She was born at Assisi and came under the influence of Saint Francis. She left home at the age of 18 and, under Francis’s guidance, began a community that grew to become the order of the Poor Clares (she was later joined both by her sister and by her widowed mother). In its radical attachment to poverty the Rule of the order was much more severe than that of any other order of nuns. They also live a life of austerity and complete seclusion from the world. St. Francis obliged Clare under obedience to accept being the abbess, she exercised the office until her last earthly breath. Clare was a noted contemplative and a caring mother to her nuns. She died at Assisi in 1253.
