Welcome message
My name is Sr. Francis and I am President of our Federation, and on behalf of all my Sisters, and myself, I warmly welcome you to our Federation Website. Here you will meet our Sisters in their various Monasteries...
Poor Clares Order
On the night of Palm Sunday 1212, Clare – eighteen, young and noble – fled from the Offreduccio family home in Assisi with a trusted companion, to the little church of the Portiuncula where she was met by Francis and his early Friars...
About St. Clare
Clare Offreduccio, whom we know as St Clare of Assisi, may seem like a remote medieval figure. What could such a woman, who lived most of her life locked up in a monastery in Assisi in the 13th Century...
NEWS: First Profession of Sr. Clare
The late Seamus Heaney has given to the world a wonderful line that has been used to capture the essence of occasions of special significance. He spoke of moments when ‘hope and history rhyme’. I believe that this joyful ceremony of the First Profession of Sr. Clare O’Donovan is one such moment. It’s a ‘gathering time’ when Sr. Clare’s hopes and history merge with the noble hopes and history of the Poor Clare Sisters, and it is good for us to be here.
It all began so simply when the young Clare of Assisi made her solemn vows before St. Francis on Palm Sunday 1212, committing herself totally to a life of poverty, penance and prayer in the service of the Lord. It was no easy choice for Clare, coming as she did from a wealthy family, who wished her to take a very different path in life. But the Master’s voice proved the stronger, and, today she must be smiling down on this happy scene. She could scarcely have imagined that her humble gesture just over eight hundred years ago would find echoes one day in the town of Drumshanbo.
Pope Benedict speaks about St. Clare
Her faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was so great that twice a miracle happened. Simply by showing to them the Most Blessed Sacrament distanced the Saracen mercenaries, who were on the point of attacking the convent of San Damiano and pillaging the city of Assisi...
Ministers General about St. Clare
For Clare and Francis, “most holy poverty” is not just a virtue, not only a renunciation of things, but is above all, a name and a face: the face of Jesus Christ, poor and crucified...