Definitive Rule of St. Clare

Meanwhile, St. Clare had secured from innocent IV the confirmation of a new rule differing widely from the original rule drawn up by Ugolino, and modified by his successors on the papal throne. For forty years she had been the living rule from which the community at San Damiano had imbibed the spirit of St. Francis. A few days before her death she placed the convent under a rule which embodied that spirit more perfectly than did Ugolino's Rule.

The Bull «Solet annuere», 9 August, 1253, confirming St. Clare's Rule, was directed to the Sisters of San Damiano alone. The new rule was soon adopted by other convents and forms the basis of the second grand division of the Poor Clares. It is an adaptation of the Franciscan Rule to the needs of the Second Order. Its twelve chapters correspond substantially to those of the Franciscan Rule, and in large sections there is a verbal agreement between the two rules. In a few instances it borrows regulations from the original rule and from the modified form of that rule published by Innocent IV. The original Bull of Innocent IV confirming the Rule of St. Clare was discovered in 1893 in a mantle of the saint which had been preserved, among other relics, at the monastery of St. Clare at Assisi.

Spread of the Order

While the rule was undergoing these various modifications, the order was rapidly spreading throughout Europe. At San Damiano, St. Clare's sister, Agnes, and her aunt, Buona Guelfuccio (in religion Sister Pacifica), played a large part in its early development. In 1318 permission was obtained from the Bishop of Perugia for the establishment of a monastery in that city.

The following year Agnes founded at Florence a community which became the centre of numerous new foundations, namely, those at Venice, Mantua, and Padua. Monasteries of the order were soon to be found at Todi, Volterra, Foligno, and Beziers. St. Clare's niece, Agnes, introduced the new order into Spain. The cities of Barcelona and Burgos became thriving communities.

The first foundation in Belgium was effected at Bruges by Sister Ermentrude, who, after the death of St. Clare, displayed great zeal in spreading the order through Belgium and northern France. The earliest community in France, however, was planted at Reims in 1229 at the request of the archbishop of that see. The monasteries at Montpelier, Cahors, Bordeaux, Metz, and Besancon sprang from the house at Reims; and that of Marseilles was founded from Assisi in 1254. The Royal Abbey at Longchamp, which enjoyed the patronage of Bl. Isabel, daughter of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile, is usually though with some question counted as a branch of the Poor Clares.

Among the earliest foundations in Germany was that of Strasburg, where Innocent IV's revision of the rule was accepted in 1255. In Bohemia the order had an illustrious patroness, Princess Agnes (Blessed Agnes of Prague), a cousin of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Agnes was but one of the ladies of high rank who, attracted to the new order, put aside the vanities of their social position to embrace a life of poverty and seclusion from the world.