OFM Franciscans - India

Life Of St. Clare

Clare of Assisi (sometimes spelled Clair, Claire, etc.) (July 16, 1194 – August 11, 1253), born Chiara Offreduccio, is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life—the first monastic rule known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares.

Biography

Clare was born in Assisi, Italy as the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso and his wife Ortolana. Ortolana was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land. Later on in her life, Ortolana entered Clare's monastery, together with Agnes, Clare's sister. Clare was always devoted to prayer as a child. When she turned 15 her parents wanted her to marry a young and wealhy man but she originally wanted to wait until she was 18. But when she was 18 she had heard Francis's preachings. Those preachings were beginning to change her life. He told her she was a chosen soul from God. Soon on Palm Sunday when people went to grab their palm branches she stayed. On that very night she ran away to go follow Francis. When she got there he cut her hair and dressed her in a black tunic and a thick black veil. Clare was put in the Benedictine nuns near Bastia and was almost pulled by her father for originally he wanted her to marry at age of 15.Clare and her sister Agnes soon moved to the church of San Damiano, which Francis himself had rebuilt. Other women joined them there, and San Damiano became known for its radically austere lifestyle. The women were at first known as the "Poor Ladies".

San Damiano became the focal point for Clare's new religious order, which was known in her lifetime as the "Order of San Damiano." San Damiano was long thought to be the first house of this order, however, recent scholarship strongly suggests that San Damiano actually joined an existing network of women's religious houses organized by Hugolino (who later became Pope Gregory IX). Hugolino wanted San Damiano as part of the order he founded because of the prestige of Clare's monastery. San Damiano emerged as the most important house in the order, and Clare became its undisputed leader. By 1263, just ten years after Clare's death, the order became known as the Order.

Unlike the Franciscan friars, whose members moved around the country to preach, Saint Clare's sisters lived in enclosure, since an itinerant life was hardly conceivable at the time for women. Their life consisted of manual labour and prayer.

For a short period of time the order was directed by Francis himself. Then in 1216, Clare accepted the role of abbess of San Damiano. As abbess, Clare had more authority to lead the order than when she was the prioress, who had to follow the orders of a priest heading the community. Clare defended her order from the attempts of prelates to impose a rule on them that more closely resembled the Rule of St Benedict than Francis' stricter vows. Clare sought to imitate Francis' virtues and way of life so much so that she was sometimes titled alter Franciscus, another Francis.[6] She also played a significant role in encouraging and aiding Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure, and she took care of him during his illnesses at the end of his life, until his death in 1226.

After Francis's death, Clare continued to promote the growth of her order, writing letters to abbesses in other parts of Europe and thwarting every attempt by each successive pope to impose a Rule on her order which watered down the radical commitment to corporate poverty she had originally embraced. She did this despite the fact that she had endured a long period of poor health until her death. Clare's Franciscan theology of joyous poverty in imitation of Christ is evident in the Rule she wrote for her community and in her four letters to Agnes of Prague.

on September 17, 1228 the pope sent her letters because she had filled him with admiration. The letters he sent her were for ways to view her grant.

On August 9, 1253, the Papal bull Solet annuere of Pope Innocent IV confirmed that Clare's Rule would serve as the governing rule for Clare's Order of Poor Ladies. Two days later, on August 11, Clare died at the age of 59. Her remains were interred at the chapel of San Giorgio while a church to hold her remains was being constructed.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

ST. FRANCIS

ST. FRANCIS

FRIARS' BIRTHDAY (December)

Date

Name of the Friars

Events

Year

02

St. Louis Friary – Palmaner

Fidelis D’ Lima

Foundation

Ordination

1949

1964

05

Abraham Vadana

Shaji Nicholas Vadachery

+ Valentine Crasta

Birth

Birth

Home

1946

1969

2011

06

Baptist D’ Souza

Birth

1975

07

+ Anthony’s Church - Bannur

Erection

1999

09

Anil Kerketta

Birth

1980

11

Richard D’Silva

+ Agnel D’ Mello

Ordination

Home

1960

2013

13

Vincent Soosai

Varghese Sebastian

Scaria Varanath

Thomas M.M.

Dayanand

Anand Suresh Minj

Nideesh M. John

Birth

Ordination

Ordination

Ordination

Ordination

Birth

Birth

1970

1975

1975

1975

1975

1987

1993

14

+ Titus Myppan

Home

2012

15

Gregory Fernandes

Ordination

1963

16

Paul K.L.

Assisi Sadan - Nagpur

Birth

Foundation

1952

1993

17

Sidney Mascarenhas

Varghese Lakra

Ordination

Birth

1967

1977

18

Ajit Kerketta

Birth

1976

19

James Kallarackan

Friary Chapel – Palmaner

Birth

Blessing

1942

1967

21

Parish Church - Palmaner

Blessing

1964

22

Francis Agnelo Rozario

Birth

1966

24

Emmanuel Christopher

Birth

1992

25

Mukti P. Ekka

+ Celestine Reardon

+ Ambrose Staskunas

Birth

Home

Home

1973

1976

1986

26

Tony D’ Souza

+ Paschal Fernando

Birth

Home

1962

1994

27

Irudayaraj Fernando

Sahaya Dhas J.

Ordination

Ordination

2002

2013

28

Madhu Sudhan Reddy

Ordination

2015

29

Thumma Ranjith Kumar Reddy

Ordination

2015

30

+ Gratian McEvoy

Wilson Paul Nattalil

Stephen Lamin Gashnga

+ Kuriyan Joseph

Home

Ordination

Ordination

Home

1992

2003

2012

2015

31

Sleeva Reddy

Birth

1968