Our parish’s official patron saint, Francis of Assisi, is really part of a saintly partnership, the spiritual equivalent of Astaire and Rogers, Bogart and Bacall, Franklin and Eleanor, etc. So we speak of Francis and Clare together. Our chapter of the Daughters of the King is the St. Clare Chapter. Francis and Clare are associated with simple living, detachment from worldly goals and possessions, spiritual appreciation of nature, and sharing the good news of God’s love.

     Francis (1182 – 1228) was the son of a wealthy merchant in the Italian village of Assisi. After a brief, unsuccessful military career, Francis found himself adrift. Encounters with beggars and lepers began his process of transformation. While praying before a crucifix at the ruins of San Damiano Church, Francis heard a voice say, “Francis, rebuild my church.” He took it literally and began begging for stones to rebuild San Damiano. People joined him, and his building project became a movement to reform the whole Christian Church.

     Francis traveled about Italy, begging, preaching, and being something of a Holy Fool, in his words “le jongleur de Dieu.” His style was that of the troubadours, but his love was for God and Lady Poverty. Francis suffered from his austere life and from illnesses, and on Holy Cross Day, 1228, while praying at Mt. LaVerna, he received the stigmata. Francis died at the age of 50 while on a preaching mission. His body was brought back to San Damiano, which now housed the convent of St. Clare’s Order of women Franciscans. It was at San Damiano that Francis received his call, and also there that he wrote his immortal Canticle of the Sun, which begins,

Most High, omnipotent, good Lord,
To thee be ceaseless praise outpoured,
And blessings without measure.
Let creatures all give thanks to thee
And serve with great humility.

Though the actual authorship is unknown, tradition, attributes the following prayer to Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled
       as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

      Clare of Assisi (1194 – 1253) had a smooth life laid out for her. She was beautiful, rich, and popular. But she wasn’t interested in a smooth life. At the age of 18, she heard a sermon by Francis which led her to devote herself to Apostolic Poverty. She slipped out her window by night to meet Francis. Placing her jewelry and best dresses on the altar, she took her vows. Her family and friends tried to remove her from the convent by force, but she was adamant. She founded the women’s Franciscan Order, called “The Poor Ladies of San Damiano.”

      It was Clare who urged Francis not to be a cloistered monk, but to take his message on the road – though she missed him so dreadfully that Francis’ followers chided him for neglecting her. She supported and inspired him all his life and mourned him at his death, saying “He was our pillar of strength, and after God, our one consolation and support.” When the male Franciscans abandoned Francis’ strict rules of detachment, Clare maintained the rigor of the women’s order. On her deathbed, Clare urged her followers to persist in love of “holy poverty” and gave them this blessing:

Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road.
Go forth without fear, for he that created you has sanctified you, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother.”