They follow the interpretation of the Rule of St. Clare established in 1410 by Saint Colette, originally a French hermit and member of the Third Order of St. Francis.
[1] She lost her parents in 1399 and, after a brief stint in a beguinage, in 1402 she received the religious habit of the Third Order of St. Francis and became a hermit, living in a hut near the parish church, under the spiritual direction of the abbot of the local Benedictine abbey.
In October of that year, she traveled to Nice to seek the blessing of the Antipope Benedict XIII, who was recognized in France at that time as the rightful pope.
1367-1439) in 1410 they transferred to the County of Burgundy in 1408, where she established the first successful community of Poor Clare nuns under her inspired way of life in a semi-derelict monastery of the Order in Besançon.
For the monasteries which followed her reform, Colette prescribed extreme poverty, going barefoot, and the observance of perpetual fasting and abstinence.
[4][5] In 1857 Poor Clares from Bruges established a monastery at Notting Hill, London, designed by Henry Clutton.
[15] The Monastery of Our Lady and St Joseph in Ellesmere, Shropshire is an enclosed community attached to the parish church of St. Michael.
In Germany, the late 19th century saw a major wave of suppressions of monastic institutions under the government policy of Kulturkampf.
The Bishop of Cleveland agreed to receive them into his diocese, and five nuns of the German community travelled there in 1877, establishing a small monastery in the city on Perry Street.
In 1916 Bishop Peter James Muldoon, of Rockford, Illinois invited the sisters in Cleveland to establish a presence in his diocese.
[18] A branch of Franciscan friars following the spirit of Colette's reform was established and approved, under the leadership of Henry de Beaume.