St. Clare of Assisi

A noblewoman of Assisi who fled her family at eighteen to follow St. Francis, Clare led the women of San Damiano for forty years, most of them ill and confined to bed. She fought for the “privilege of poverty,” refusing Gregory IX's offer to absolve her from it (“I will never wish to be absolved from following Christ”), and wrote the first rule for women composed by a woman, approved by Innocent IV two days before she died. Her letters to Agnes of Prague teach a contemplation that gazes on Christ poor and crucified as a mirror until the soul is transformed “into the image of the Godhead itself,” while warning Agnes that “our flesh is not bronze.”

Why he matters: She is the contemplative half of the Franciscan movement, and her letters are among the clearest medieval statements of transforming contemplation of Christ.