Hagiography

Augustinian nun; b. Montefalco province of Perugia c. Montefalco, Aug. Despite her youth, in Clare of Montefalco entered the enclosure where her older sister, Joanna, was living a type of religious life with other pious women. In the local bishop officially recognized the group as a monastic community and placed them under the Rule of St.

When Joanna, who had been the superior, died in November of , Clare was elected to succeed her. Her spirituality centered on the passion of Christ, and she was often favored with mystical visions. She also showed a practical concern for the poor and preserved her community from the errors of a quietist sect of the day in Umbria.

Catholic biographies

After her death, the nuns, moved by her statement that she had the cross of Christ in her heart, opened her heart and found formations resembling the instruments of Christ's passion. A canonical investigation was soon undertaken by the bishop's representative, Berengario di Donadio, who wrote the first Life. Leo XIII canonized her in Beautiful 14th-century frescos adorn a chapel in her shrine at Montefalco.

Her iconography often includes the opened heart with the instruments of the passion. Bibliography: Sources. Acta Sanctorum Aug. Clare of the Cross of Montefalco, tr. Bibliotheca sanctorum —