St Clare of Assisi

Clare was born in Assisi in 1194 and was moved by the preaching of Francis, who became her lifelong friend and guide. At eighteen she secretly left her father's house and received a rough habit from him. She lived at San Damiano, where her sister Agnes and others joined her, and at 21 she became abbess. Tradition says that when invaders threatened the convent she set the Blessed Sacrament on the walls, and they fled. She died in 1253. Her feast is August 11. Light a free candle for contemplative sisters and the sick. St Clare, pray for us.