St Clare of Assisi biography
Profile
St Clare of Assisi was a follower of St Francis of Assisi, with whom she sought refuge after escaping from an arranged marriage. At the Porziuncola Chapel below Assisi she received her vows, marking the beginning of the Second Order of St Francis. After being joined by her mother and sister, nicknamed "The Poor Clares," she became the abbess of the convent of San Damiano, near Assisi in 1216. In 1958 Pope Pius XII declared her Patron of television, in reference to an incident where she miraculously heard and saw the Christmas midnight mass in the basilica of San Francesco on the other side of Assisi, despite being ill.