St. Clare of Assisi was the first woman to practice the life of entire poverty as taught by St. Francis.

The Breviary says of her: "Following the example of St. Francis, she distributed all her possessions among the poor. She fled from the noise of the world and betook herself to a country chapel, where St. Francis himself sheared off her hair and clothed her with a penitential garb (on March 18, 1212, at the age of eighteen).

Then she resided at the Church of St. Damian, where she established a community of nuns and acted as their superior at the wish of St Francis. For forty-two years she directed the nunnery with zeal and prudence, her own life serving as a constant sermon for her sisters to emulate. She asked of Pope Innocent IV the privilege that she and her community live in absolute poverty.

Heroic in suffering (she was sick for twenty-seven years), she was canonized only two years after her death on Aug. 11, 1253.