At Assisi, in the neighbourhood of the Duomo of Saint Rufinus, there was the house of Sir Favarone di Offreduzzo, who was related to the noble family Sciffi.

He had lived there with his wife, Lady Ortolana, and their four daughters: Penenda, Clare, Agnes and Beatrix.

Sir Favarone "had lived" there, in fact he died before he could see his daughters married (perhaps the eldest, Penenda, was the only married daughter- this is why she is the only one who is not known to have become a nun).

It is the evening of the Palm Sunday of 1211.

Clare is just 18 when she run away from home with Pacifica di Guelfuccio to join Saint Francis at the Porziuncola.

Here she converts to the Franciscan Rule, cutting her blond hair and taking the Franciscan habit.

Since that day, her only faith has been the Rule of "Sister Poverty".

Saint Clare spent the following 41 years almost constantly afflicted by illness, up to when she died on August 11th, 1253, in the church of Saint Damian: the church in which, basically, she had always lived.

Just the day before her death -10th August 1253- Pope Innocenzo IV had signed a bull which approved the Rule of the Order of the Poor Clares.

This seems to mean that Saint Clare's mission on the earth was accomplished.

In 1255 Clare was proclaimed saint and in 1260 her body was moved from the church of Saint Damian to a new church called with her name and she was laid in a crypt under the high altar, where she has always rested, up to now.

English version by Elisa Fiolini