Clare was born in Assisi to the Offreduccio household during the High Middle Ages, the eldest daughter of Favarone[2] or Favorino Sciffi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, and his wife Ortolana.

Traditional accounts say that Clare's father was a wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in Assisi and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio.

[3] Ortolana belonged to the noble family of Fiumi, and was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and the Holy Land.

Inspired by his words and knowing that marriage was rapidly approaching, Clare went to Francis and asked him to help her to live after the manner of the Gospel.

[1] On the evening of Palm Sunday, 20 March 1212, with the consent of Guido II, bishop of Assisi, Clare left her father's house accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion, and proceeded to the chapel of the Porziuncula to meet Francis.

[3] Fully cutting a woman's hair was a symbolic act showing that she was no longer bound by the laws of man or society but rather that she followed the will of God.

At first, they tried to persuade her by enticing her with wealth, and the privileges of nobility through marriage,[6] but she resisted each attempt, professing that she would have no other husband but Jesus Christ.

[6] In order to provide the greater solitude Clare desired, a few days later Francis sent her to Sant' Angelo in Panzo, another monastery of the Benedictine nuns on one of the flanks of Subasio.

Clare's uncle Monaldo, who was head of the family, came to Sant' Angelo with a group of men to bring Agnes back.

[6] The sisters remained with the Benedictines until a small dwelling was built for them next to the church of San Damiano, which Francis had repaired some years earlier.

They lived a simple life of poverty, austerity, and seclusion from the world, according to a Rule which Francis gave them as a Second Order (Poor Clares).

Unlike the Franciscan friars, whose members moved around the country to preach, Clare's sisters lived in enclosure, since an itinerant life was hardly conceivable at the time for women.

[14] She also played a significant role in encouraging and aiding Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure, and she took care of him during his final illness.

After Francis's death, Clare continued to promote the growth of her order, writing letters to abbesses in other parts of Europe, including Agnes of Prague, with whom she had formed a close friendship.

Ultimately, when the other priests and bishops refused to accept her rule of strict poverty, she sought to get a special privilege from the pope.

[16] Gregory IX worried that the health of the sisters would suffer unduly under the strict vow of poverty Clare wanted.

Clare's Franciscan theology of joyous poverty in imitation of Christ is evident in the Rule she wrote for her community and in her four letters to Agnes of Prague.

As Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II battled Pope Gregory IX for control of Italy during the Crusades era, separately in September 1240 and June 1241, a pair of Saracen armies attacked the monastery of San Damiano and the town of Assisi.

Construction of the Basilica di Santa Chiara began a year after Clare's canonization, and her remains were transferred there on 3 October 1260 from the church of St George, also in Assisi.

In art, Clare is often shown carrying a monstrance or pyx, in commemoration of the occasion when she warded away the invading soldiers of Frederick II at the gates of her convent by displaying the Blessed Sacrament and kneeling in prayer.

Pope Pius XII designated Clare as the patron saint of television in 1958 on the basis that when she was too ill to attend Mass, she had reportedly been able to see and hear it on the wall of her room.

[24] This tradition remains popular in the Philippines, particularly at the Real Monasterio de Santa Clara in Quezon City and in the town of Obando, Bulacan.

[25] Many places, including churches, convents, schools, hospitals, towns, and counties are named for Saint Clare, Santa Clara, or other variants.