St. Clare of Assisi

St St. Claire of Assisi

  Why is this person important?

St. Clare of Assisi lived life of luxury and had everything. She ended up turning to a highly religious devotion at a very early age because of her mother. St. Clare would set time aside to help the poor and give food from her house to the needy in the streets. Once inspired by a preaching of St. Francis of Assisi, Clare asked him to guide her towards a life dedicated to God and he promised he would help her.

Once her sister joined her they moved to the church of San Damiano and not too long after that women were continuing to join them and became known as the “Poor Ladies.” In time, Clare became the abbess of San Damiano and continued to do great things such as manual labor and praying. She worked towards changing the governing rule established by the pope of the order from Benedictine to the Franciscan rule because of St. Francis. Her life of humble poverty and constant prayer helped protect Assisi two different times: first, holding a host to a window during an attack caused Fredrick II’s troop to pull back and second, during another attack of Assisi, Clare had her nuns pray for safety and then a storm swept through and broke up the attack.

            Although she started to become ill, she continued her work until her death short there after. About two years after her death she was canonized but Pope Alexander IV and the Order of St. Clare continued to grow worldwide.

2.      Why did you choose this person? How does her/his life relate to you?

                    I choose St. Clare of Assisi because I was always an avid churchgoer and devote Catholic. I have learned about her in my early days of school considering I went to catholic school all of my life. She showed the power of love and faith, which is something I look up to tremendously. Clare lived a perfect world but because of her want to change something in her town of Assisi she went out of her way to live a life of prayer and piety, which is truly amazing.

                    I can relate to her life because I also have the mindset to never give up. She looked to God to guide her through everything and help her make the best decisions any time of day. I would love to have a closer relationship to God just like she did.

3.      If she/he had never existed, would the world be different from how we know it now? Why?

I feel like if she never existed things in the world would be different. I think that is the case with anyone you talk about. Somewhere, St. Clare made a difference in someone’s life and may be giving someone the courage to break away from wealthy lifestyle to make start their own order or nuns. Just seeing someone to something amazing can change the outlook on any situation. It brings a thought of “If St. Clare can do it, then so can I.” Someone is being touched by her story.

4.      If you could meet that person, what would you ask her/him?

                    If I could meet St. Clare I would ask her these questions:

-Why would you want to leave a life of luxury?

-How would you react in this generation? Would you still want to help in the way you have helped others back then?

-If you could change one thing what would it be?

5.      Do you think the fact this person was Italian played a role in his/her achievement?

                    I don’t think her being Italian played a role in her achievements. I think if she were anywhere else in the world doing the same actions, she would have still been achieving great things.