The third in our series of Eucharistic Saints, Patrons and Patronesses of our Eucharistic Revival
EUCHARISTIC TESTIMONY OF ST. CLARE OF ASSISI
Biographical Notes on St. Clare
Clare was born in 1194, in Assisi, to the noble Offreduccio household. She was the eldest daughter of Favarone and his wife Ortolana. Her mother was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and the Holy Land. Later in life, after being widowed, her mother entered Clare’s monastery. Clare’s younger sisters, Beatrix and Catarina, followed her into religious life, too.
As children, Clare and her sisters were taught the ways of Christianity by their mother; they all became very religious and devoted to prayer. When Clare was 12 years old, her parents wanted her to marry a wealthy young man; however, she protested and said that she did not want to marry until she turned 18. As a teen, she heard Francis preach during a Lenten service in the church of San Giorgio at Assisi. When Clare heard St. Francis of Assisi preach, she felt a fire stir within her soul and became determined to live the gospel in a radical way.
Inspired by his words and knowing that marriage was rapidly approaching, Clare went to Francis and asked him to help her to live after the manner of the Gospel. On the evening of Palm Sunday, 20 March 1212, with the consent of Guido II, bishop of Assisi, Clare left her father’s house accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion, and proceeded in the dead of night, with torch lights, to meet Francis and his friars at the ‘Portiuncola’. There, in the little chapel of ‘Mary of the Angels’, Francis cut off her long blond hair and Clare laid aside her fine clothes, clothing herself in a simple dress of sackcloth and a thick veil. She vowed from that moment on to give herself totally to God, her eternal spouse. Fully cutting a woman’s hair was a symbolic act showing that she was no longer bound by the laws of man or society but that she followed the will of God.
Clare was placed by Francis temporarily with the Benedictine nuns until Francis built with his own hands a cloister for her and her community, the Order of Poor Ladies, later known as the Poor Clares. The cloister was added to the church of San Damiano which Francis had repaired after his hearing of the voice of Christ from the Crucifix. The Poor Ladies lived apart from the world and supported Francis and his followers by their hidden life of prayer and sacrifice.
At San Damiano, Clare lived an austere life. She slept on a straw mattress, fasted three days a week, never ate meat, often did penance, and awoke in the middle of the night to pray the Divine Office. Year round she wore a coarse habit and went barefoot on stone floors.
In the beginning, most of the young girls who joined her in this life of radical poverty were from the noble families of Assisi and the surrounding area. At first they had no written rule to follow except for a very short rudimentary rule drawn up by Francis. Over the years, prelates tried to draw up a rule for the Poor Ladies based largely on the Rule of St. Benedict, however, Clare would reject these attempts in favour of the ‘privilege of poverty’, wishing to own nothing in this world and depending entirely on the providence of God and the generosity of the people for their livelihood.
Bedridden from serious illness for much of the last 27 years of her religious life, St. Clare had the Blessed Sacrament reserved in a silver pyx, just steps from her monastery cell. In one of her writings, she urged, “gaze upon Him, consider Him, contemplate Him, as you desire to imitate Him.” On her deathbed, Clare was heard to say to herself, “Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear, for He Who created you has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Blessed be You, my God, for having created me.”
At her funeral, Pope Innocent IV insisted the friars perform the Office for the Virgin Saints as opposed to the Office for the Dead. This move by Pope Innocent ensured that the canonization process for Clare would begin shortly after her funeral. While the whole process took two years, the examination of Clare’s miracles took just six days.
As Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II battled Pope Gregory IX for control of Italy during the Crusades era, separately in September 1240 and June 1241, a pair of Saracen armies attacked the monastery of San Damiano and the town of Assisi. Both targets were successfully defended as Clare prayed to Christ, present in the Blessed Sacrament.
Clare’s Eucharistic Miracle
It was recorded by Tommaso da Celano, a Franciscan friar who lived during the time of St. Clare and was her first biographer.
It is the year 1240, and the Roman Emperor Frederick II is at war with Pope Innocent IV and the Papal States. One of his armies, consisting of Saracen mercenaries, is approaching the town of Assisi. They first arrive at the walls of the Poor Clare Convent of San Damiano, located on the outskirts of the town. The nuns of the convent see the soldiers climbing the outer walls of their contemplative enclosure and become terrified. They run to St. Clare, seeking help.
Clare is now 46 years old, sick, frail and bedridden. Despite her frailty, she rises, goes before the Blessed Sacrament and prostrates herself. As recorded by Celano, she prays, “Behold, my Lord, is it possible you want to deliver into the hands of pagans your defenceless handmaids, whom I have taught out of love for you? I pray you, Lord, protect these your handmaids whom I cannot now save by myself.”
Suddenly she and the sisters hear a clearly audible voice, sweet like that of a child: ‘I will always protect you!’ ‘My Lord,’ she added, ‘if it is your wish protect also this city which is sustained by your love.’ Christ replied, ‘It will have to undergo trials, but it will be defended by my protection.’
