Saint Clare

Clare was the daughter of a count. She heard St. Francis  preach in the streets of Assisi and told him of her desire to give herself to God. They became close friends.

Clare refused to marry at fifteen. At the age of eighteen she left her castle with one companion and went to the church of Our Lady of the angels, where she met Francis and his brothers. In that poor little church she received a rough woolen habit, exchanged her jeweled belt for a common rope with knots in it, and consecrated her life to God at the alter of Our Lady.

In an old house outside Assisi she started her Order of the poor Clares. Later, her sister and mother and other noble ladies joined her. They lived a life of prayer, silence, work, and fasting.

One day enemies of the Church were about to attack the convent. The Saint had the Blessed Sacrament placed in a monstrance above the gate of the convent. She prayed for help and the enemy fled. She died in 1253.

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