Saint Clare, Virgin

Clare was born in Assisi in 1194 into a noble family. Moved by the preaching of Francis, on the night after Palm Sunday 1212 she left her home for the chapel of the Portiuncula, where Francis cut her hair and gave her a rough habit. She soon settled at San Damiano outside the walls, joined by her sister Agnes and later her mother, and led the community for forty years in strict poverty. Her Life tells that when soldiers of Emperor Frederick II's army attacked the convent, Clare, though ill, had the Eucharist carried to the gate and prayed, and the attackers withdrew. She was the first woman to write a rule for women, approved by Pope Innocent IV two days before her death on 11 August 1253. She was canonized in 1255; her sisters are the Poor Clares.