St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226), known as the Poverello or “Poor Little Man,” stands as one of Christianity’s most beloved saints. Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone in the Italian hill town of Assisi, he was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. His early life was marked by privilege, fine clothes, troubadour songs, and youthful revelry. He fought in local wars, dreaming of military glory but God had other plans. Following defeat and imprisonment, Francis had a long illness that left him disenchanted about the beauty and meaning of life. He turned to the Lord asking for light and guidance. The answer was “Francis, if you want to serve me, take what was formerly bitter to you and leave what was sweet.” Soon afterwards, he encountered a leper. Overcoming deep revulsion, he embraced the man and gave him alms—an act that transformed bitterness into sweetness. While praying in the crumbling chapel of San Damiano, he heard Christ speak from the crucifix: “Francis, repair my church, which is falling into ruins.” He took this literally at first, selling cloth from his father’s shop to restore the chapel. This led to a dramatic break with his family: before the bishop of Assisi, Francis publicly renounced his inheritance and stripped off his fine clothes, embracing radical poverty.

He began living as a beggar and hermit, wearing a rough tunic tied with a rope. The Gospel at Mass one day—“Take nothing for your journey”—seized him as a personal call. Soon, companions joined him. In 1209, Francis presented a simple rule based on the Gospels to Pope Innocent III, who gave oral approval to the new Order of Friars Minor (Lesser Brothers). The Franciscans emphasized itinerant preaching, service to the poor, and absolute poverty. Francis later popularized the Christmas crib at Greccio and courageously met the Sultan during the Fifth Crusade in search of peace.

In 1224, while praying on Mount La Verna, Francis received the stigmata—the wounds of the crucified Christ—becoming the first known person in history to bear them. He composed the joyful Canticle of the Creatures, praising God through Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and all creation. Weakened by illness and near blindness, he welcomed “Sister Bodily Death” peacefully and died at the Porziuncola on October 3, 1226. He was canonized just two years later.

 Francis and Clare: A Shared Charism of Poverty

Francis’s story is incomplete without St. Clare of Assisi (1193/94–1253), his spiritual daughter and co-founder of the Franciscan family’s contemplative branch. Born into Assisi’s nobility, Clare was moved by Francis’s preaching of Gospel poverty and simplicity. She longed to follow him despite her family’s expectations of marriage and status.

On the night of Palm Sunday, March 18, 1212, the eighteen-year-old Clare secretly left her home. She met Francis at the Porziuncola (St. Mary of the Angels), the tiny restored chapel where the Franciscan movement had begun. There, Francis cut her long hair as a sign of renunciation, clothed her in a simple habit, and received her vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. This quiet ceremony marked the birth of the Poor Sisters —later known as the Poor Clares or Order of Saint Clare, the Second Order of the Franciscan family.

Her family tried to force her return home, but Clare clung to the altar, showing her cropped hair as proof of her commitment. Soon her sister Agnes joined her, followed by other young girls and women and later their mother Ortolana. Francis first placed the sisters with Benedictine nuns for safety, then settled them at San Damiano—the very chapel he had repaired after hearing Christ’s call. There, Clare served as abbess for forty-two years.

Francis gave the sisters an early “Form of Life” urging them to live the Gospel in perfect poverty, owning nothing personally or as a community. Clare later wrote her own Rule—the first by a woman for a women’s religious order—which Pope Innocent IV approved just two days before her death in 1253. It insisted on strict enclosure, manual labor, fasting, silence, and radical dependence on God’s providence. While the Friars Minor traveled and preached, the Poor Clares offered a hidden life of contemplative prayer and penance that spiritually sustained the entire Franciscan movement.

Francis and Clare shared a profound spiritual friendship. She called herself his “little plant,” and she cared for him in his last illness. After Francis’s death, Clare defended the ideal of absolute poverty against pressures to accept property. She viewed poverty not as hardship but as joyful imitation of the poor, crucified Christ—“Lady Poverty.” Together, they showed that the Franciscan charism of humility, simplicity, and Gospel living could flourish in both active brotherhood and enclosed sisterhood.

Enduring Legacy for the Poor Clares

The Poor Clares spread quickly across Europe during Clare’s lifetime and beyond. Different observances emerged over time—some stricter (Primitives or Colettines), others with modifications (Urbanists)—but all trace their roots to the radical poverty Francis inspired and Clare courageously protected. Today, Poor Clare monasteries worldwide continue this vocation through prayer for the Church and the world, sisterly communion, and joyful dependence on God.

For us as Poor Clare Sisters, Francis’s life reminds us that “repairing the Church” begins not with power or wealth, but with poverty of spirit, love for the crucified Christ, and praise of the Creator in all things. Clare proved that this same fire can burn brightly in the hidden, contemplative life. As Francis wrote, the brothers and sisters are called to show they are lovers of the poor and humble Christ. In our monasteries, through prayer, penance, and the daily embrace of “Lady Poverty,” we continue the work begun at the Porziuncola and San Damiano.

May the example of St. Francis and St. Clare inspire us to live the Gospel without compromise, finding joy in simplicity and union with Christ.