies of Assisi. Now more commonly known as the “Poor Clares,” the community grew quickly and Clare opened convents in Germany and Bohemia.

+ For the last twenty years of her life, this holy woman suffered from various illnesses and was often bedridden. In spite of her infirmities, she demanded that her community and the community of “Lesser Brothers” remain faithful to the vocation of Saint Francis.

+ Saint Clare died in 1253 and was canonized two years after her death.

+ Since 1958, Saint Clare has the distinction of being honored as the patron of television. Pope Pius XII granted her this title because of a legend which recalls that one Christmas Eve, when she lay sick in bed, Clare had a vision of the crib and heard her sisters’ singing, just as if she had been present in church.

For prayer and reflection

“Happy indeed is she who is granted a place at the divine banquet, for she may cling with her inmost heart to him whose beauty eternally awes the blessed hosts of heaven; to him whose love inspires love, whose contemplation refreshes, whose generosity satisfies, whose gentleness delights, whose memory shines sweetly as the dawn; to him whose fragrance revives the dead, and whose glorious vision will bless all the citizens of that heavenly Jerusalem. For his is the splendor of eternal glory, the brightness of eternal light, and the mirror without cloud.”—Saint Clare of Assisi

Spiritual bonus

On August 11, we also remember the Roman martyr Saint Susanna. Although the details of her life and martyrdom have been lost to us, Saint Susanna died for Christ around the year 295. Later legends about her led to her becoming celebrated in Rome where a church was built in her honor.

Prayer

O God, who in your mercy led Saint Clare to a love of poverty,
grant, through her intercession,
that, following Christ in poverty of spirit,
we may merit to contemplate you
one day in the heavenly Kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.