Clare rises and carries the pyx holding the Blessed Sacrament to the convent entry doors, boldly opening them onto the plot of land between the convent and the outer walls being scaled by the Saracens. Clare holds up the pyx and suddenly the faces of the advancing soldiers are stricken with fear. They turn and flee in terror, retreating from the convent and abandoning their planned attack on the town of Assisi.
We will never know for sure what it was they saw or perceived, but the presence of the eucharistic Christ had a profound effect on them, striking terror in their hearts and causing them to flee in fear.
One might wonder if this account is a colourful, pious myth. But no, it was etched so vividly in their memories that the Poor Clares have celebrated it ever since as “Covenant Day” (June 22), recalling the promise God proclaimed that day, that He would always protect them.
Again in 1241, the Saracens returned but were once more rebuffed through the Eucharistic prayers of St. Clare and her sisters.
In fact, one of the most enduring legacies of St. Clare of Assisi is her deep devotion to the Eucharist. While many are familiar with St. Clare of Assisi and her radical decision to pursue a life of religious poverty, few remember her intense love of the Eucharist.
St. John Paul II, on the 800th anniversary of her birth, highlighted this aspect of her life. The Pope writes: “Due to a type of iconography which has been very popular since the 17th century, Clare is often depicted holding a monstrance. This gesture recalls, although in a more solemn posture, the humble reality of this woman who, although she was very sick, prostrated herself with the help of two sisters before the silver ciborium containing the Eucharist (cf. LegCl 21), which she had placed in front of the refectory door that the Emperor’s troops were about to storm. Clare lived on that pure Bread which, according to the custom of the time, she could receive only seven times a year. On her sickbed she embroidered corporals and sent them to the poor churches in the Spoleto valley.
The Pope also mentions the Golden Legend (a collection of 153 hagiographies, i.e. lives of saints, written a few years after St. Clare’s death and canonization) which likewise refers to St. Clare’s Eucharistic devotion. “When she would receive the body of our Lord, it was a marvel to see the tears that she wept, of which [her eyes were] all wet. When instructing her own nuns, she would urge them to gaze lovingly upon the Eucharist.”
St. John Paul II went so far as to say that she lived a “Eucharistic life.” “In reality Clare’s whole life was a Eucharist because, like Francis, from her cloister she raised up a continual “thanksgiving” to God in her prayer, praise, supplication, intercession, weeping, offering and sacrifice. She accepted everything and offered it to the Father in union with the infinite “thanks” of the only-begotten Son, the Child, the Crucified, the risen One, who lives at the right hand of the Father.”
Clare was “an ardent seraph” before the most Blessed Sacrament — she looked to the Lord in the Eucharist as her dearest Love. She received Jesus in Holy Communion as often as she was permitted. One day after she had received Holy Communion, she experienced that the Child Jesus came to visit her. He lay in her arms and covered her with kisses.
Chapter 35 of The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, a compilation of accounts of Francis and his followers, describes another remarkable event, a wondrous gift received by Clare on Christmas Eve of 1252 A.D., the last before her death. On that night, she was bedridden, so weakened by severe illness that she remained alone in the convent, unable to accompany her Sisters to church for Midnight Mass with the friars.
The nuns returned, eager to recount the blessings of the liturgy, but Clare was able to assure them: “By the intercession of my father, St. Francis, and through the grace of Our Savior Jesus Christ, I was personally present in the church of my venerable father, St. Francis, and with the ears of my body and those of my spirit I heard the entire Office, and the sounds of the organ, and the singing, and likewise received Holy Communion. Rejoice, then, because of these graces which I have received, and offer prayers of thanksgiving to Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In conclusion, St. Clare lived the poverty of Christ which is the same poverty we see in the humility of the Eucharist. Just as Francis was called the second Christ by many, so Clare was called the second Francis. Both of them imitated Jesus so closely that they were as if reincarnations of Him in their time. Clare’s poverty was matched by her courage, not just in obtaining twice the defeat of the Saracens, but in resisting the pressures the hierarchy of the Church put on her to set aside her strict rule of life and embrace an easier one. Her resistance was not stubbornness but an ardent will to follow Jesus as closely as she could.
The Eucharist for us, too, cannot be simply a “holy thing” we receive in a “holy moment” which we forget within minutes. It beckons us to a change of life, a change of attitudes, a change of heart, to be as Christ-like as we can be in our state of life. Jesus in the Eucharist wants us to have the same confidence in Him that He will protect us from whatever assails us. Like Francis, Clare’s tenderness and affectionate closeness to Jesus is for us both a grace to ask for and a goal to work for. Our Eucharistic revival cannot just be a firmer adherence to the doctrine on the Eucharist, important as that is. It will only feel like a revival if it inflames hearts and elicits from us a living relationship with Christ in the Eucharist, expressed in humble adoration, in expectant silence and in deep humility of heart. May St. Clare intercede for our parishes that such abundant graces may be ours and be available to all who visit us here. St. Clare, pray for us.
Sources:
https://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/80533
https://catholicfire.blogspot.com/2014/08/st-clare-of-assisi-contemplative-lover.html
https://catholiclife.diolc.org/2024/04/30/the-eucharistic-miracle-of-assisi/
https://aleteia.org/2021/08/11/st-clare-and-her-intense-love-of-the-eucharist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_of_Assisi