Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/28

 CLARE

When some time later, a larger force returned to Zm'^°sisi, headed by the General Ytale^d.Ave^a who had not been present at the hrst a"acK Liare, Tathenng her daughters about her, knelt with them fn earnest prayer^that the town might be spared. PreseX a furious storm arose, scattermg the tents of the soldiers in every direction ^"d. causing such a panic that they again took refuge in fhght. The Kude of the Assisians, who with one accord at- frfbuted their deliverance to Clare's intercession in- creased their love for the "Seraphic Mother". Clare had Ton" been enshrined in the hearts of the people, and th?ir veneration became more apparent as. wasted bv illness and austerities, she drew tow-ards her end. "Brave and cheerful to the last, in spite of her Ion.- and painful infirmities, Clare caused herself to be raised in bed and, thus reclimng, says her con- temporary biographer, "she '^P"'i. '^f 6"^^* ^.'^T'lf for the purpose of ha\-ing it woven into the most deli- cate material from which she afterwards made more than one hundred corporals, and, enclosing them in a silken burse, ordered them to be given to the churches in the plain and on the mountains of Assisi . When at length she felt the day of her death approaching, Clare, calling her sorrowing religious around her, re- mindki them of the many benefits they had received from God and exhorted them to persevere faithlully in the observance of evangelical poverty, i-ope In- nocent IV came from Perugia to visit the dying saint, who had already received the last sacraments from the hands of Cardinal Rainaldo. Her own sister, bt. Agnes, had returned from Florence to console Clare_in her last illness; Leo, Angelo, and Juniper, three of the early companions of St. Francis, were also present at the saint's death-bed, and at St. Clare s request read aloud the Passion of Our Lord according to bt. Jofin, even as they had done twenty-seven years before when Francis lay d}ang at the Porziuncula. At length before dawn on 11 August, 1253, the holy foun- drels of the Poor Ladies passed peacefully away amid scenes which her contemporary biographer has re- corded with touching simplicity. The pope, with his court, came to San Damiano for the saint s tuneral, which partook rather of the nature of a triumphal procession. e ^x • t

The Clares desired to retain the body of their foun- dress among them at San Damiano, but the magis- trates of Assisi interferetl and took measures to secure for the town the venerated remains of her whose prayers, as they all believed, had on two occasions saved it from destruction. Clare's miracles too were talked of far and wide. It was not safe, the Assisians urged, to leave Clare's body in a lonely spot without the walls; it was only right, too, that Clare, the chief rival of the Blessed Francis in the observance of Gospel perfection", should also have a church in As- sisi built in her honour. Meanwhile, Clare's remains were placed in the chapel of San Giorgio, where bt. Francis's preaching had first touched her young heart, and where his own body had likewise been in- terred pending the erection of the Basilica of ban Francesco. Two years later, 26 September, 12oo, Clare was solemnly canonized by Alexander Iv, and not long afterwards the building of the church of Santa Chiara. in honour of Assisi 's second great saint, was begun under tlu; direction of FiUppo Campello, one of the foremost architects of the time. On 3 Oc- tober, 1260, Clare's remains were transferred from the chapel of San Giorgio and buricxl deep down in the earth, under the high altar in the new church, far out of siglit and reach. After having remained hidden for six centuries — like the remains of St. Francis — and after nmeli search had been made, Clare's tomb was found in 18.50, to the great joy of the Assisians. On 2.3 September in that year the coffin was un- earthed and opened; the flesh and clothing of the saint had been reduced to dust, but the skeleton was

g CLARE

in a perfect state of preservation. Finally, on the ''0th of September, 1872, the saint's bones were trans- ferred, with much pomp, by Archbishop Pecci, after- wards Leo XIII, to the shrine, in the crj^t at banta Chiara erected to receive them, and where they may now be seen. The feast of St. Clare is celebrated throughout the Church on 12 August; the feast of her first translation is kept in the order on 3 October, and that of the finiUng of her body on 23 September.

