Clare's God-fearing parents gave moral and physical comfort
to her lifestyle of renunciation by permitting her to live with Joan in the hermitage
which Damiano had built not too far from home.
There after long hours in prayer during the day, Clare would at night fall to her knees in
order to recite the Lord's Prayer and then meditate upon what she was now convinced was
the ideal of her life: giving honor to the Passion of Christ.
Like Joan, Clare was no stranger to harsh acts of penance, but unlike Joan she went too
far and had to be tempered in her zeal for self punishment. No matter, Clare was
happy at what she thought was her role in life: to shed blood for her Savior. Her
imitation of his sacrifice knew no bounds except those prudently imposed by the vigilant
Joan.
Young Woman
Already a veteran ascetic at the tender age of 20, Clare was suddenly thrust into the
first of her three great trials. She began to experience spiritual upheavals in her
heart. Temptations assaulted her, conflicts raged inside her previously well ordered
emotional life. She was now subject to doubt: she could not resolve whether or not God had
abandoned her. This upheaval she endured 11 years.
On June 10, 1290, Clare's hermitage was declared a monastery to be governed by the Rule of
St. Augustine. This rule was one of the four rules - or spiritual lifestyles -
current on the 13th century.
Abbess
The bishop of nearby Spoleto sent his representative to Montefalco in order to supervise
the election of the monastery's new abbess. The unanimous choice was Clare.
So began Clare's second great trial. Preferring to serve God and his people in a
more humble way, she declined to accept the role and responsibility of Abbess.
"An abbess must be holy and wise," said Clare, "I am neither,
only 24. "Please," she asked, "choose someone else."
But the nuns would have none of it and insisted on their young and reluctant
companion. "Clare! Clare! Clare!," they cried. Again she refused,
"I want to be a nun, not an abbess. I want to serve you at the most menial of
tasks." But again the nuns would have none of it. She bowed to their will
and became their abbess.
For sixteen years, Clare served as mother, teacher, and spiritual director of her nuns.
She governed wisely. Disrupting neither communal harmony nor the necessary
day to day management of the monastery's domestic affairs. Clare saw to it that each
nun received what she merited.
One of Clare's responsibilities was that of interpreting and reinforcing the Rule of
Augustine. In truth, the Rule was simply a man-made charter outlining the chief
phases in the pursuit of a dedicated God-oriented life. Even in the matter of
the Rule, however, she knew she was only God's instrument, for she would tell her nuns:
"Who teaches the soul - if not God?"
Spiritual DirectorSoon, Clare's reputation for holiness and wisdom attracted visitors
to her Monastery of the Holy Cross, where they sought to share in her godly understanding
of life. They came in endless procession. They came to see her, to hear her
words, to be inspired, encouraged, filled with the ador that radiated from her heart.
Lover of the Poor
Clare also loved the poor, the ill as much as the poor and those who were persecuted.
To these desperate folk and anyone in misery who knocked at the monastery portal,
she gave whatever was needed. Her heart was so forgiving that she even helped those
who had spoken evil of her and who had wished evil upon her.
Mystic
What Clare possessed was spiritual strength. This power goes by different names in
each century, but always remains the ability to disregard the body and its primitive needs
in order to focus intensely upon the spirit and its timeless needs.
Clare was a mystic. But she was realist enough to obtain funds to build a church for
her monastery which would serve not only her nuns but also the citizens of Montefalco and
all the pilgrims who came to this mountain village seeking her insights. Like the
abbey, the church was also dedicated to the Holy Cross.
Frescoes on the chapel walls portray some of Clare's conversations with Christ concerning
his Cross. In 1294, when she was only 26, shed asked him, "Where are you going,
Lord? " He answered, "I have been searching the whole world over for a
strong place to plant my Cross, but I have found none." Later he tells her,
"Clare, I have finally found a place for my Cross. I shall place it in your
heart." From that day on, Clare's body ached with acute pain, marked there by
Christ himself. Thus began the last of her three trials - that of physical illness.
Last Days
By July of 1308, Clare's illness had become so severe that she was bedridden. On the
15th of August, she asked to receive the holy oils of the sick. On the 16th, she
asked that her brother be sent for. On the 17th, after confessing her sins to the
monastery chaplain, she declared "There is little else for me to say, for today you
shall all be with me with Christ, because I go to him."
Clare's body was embalmed and to this day lies in state, incorrupt, in the church of the
Augustinian nuns of Montefalco, Italy. Her body bears the marks of the Passion, the
Cross, and the instruments of Christ's Passion, just as she had said.
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