We are a religious order of cloistered contemplative nuns within the Catholic Church known as the Poor Clares. Founded in 1212 by St. Francis and St. Clare with the exalted aim of “observing the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rule, ch.1), we draw particular inspiration from the self-emptying poverty of Christ. Our Holy Mother St. Clare was profoundly moved by the Love which led the Son of God to descend from the glory of Heaven to the destitution of Bethlehem, to endure the untold labors and scorn and contempt of the world during His public ministry, and, finally, to suffer the shameful and agonizing death on the Cross for our redemption. To imitate Him in this self-oblation was her greatest joy. Most High Poverty – i.e. total expropriation of any claims to possessions, honors, self-determination – forms the Christ-centered foundation of Poor Clare life.

Our poverty constitutes us as “pilgrims and strangers in this world” (Rule, ch.8); nevertheless, the whole of our earthly pilgrimage takes place within the space of the enclosure. Casting the anchor of her soul there, she poured out her love to her Heavenly Spouse through prayer, penance, and service. This is also the apostolate of her spiritual daughters. Daily Mass, the full communal recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours and periods of meditation fix our gaze upon the Beloved. The Spirit of prayer and devotion overflows into our daily work, enabling us to give expression to our love of God through humble, charitable service to the community. Our penances too, in their many forms (e.g. fasting and abstinence, the trials inherent to material poverty, the surrender of our wills), glorify God by lifting us out of our self-indulgence, grounding us in humility, and raising us to life in the Spirit. This is as our Holy Father St. Francis would want it, for he exhorts the sisters, “Do not look at the life without, for that of the Spirit is better” (Canticle of Exhortation).

“Love Him totally, Who gave Himself totally for your love.” (3rd Letter to St. Agnes).

St. Francis was born in 1181 in Assisi, Italy to a wealthy cloth merchant named Pietro Bernadone. Francis spent his youth in extravagant living and pleasure-seeking and later went off to war with dreams of gaining knighthood. Deeply affected by a mysterious voice he heard one night while on his way to join a crusade, he decided to return to Assisi. While back home he spent more time in solitude and prayer, caring for lepers and gradually seeing the emptiness of material possessions even to the point of selling his father’s cloth and giving away the money gained. His father, enraged at what Francis had done, dragged his son before the bishop of Assisi so that justice might be wrought. Francis stripped himself, returning the money and everything else he had to his father. Renouncing his family and status, he entrusted himself to the Church and began to live the life of a poor beggar. The Gospels, understood literally, became his rule of life and his only thought was the imitation of Our Lord in all things. Having wedded Lady Poverty, as he expressed it, he was to be seen barefoot, in rough clothes, begging at the gates and preaching penance and the practice of virtue. Many followers soon joined him and thus began the Order of Friars Minor, the First Order. In 1212 St. Clare placed herself under his guidance as well and founded the Order of Poor Ladies (Poor Clares), the Second Order. The Third Order was also established for those who wished to live the spirit of St. Francis within their lay state. Francis’ love for God could be witnessed in numerous ways: his care for the poor and lepers, his simple yet passionate preaching, his total dedication to Holy Poverty, his various physical penances, his unusual love for creation, his ardent prayer, and his firm commitment to his brothers and the Order. After years of service, amid tensions in the First Order, Francis resigned as head and sought out places of greater solitude for prayer. He received the stigmata on Mt. Alvernia in 1224, becoming a living image of Christ Crucified, and died on October 3, 1226. His feastday is October 4th and he is the patron saint of ecology.

Clare (Chiara) Offreduccio was born in Assisi, Italy in 1194. Blessed with a pious mother, an excellent education, natural beauty and the social status of nobility, Clare’s marriage prospects were bright. Instead she found herself drawn by the preaching of St. Francis to live a Gospel life in total poverty, trusting in God’s providence to provide for her needs. Undaunted by familial opposition she secretly left her home on Palm Sunday night in 1212, and was clothed as a religious by St. Francis himself, the first of his Poor Ladies. Many other women, including two of her own sisters as well as her widowed mother, joined her in the little monastery of San Damiano where they lived in poverty, trusting in Divine Providence for their future. The Sisters lived a simple life of prayer and penance including perpetual fast and abstinence from meat which, at that time, was a luxury food for the wealthy. As Abbess of her community, St. Clare cultivated a spirit of joy, charity, humility, gratitude and contemplation among her sisters. Through the prayers of St. Clare, God worked numerous miracles of healings, multiplication of food and exorcisms. Twice she saved both her monastery and the city of Assisi from being attacked by enemy soldiers through her fervent prayers. St. Clare’s greatest desire for her sisters was to have a rule of life that would be faithful to the spirit which St. Francis had handed on to her. She is the first woman to write a religious rule and in 1253 she died with the Bull of Approval of our Gospel Way of Life in her hands. She was canonized a saint two years later. Her feastday is August 11th and she was named patroness of television by Pope Pius XII.