(A.D. 1346.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority:--Life by Cardinal Joseph Garampi.]
Clara was born at Rimini, her father's name was Chiarello, and her
mother's Gaudiana; they belonged to a noble family, and were very
wealthy. Clara was married early, but shortly after lost her husband.
Having been exiled on account of a civil war, she returned to Rimini,
to see her father and one of her brothers perish on the scaffold.
She was married again, but after a while, with the consent of her
husband, devoted her life to the practice of self-mortification. She
slept on a hard board, and encircled her neck and wrists with iron
rings to punish herself for her extravagance in jewelry when young.
Her food was bread and water, and a little oil on Sundays.
Not content with these austerities, and the rigorous fasts she imposed
on herself from the feast of S. Martin till Christmas, and from
Epiphany till Easter, she spent the greater part of many nights in
prayer, and during Lent she retired into an old look-out box on the
town walls, where, exposed to the cold and rain, she spent the time in
confessing her faults, and reciting the Lord's Prayer, a hundred times
a day. Her close communing with God made her heart overflow with
charity towards all men. Hearing that her brother had been banished a
second time from his native town, and was sick at Urbino, she flew to
his bedside, and nursed him with the utmost tenderness, escaping
occasionally into an ancient ruined tower, near the cathedral at
Urbino, to refresh her spirit with prayer. On the restoration of
tranquillity, she returned to Rimini with her brother, where she
became shortly the solace of all the afflicted. One day, hearing that
the poor Clares were without fuel, she ran into the country, and
getting a large log of wood, laid it on her shoulder, and carried it
through the streets to their door. A noble kinsman, not liking to see
her thus demean herself, as he considered it, sent a servant to
relieve her of the load, but she refused to surrender it, saying that
her Lord was not ashamed to bear His cross for the sake of sinners,
and that, therefore, it was no dishonour for her to carry wood for the
use of His servants.
Once, hearing that a man was sentenced to pay a heavy fine, or have
his hand chopped off, and that he was unable to ransom his hand, she
sold herself as a slave, and with the money would have redeemed the
hand from amputation, had not the magistrates, touched by her charity,
pardoned the man. Having once given way to intemperate speech towards
someone who had annoyed her, she punished herself by nipping her
tongue with a pair of pincers, so that she was unable to speak for two
or three days after.
She built a convent for those women who had placed themselves under
her direction, near the old watch-box on the walls, and gave it the
name of "The Annunciation," but the title was changed afterwards to
that of "Our Lady of the Angels."
Towards the end of her life she lost her sight. She died on Feb. 10th,
1346, and was buried in the church of her convent, where her relics
are still preserved. The cult of her was approved in 1784 by Pope Pius
VI., and her commemoration was fixed for the 10th February.
[31] Dialog. ii., c. 12, 23, 33.
[Illustration]
February 11.
S. CALOCERUS, _B. of Ravenna, 2nd cent._
S. TIGRINUS, _M. at Rome; relics at Turin, 2nd cent._
SS. SATURNINUS AND COMPANIONS, _MM. at Carthage_, A.D. 303.
S. JONAS THE GARDENER, _Monk in Egypt, 4th cent._
S. LAZARUS, _B. of Milan; circ_. A.D. 449.
S. CASTRENSIS, _B. of Volterra; circ_. A.D. 450.
S. SECUNDINUS, _B. of Troja in Southern Italy; circ._ A.D. 450.
S. EUPHROSYNE, _V. at Alexandria; circ._ A.D. 470. (_Transferred
from Jan. 1st._)
S. SEVERINUS, _Ab. of S. Maurice in the Valais_, A.D. 506.
S. ECIAN, B. in Ireland; circ. A.D. 587.
S. CEADMON, _Monk at Whitby; circ._ A.D. 680.
S. THEODORA, _Empress at Constantinople_, A.D. 867.
S. MARTIN, _P. at Leon in Spain_, A.D. 1221.
S. ADOLPH, _B. of Osnaburgh_, A.D. 1222.