[Rank]
S. Clarae Virginis;;Duplex;;3;;vide C6

[Rule]
vide C6;
9 lectiones

[Oratio]
Hear us, O God, our saviour, that we who are gladdened by the Festival of blessed Clare may learn from her piety and devotion.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio4]
The noble maiden Clara was born at Assisi in Umbria, (in the year 1193.) In imitation of her holy fellow-citizen Francis, she distributed all her goods among the poor and needy. She fled from the din of the world, and (on the 18th day of March, 1212,) betook herself to the Church (of St. Mary of the Angels) in the fields, where blessed Francis cut her hair. She stoutly resisted the efforts of her family to make her come back, and after a while Francis took her to the Church of St. Damian, where the Lord gathered around her several companions. Thus she founded an holy Sisterhood, which, at the earnest entreaty of holy Francis, she governed. For two-and-forty years she directed her monastery with wonderful care and wisdom in the fear of the Lord and the full keeping of the Rule. Her own life was an instruction and teaching for the rest, whence others learnt to order their own.

[Lectio5]
What she might wax stronger in spirit by keeping the body down, she made her bed on the bare ground, sometimes with little twigs, and with hard wood for a pillow. Her dress was a gown and cloak of mean and rough cloth, and she sometimes wore hair-cloth next the skin. She bridled herself with such abstinence, that for a long time she took no bodily nourishment whatever upon three days in the week. Upon the remaining days she ate so little that the others wondered how she lived. As long as her health allowed it, she kept two Lents every year, during which she fasted upon bread and water. Moreover, she was instant in watching and prayer, wherein she chiefly spent both her days and nights. She suffered from constant illnesses, and when she could not herself rise to bodily work, she sat up with the help of the sisters, and with her back propped, worked with her hands, that she might not be idle even in the midst of her weaknesses. She was an eminent lover of poverty, from which no need ever made her swerve, and she persistently refused the possessions which were offered to the sisters by Gregory IX. for their support.

[Lectio6]
The power of her holy life shone forth in many and diverse miracles. She restored the use of speech to one of the sisters in her convent for another she opened a deaf ear she healed one sick with fever, one swollen with dropsy, one troubled with an hollow oozing ulcer, and others afflicted with diverse ailments. She cured a brother of the Order of Friars Minors of raging madness. Once when all the oil in the house was spent, she took the vessel and washed it, and it was found filled with oil by the goodness of God. She multiplied half a loaf till it was enough to satisfy fifty sisters. When the Saracens (attached to the army of Frederick II.) attacked Assisi, (in the year 1239,) and were fain to break into Clare's monastery, she being sick, caused herself to be carried to the door, and likewise the vessel in which was held the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and there she prayed, saying O Lord, deliver not unto beasts the souls of them that praise thee, but preserve thine handmaids whom Thou hast redeemed with thy Precious Blood. Whereupon a voice was heard which said I will always preserve you. Some of the Saracens took to flight, and others who had mounted the wall became blind, and fell down headlong. When Clare herself was at the point of death she beheld a white multitude of blessed Virgins, with one among them nobler and brighter than the rest. Having received the Holy Eucharist, and a Plenary Indulgence from Innocent IV., she resigned her soul to God upon the
12th day of August (1253.) After her death she became illustrious for very many miracles, and Alexander IV. enrolled her name among those of the Holy Virgins.

[Lectio94]
Clare was a virgin of noble birth, born at Assisi in Umbria. Imitating St. Francis, her fellow-citizen, she gave all her goods in alms to aid the poor. Fleeing from the noise of the world, she went to a country chapel and there received the tonsure from St. Francis, strongly resisting her kindred who were trying to bring her back. Then he led her to the church of St. Damian, where she founded an Order of nuns, the government of which she undertook, yielding to the repeated requests of St. Francis. She governed her monastery with care and prudence for forty-two years. When the Saracens tried to invade it, she commanded that the Blessed Sacrament be brought and prayed most humbly, and they at once took to flight. She went to heaven on the 12th day of August, and was enrolled among the holy Virgins by Pope Alexander IV.
&teDeum