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 (November)

 Date 

 Name of the Friars 

 Events 

 Year 

 01 

 Charles Mathew Kolanchery 


 Birth 


 1947 


 02 

 Joseph Raj M. 

 Birth 

 1975 

 03   Bl. Helene Enselmini, OSC 
 1242 

 04 

 St. Charles Borromeo, OFS 

 Bl. Teresa Manganiello, OFS 

 Charles Bernard 

Birth

 1584 

 1876 

 1963 

 05 

 Lawrence Simon 

 Bala Marneni 

 + Thomas Thannikary 

 + Bernard D’ Silva 

 Birth 

 Birth 

 Home 

 Home 

 1949 

 1962 

 1996 

 2010 

 06 

 Bl. Marguerite deLorraine, OSC 

 Singarayar A. 

 Salvador D’Souza 


 Birth 

 Birth 

 1521 

 1970 

 1979 

 07 

 St. Didacus of Alcala, OFM 

 Bl. Raynier of Arezzo, OFM 

 Hemant Xess 

 Birth 

 1463 

 304 

 1975 

 08   Bl. John Duns Scouts OFM 
 1308; 

 09 

 Bl. Gabriel Ferreti, OFM 

 Saji P. Mathew 

 Birth 

 1456 

 1975 

 10 

 Bl. Louis Guanella, OFS 

 Augustine Pinto 

 + Wilbert Smit 


 Birth 

 Home 

 1340 

 1936 

 2003 

 11 

 Bl. Mary Crucifixa, OFS 

 Fulgence Ekka 

 Basil S. Lobo 


 Birth 

 Birth 

 1826 

 1964 

 1971 

 12   Bl. Giovanni della Pace, OFS 
  1433  
 13   St. Didace d’ Alcala, OFM 
 1463 

 14 

 Franciscan Martyrs of Palestine 

 + Mark O’Rourke 

 Salvador Drego 


 Home 

 Birth 

 1391 

 1974 

 1984 

 15 

 Bl. Sebastian de Jesus OFM 

 Bl. Mary of the Passion FMM 

 + Anthony Almeida 


 Memoria 

 Home 

 1734 

 1904 

 1970 

 17 

 St. Elizabeth of Hungary 

 Patroness of the OFS 

 Bl. Jeanne de Signa, OFS 




 1231 


 1307 

 18 

 Bl. Salome of Cracow, OFS 


 1268 

 19 

 St. Agnes of Assisi, OSC 

 Bl. Maria Milagros, OSC 

 Thomas Joseph 

 +Kamal Ekka 




 Birth 

 Home 

 1253 

 1936 

 1962 

 2008 

 20 

 Franciscan Martyrs of Spain 

 Irudayaraj Fernando 

 + Bonaventure Davis 

 + Bishop Ambrose Y 

 +Jesu Irudayam  


 Birth 

 Home 

 Home 

 Home 

 1936 

 1966 

 1971 

 1997 

 2009 

 22 

 Franciscan Martyrs of Armenia 

 +Joachim Tinneny 



 1895 

 2009 

 23 

 Bl. Marie de Jesus, Third Order Regular 

 + John C. O’Dowda 

 Maria Ratheesh Jenive  


 Home 

 Birth 

 1902 

 1982 

 1999 

 24 

 Bl. Timothy Trajonowski, Conv 

 Rajesh Praveen Kumar 


 Birth 

 1942 

 1994 

 25 

 All Deceased of the Seraphic Order St. Humilis of Bisgnano, OFM 

 Bl. Elizabeth of Reute, Third Order Regular 

 Carlos Dias 

 Tojy M. 



 Birth 

 Birth 

 1637 

 1420 

 1959 

 1970 

 26 

 St. Leonard of Port Maurice, OFM 

 Balthazar Pinto 

 Feast 

 Birth 

 1751 

 1960 

 27 

 St. Francis Anthony Fasani, Conv 

 Johnson M. V. 

 Feast 

 Birth 

 1742 

 1969 

 28   St. Jams of La Marca, OFM   Feast   1476 

29

 All Saints of the Seraphic Order Dependent Custody 

 Foundation,North East. 

 Amaladass Manickam 

 Feast 

 Erection 

 Ordination 


 2008 

 1985 

 30 

 Bl. Antoine Bonfandini, OFM 

 Prasad Papabathuni 


 Birth 

 1482 

 1970