St Clare - Writer, Mystic, Pioneer

Today is the feast of St Clare of Assisi, founder of the Order of Minoresses (Poor Clares) and associate of St Francis. For too long, Clare was only considered in relation to Francis but it has become clear in recent years the extent to which she stands very much on her own merits as a religious founder of considerable energy, insight and innovation. She is the author of the rule for the Order she founded which established a new expression of religious life for women in a time of considerable social change in 13 century Europe.

What may be less well known about her is her considerable gift as a spiritual writer. Her letters to Blessed Agnes of Prague are works of great subtlety but also of great exuberance, of careful allusion and of creative imagery. She explores the spiritual meaning of the poverty of Christ, who by that poverty enriches all. Here is one brief excerpt from her third letter which shows something of her contemplative approach:

Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!
Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!
Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance!
And transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation!
So that you too may feel what his friends feel
as they taste the hidden sweetness
which God himself has reserved
from the beginning
for those who love him.

Clare's language is sometimes that of lover/beloved, sometimes that of mother and sister to Agnes' community, sometimes that of a philosopher inquiring into the nature of our encounter with the iamge of God. In this last area, she develops the image of the mirror which we see above in her fourth letter. The mirror is at once the image of the poor Christ upon whom we gaze in order to find our own true face, and the revelation of the divine light, the vision of glory. This complex metaphor plays creatively with our notions of subjects and objects in which the contemplating self becomes, through complete simplicity (poverty), pure subject.

Clare's spirituality develops Francis' insights on poverty in highly original ways and offers an approach to contemplative spirituality that is both firmly within the mainstream of Christian tradition and distinctive in its freshness. She has a unique voice that deserves to be heard and studied more.