| Clare of Assisi (Chiara d'Assisi) |
| 1194-1253 |
|
|
Biography
| Born at Assisi in a urban noble family (Daughter of Favarone di Offreduccio di Bernardino and Ortolana). Joined Francis at the Portiuncola around Palm Sunday 1211 (1212). After a short stay at several female Benedictine houses, in the neighbourhood of Assisi, she was able to establish herself with her sister (Agnes) in the small St. Damien church (rebuilt by Francesco d’Assisi), where she shaped the first female Franciscan community and reigned as abbess between c. 1215 and 1253. This was the start of the Order of Poor Clares. Around 1215 Francesco gave Clara a short rudimentary forma vitae, with special emphasis on evangelical poverty and stressing the special relation with the male movement. [Francesco d’Assisi, Forma Vivendi S. Clarae Data, ed. Esser (1978), 162-163. (This rudimentary rule for the Poor Clares was later incorporated in the rule written by Clare that was approbated in 1253). Following the Fourth Lateran Council, which forbade the creation of new religious rules, Clara was more or less forced to adopt the Rule of Benedict. Yet she asked and obtained for her St. Damian community an additional poverty privilege by pope Innocent III in 1215/1216. [For a long time, no early manuscripts were known of this privilegium paupertatis. It could be found in the Firmamenta Trium Ordinum (Paris, 1512) Part V, f. 5r. This lead to doubts concerning its authenticity, although it was repeatedly edited in opera omnia collections and collections of legal texts, such as Privilegium Paupertatis: Seraphicae Legislationis Textus Originales (Quaracchi, 1897), 97-98. The doubts concerning the Privilegium were for a while put aside by the studies of Lazzeri, Sabatier and Grau (Z. Lazzeri, ‘Il ‘Privilegium paupertatis’ concesso da Innocenzo III e che cosa fosse in origine’, AFH 11 (1918), 270-276; Paul Sabatier, ‘Le Privilège de la pauvreté’, Revue d’Histoire Franciscaine 1 (1924), 1-54; Engelbert Grau, ‘Das Privilegium paupertatis Innocenz III’, Franziskanische Studien 21 (1949), 337-349; E. Grau, ‘Das Privilegium paupertatis der hl. Klare. Geschichte und Bedeutung’, Wissenschaft und Weisheit 38 (1975), 17-25), and recently, it was possible to make a new edition on the basis of three newly found old manuscripts (cf. editions below).] When the number of communities of Poor Clares (Poor Sisters of St. Damian) becan to grow, pope Honorius III asked his legate, cardinal Hugolino to act as their protector. Hugolino made these new communities excempt from episcopal jurisdiction, giving them all the Rule of Benedict and composed himself (without asking advice of Francesco d’Assisi or Clara) in 1218-1219 a Forma et Modus Vitae, with special emphasis on clausura, silence, fasting and bodily mortification. This rule was approved by Honorius III in 1219 (a.o. edited in I. Omaechevarría, Escritos de Santa Clara y Documentos complementarios (Madrid, 1982²), 206-232. The Rule of Hugolino does not emphasis evangelical poverty. Nor does it acknowledge the family relationship with the Friars Minor.) After Hugolino had become pope (Gregory IX), Clara was able to obtain for her own community at St. Damian a confirmation of the Privilegium Paupertatis (in the papal bulls Cum omnis vera of May 1239 (Gregory IX), BF I, 263-267 and Solet Annuere (November 1245, by Innocent IV, BF I, 394-399)), yet the rule of Hugolino remained in force for all communities of Poor Sisters. On 6 August 1247, Innocent IV issued a new rule for the Poor Sisters (Cf. the bull Cum omnis vera, BF I, 476-483. The Regula Inn. Can also be found in I. Omaechevarría, Escritos de Santa Clara y Documentos complementarios (Madrid, 1982²), 237-259. Innocent put the Poor Clares under the jurisdiction of the Friars Minor and made the Regula Bullata of the Franciscan order the juridical basis for the way of life of the Poor Sisters (?), yet without integrating the Privilegium Paupertatis in the new rule for the Poor Sisters. In reaction, Clara d’Assisi produced her own rule, with recourse to the Francesco’s rudimentary Forma Vitae, the Regula Bullata, the Regula Hug., the Regula Inn. and her own spiritual insights. This new rule, which again stresses evangelical poverty (characterised by a refusal of possessions and stable revenues, but allowing the use of money) received official approval on 16 september 1252 by the cardinal protector Raynaldus, and on 9 August 1253 by pope Innocent IV, a few months before Clara’s death. However, Clare’s rule was only approved for the Saint Damian monastery and was not binding for the other communities of Poor Sisters. In France, the Poor Clare Elisabeth (sister of King Louis IX) obtained approval for a rule of her own, written for the Longchamp community of Poor Sisters. This rule was approved by pope Alexander IV (Bull Sol ille verus, February 1259, BF II, 64-68). This rule later was modified and approved for other monasteries by pope Urban IV (Bull Religionis augmentum, July 1263, BF II, 477-486). Shortly thereafter, Urban IV ordered another rule to be made for the order of Poor Clares as a whole, to unify the way of life in the various communities. This rule was compiled on request of Urban IV by Cardinal protector Orsini (the future pope Nicholas III). |
