Saint Clare of Assisi

Clare Offreduccio was born in Assisi in 1194 into a noble family. At eighteen, inspired by St. Francis, she fled home to consecrate herself to God in evangelical poverty.

Francis received her at San Damiano monastery, where she founded the Order of Poor Ladies — the Poor Clares — living in prayer, silence, and radical poverty.

She refused to abandon the rule of poverty even under papal pressure, and her firmness preserved the Franciscan feminine charism.

In 1240, during the siege of Assisi by Sicilian forces, she raised the Blessed Sacrament at the monastery window and the enemies retreated — a sign of her Eucharistic trust.

She lived forty years in the monastery, serving the sisters with humility and joy, until her death on August 11, 1253.

She was canonized two years later by Alexander IV. Her liturgical feast is August 11. She is patroness of television and of the Poor Clares.