The sources of the history of St. Clare at our disposal are few in number. They include (1) a TesfammJ attributed to the saint and some charming Leiters written by her to Blessed Agnes. Princess of Bohemia; (2) the Rule of Ihe Clares Bud a certain number of early Pmhncal Bulls relating to the Order (3) a contemporary Biography, written m 12o6 by order of Alexander IV. This life, which is no^, genera'ly »«S"'=.^ '° Thomas of Celano, is the source from which bt Qare s subse- quent biographers have derived most of their information. It was published bv SuRlcs in De ProbatisSanciorum hislonis (Co- lo'^ne 1573), IV. 609-26; by Sedulius in his Hwfona ScrapAl^o ( \ntwerp, 1613\ 526^4; and by the Bollandists in the Acta PS Aug., II (12 .\ug.), 734-68, with a Comment. Prwmus by CnpFH (oD 739-54) A new critical edition of this early life according to the Assisi MS. 338, is in course of prep- aration bv Prof. Penacch. (.Assisi. 1908). Many earfy vernacular versions of this biography were made, and some ot these have recently been re-edited, v. g. Cristofani, La Leg- oenda di S. Chiara (Assisi, 1872); Schoutens Legende der aTorioserMaghet Sinte Ctera {Hoogstraeten, 1904); Go ff.n La vie el legende de Madame Samcte Claire (Paris, 1906) . An English translation, based on the text of the Bollandists is B>ven by FiEGE in The Princess of Poverty (Evansville, Indiana, 1900). The Biooraph,, of .S(. Clare, by Giuseppe da Madrid, which ap- neared in 1727, was published in Italian at Home in 1SJ2, and in French at Paris in ISSO. More recent lives of the samt are till ^p liv \ ivi- LocvTELLl, Vila di S. Chiara d'Assisi (Naples, ivM 11KM..HE fie de S(e CiaiVe (Paris, 1S56), new German tr liv'^i iiMii' iRatisbon, 1906); Tommaso Locatell:, Vita di •< Chiura \ \-iA-A 1882); Richard. 5(e Claire d' Assise (Paris, 1895), Italian version by Penacchi (1900):, Cherance, Ste Claire d'Assise (Paris, 1902). The Prtvdeglum PaupertaUs. Testament of the saint, and Rule of the C ares are printed m the Seraphicw Legislatimis Texlus Ormmales (Quaracchi, 1897), and the Bulls bearing upon the beginnings of the order in the Bullarium Franciscanum. ed. t-BAR-iLEA-EuBEL (Rome, 1759- 1898), passim. On the vexed question of the origin and evolu- tion of the Rule of the Clares see Lempp, Anfange lies Clartssen-

ordens in Brieger. ?^^'>'^4"/' /■ ,^'^5*'^?^'^,*^^Jh'xxw' 189'') XIII, 181 sq.; ibid., XXIII (1903), 626-29, and XXIV (1904) 321-23; Lemmens, Anfange, etc. in Riimische Quartat- schrift'(190'n XVI, 93 sq., and Wauer, EnlsleJiung und Aus- breilung desKlarissenordens. etc. ('Leipzle. 1906). S33-WSQ. See also Chron. XXIV generalium m Analecta Franctscana (Qua- ricrhi 1897) III, 175, 1S2-84; Babth. Pis., Liber Conf ormita- llminAnaleka Francis. (Quaracchi 1906), IV 351-57; Wad- ding Annales Minorum, I. ad an. 1212, and III, ad an. 12.53; SRAR.1LEA Supplemenlum (1806), 195; Cristofani, S(ona dri/a fn^'afchioTo di San DLiano <3ded. Assisi, 18f 2). Pa^sim; Ci \RT Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Three Orders of St. Francis (Taunton, 1886), II. 557-78; Bonav Dl Sorrento, La Cloriosa S Chiara (2d ed.. Naples. 189o); Clahisses-Coli.e- ri^71 HistoirTde Vordre de Sle Claire (Lyons, 1906), passim; Cozzv'-Luzi, Chiara di Assisi seeundo almne nuore scoperte e documenti (Rome, 1895) ; Robinson, Invenlanum omnium docu- mentorum qui in monasterio S. Claroe Assiaii asaervantur in Archiv. Francis. Hist. (.1908), 11.

Paschal Robinson.

Clare of Montefalco, Saint, b. at Montefalco about 1268 ; d. there, 18 August, 1308. Much dispute has existed as to whether St. Clare of Montefalco was a Franciscan or an Augustinian; and while Wadding, with Franciscan biographers of the saint, contends that she was a member of the Third Order of St Francis, Augustinian writers, whom the Bollan- dists'seem to favour, hold that she belonged to then- order It seems, however, more probable to say that St. Clare, when she was still a very young girl, embraced the rule of the Third Order of St. francis (secular) together with her older sister and a number of other pious young maidens, who wore the habit of the Third Order of St. Irancis and followed that particular mode of life in community which their piety and fervour suggested. When later, however,

hey became desirous of entering the religious state in its strict sense, and of professing the three vows of religion, they petitioned V*^ B^t°'! <f, """f S,° for an approved rule of life; and, the Thir.l Order of St.

Francis (regular) not being then in existence as an approved religious institute, the bishop "nposed upon them in 1290 the rule of the Third Order