|
Writings
| Clare’s works have been edited repeatedly: Textus Opusculorum S. Francisci et S. Clarae Assisiensium, ed. Giovanni Boccali (Assisi, 1976); Opuscula S. Francisci et scripta S. Clarae Assisiensium, ed. Giovanni Boccali (Assisi, 1978); Fontes Franciscani, ed. E. Menestò & S. Brufani (Santa Maria degli Angeli: Edizioni Porziuncola, 1995), 2261-2323; Escritos de Santa Clara y Documentos contemporaneos, ed. Ignacio Omaechevarría (Madrid, 1970 & Madrid, 1982); Claire d’Assise, Écrits. Introduction, texte latin, traduction, notes et index, ed. Marie-France Becker, Jean-François Godet, Thaddée Matura, Sources Chrétiennes 325 (Paris, 1985), & in Chiara d’Assisi, Scritti (Vicenza, 1986); The Lady. Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, Revised Edition & Translation by Regis J. Armstrong OFMCap (London-Manila: New City Press, 2006). |
|
Vitae
| See a.o.: Legenda S. Clarae Virginis, ed. F. Pennacchi (Assisi, 1910); B. Bughetti, ‘Legenda versificata S. Clarae Assisiensis (saec. XIII)’, AFH 5 (1912), 237-260, 459-481, 621-631; M. Bihl, ‘Tres Legendae minores S. Clarae Assisiensis (saec. XIII)’, AFH 7 (1914), 32-54; W. Seton, ‘A german Metrical Version of the Legend of St. Clare’, AFH 11 (1918), 384-398; L. Oliger, ‘Gaudia S. Clarae Assiensis seu Vita eius versificata’, AFH 12 (1919), 110-131; L. Bracaloni, ‘Le sacre reliquie della basilica di S. Chiara in Assisi’, AFH 12 (1919), 402-417; W. Seton, ‘The Italian Version of the Legend of Saint Clare by the Florentine Ugolino Vereni’, AFH 12 (1919), 595-599; Z. Lazzeri, ‘Un nuovo codice della ‘Vita di S. Chiara’ di Ugolino Verino. Versi latini del medesimo su S. Francesco e S. Chiara’, AFH 13 (1920), 273-286; Processo di canonizzazione di S. Chiara. Volgarizzamento quattrocentesco umbro-italiano, ed. Z. Lazzeri, AFH 13 (1920), 403-507; Processo di canonizzazione di S. Chiara d’Assisi. Vita, conversione, miraculi, ed. Giovanni Boccali, Collectio Assisiensis, 32 (Assisi, 2003); Santa Chiara di Assisi. I primi documenti ufficiali: Lettera di annunzio della sua morte, Processo e Bolla di canonizzazione, ed., trans. & comm. Giovanni Boccali, Pubblicazioni della Biblioteca Francescana Chiesa Nuova – Assisi, 10 (Maria degli Angeli – Assisi, 2003); B. Bughetti, ‘La tavola di S. Chiara nella sua basilica d’Assisi’, AFH 19 (1926), 939-945; Fonti Francescani. Scritte e biografie di san Francesco d'Assisi, chroniche e altre testimonianze al primo secolo francescano. Scritti e biografie di santa Chiara d'Assisi (Padua, 1980³/1988)/ Fontes Francescani, ed. E. Menestò, S. Brufani et. al., Testi, 2 (Assisi, 1995); Legenda latina sanctae Clarae virginis assisiensis, ed. Giovanni Boccali & trans. Marino Bigaroni (Perugia, 2001); G. Boccali, 'Legenda di Chiara ed Agnese di Assisi in volgare veneto', AFH 98 (2005), 649-715. |
|
Studies
|
| Abate, Giuseppe. 'I codici romani della 'Legenda Sanctae Clarae Virginis'', Collectanea Franciscana 63 (1993), 55-70. | View |
| Abate, Giuseppe. 'La casa paterna di S. Chiara', Bollettino della Deputazione stor. patr. Umbria 41 (1944), 48-67. | View |
| Accrocca, Felice. '‘Fo accesa nello amorede Dio’. Quattro recenti pubblicazioni clariane', Collectanea Franciscana 73, 1-2 (2003), 289-310. | View |
| Accrocca, Felice. 'Chiara e l'Ordine francescano', Convivium Assisiense 6 (2004), 339-380. | View |
| Accrocca, Felice. 'Chiara: uno 'spirito costretto?', Collectanea Franciscana 77:1-2 (2007), 199-248. | View |
| Accrocca, Felice. 'Verso il Getsemani? Chiara, la communità delle sorelle e la vita quotidiana a San Damiano', Analecta Tertii Ordinis Regularis 26 (1995), 71-88. | View |
| Acquadro, Chiara Agnese. '‘Saepe enim Dominus quod melius est minori revelat’ (Regula s. Clarae IV,18): un errore di lettura ormai vecchio di cinque secoli', Collectanea Franciscana 71,3-4 (2001), 521-676. | View |
| Acquadro, Chiara Agnese; Mondonico, Chiara Cristiana. 'La Regola di Chiara di Assisi: il Vangelo come forma di vita', Convivium Assisiense 6 (2004), 147-232. | View |
| Aizpurúa, Fidel. Il cammino di Chiara d'Assisi. Corso base di francescanesimo: vita, scritti e spiritualità di Chiara (Padua: Ed. Messaggero, 2005). | View |
| Alberzoni, Maria Pia. 'Chiara d’Assisi e Agnese di Boemia. Edizioni e studi recenti', Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia 57:2 (2003), 439-449. | View |
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... |
|
|
|
| Return To Franciscan Women List |