St. Clare of Assisi

St. Clare was a wealthy young woman with a reputation for holiness who was greatly moved by the words and deeds of the self-made beggar Francis Bernadone. She abandoned all she had to follow God's calling, and became the founder of a religious community of women known as the Poor Clares, whose rule of life is based on the ideals of St. Francis. Many miracles were attributed to her during her life, and today she is revered as the second greatest Franciscan saint.

St. Clare always possessed a maternal concern for the nuns in her care, even as she insisted that no one force them to abandon their vow of total poverty. Here is a blessing from St. Clare's second letter to Bl. Agnes of Prague:

What you hold may you always hold.
What you do, may you always do and never abandon.
But with swift pace, light step and unswerving feet,
so that even your steps stir up no dust,
Go forward, the spirit of our God has called you.

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