The First Franciscan Woman: Clare of Assisi and Her Form of Life

"What would happen, " the author asks, "if we could place Clare within the framework of the history of the Friars Minor as it unfolded not only during the lifetime of Francis, but also in the years after his death, and also within the framework of the medieval women of central Italy in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries?" The author argues that "We must establish Clare in her rightful place as a threshold figure among medieval women of spirit. She was the first woman to write a Rule sanctioned with pontifical approval. She dared to synthesize the evangelical ideals of Francis, the new forms of urban female religiosity, and the best wisdom of the monastic tradition to create a new and enduring order in the Church.