LAZARO IRIARTE, OFM Cap

LETTER AND
THE SPIRIT
OF THE RULE OF ST. CLARE

Valencia
Editorial Asis
 1994
Introduction

These pages are meant for all the daughters of St. Clare
who were born at the time of the Post Vatican Council II as
a contribution to the noble efforts which they were carrying
out in order to bring about their renewal along the
guidelines set up by the Church magisterium under the
reiterated watchword of Paul VI: “Faithfulness to the
founder’s spirit, to their evangelical aims and to the
example of their sanctity.” 1 It has been my aim to help
make known the ideal sanctity of Clare – as a saint and as a
foundress by following step by step the written letter of her
Rule.
The first edition of this book was so favorably received
that it soon went out of print after having it translated to
other languages. The general state of our addressee
nowadays is quite different: the daughters of St. Clare have
been progressively rediscovering throughout the last two
decades the root and the essence of their Gospel ideal as
well as their mission in the Church. They have also gotten
a deeper and more reflective awareness of the spiritual
inheritance of their Foundress. This consciousness have
taken a crystallized form in their Constitutions which have
been definitely approved by the Holy See after a long
period of experimentation.
This “fundamental code” aims at “protecting their own
calling and identity” (Canon 587, 1) and in no way replaces
the Rule or lessens its validity. They are rather the
expression of a common desire to offer a distinctive “form
of life” by putting them sincerely into practice in today’s
historical reality. The Constitutions actualize and adapt the

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genuine spirit of the written letter of the Rule so that
faithfulness to it may be assured and guaranteed.
This is precisely the service which this new edition
would like to offer. To the historical and spiritual
commentary of each of the precept of the Rule, we have
added its up-to-date actualization which is now embodied
in the Constitutions. Surely enough, there is not just one
common text of the Constitutions for the Poor Clares.
Aside from the one promulgated for the Poor Clares in
general, without other denomination, and the other
branches, have their own: the Urnanists, who profess the
Rule of Urban IV; the Coletines of the reform of St.
Colette; the Capuchins; the Poor Clares of Perpetual
Adoration; those of the Divine Providence; the
Sacramentarias; and the non-cloistered Clarian Institutes. It
is however, quite certain that by coming back to the
common Rule and the Spirit of Mother St. Clare, there has
been a spontaneous convergence not just on the basic
values but as expected on its expression as well. Clare’s
Order is up to this time one in name and in evangelical
spirit.
Having in mind today’s Spanish speaking monasteries,
we have just made references to the General Constitutions
of the Poor Clares and those of the Capuchin Poor Clares.2

Clare The Foundress

A true pioneer of a new “Form of Life” in the Church,

Clare nurtured the only one ambition of following the Poor
and Crucified Christ as a humble “little plant of Father St.
Francis”. Time and again, both in her Testament and Rule,
she acknowledged him as the only founder. But it was the
Holy See that has made her known as an authentic

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Foundress and be accepted as such by making the little
Saint Damian Convent the model and reference point for
the numerous female communities of “recluses” that were
by then either reforming themselves or were being created
under that initiative of Cardinal Hugolinus, and known as
the “Damianites”, proclaiming her officially as Foundress –
“Co-Foundress” we would say today – of a new Order.
Thus, in Alexander’s IV Bull of Canonization:
“The distinguished and sacred Order of St.
Damian, now widely diffused throughout the world,
came and had its salutary beginning from this
woman. It was this woman, encouraged by Blessed
Francis, who initiated this new and holy
observance; this woman, who was the first and
solid foundation of this great religious way of life.”
3

The very event of her canonization contributed greatly

to her being recognized as Mother and Foundress by all the
female monasteries of Franciscan inspiration, a total of 111
across Europe at that early time. St. Bonaventure states in
one of his sermons: “those formerly named the Poor Ladies
of St. Damian are now called, after her canonization, the
Sisters of St. Clare”. 4
The decisive step was taken up by Urban IV through
the promulgation of his Rule in 1263, eight years after
Clare’s canonization. By a well devised formula, he names
her “quasi-foundress of all those who by the name of
“sisters, ladies, nuns of poor recluse”, actually belong to
the “St. Damian Order”. He solemnly declares:
“….whereas this Order of yours received from St.
Clare the joyful impulse of its foundation… We,
therefore, together with our brethren Cardinals
deem it fitting and just, that from now on, it should
be known as Order of St. Clare”. 5

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 From the very beginning of cenobitic life in the fourth
century, there had been women who opened up monastic
foundations always under the umbrella of their
corresponding male monasteries. The names of several
sisters of saintly abbots are well known. But none of them
gave for posterity an amply accepted Rule, or exercised a
lasting magisterium, or left behind an Order by her name.
How deep was Clare’s awareness of the centrality of
St. Damian’s community of poor sisters? It seems to have
certainly exercised a real influence on the communities that
willingly accepted the usages of St. Damian and even more
so, on those that got the “privilege of poverty”, such as
Perugia, Monticelli, Florence or Prague. The letters of St.
Agnes, the foundress of the monastery at Prague, gave
witness to the high degree in which Clare’s magisterium
was held.
We may glimpse in her Testament a certain degree of
consciousness of the responsibility that lies upon the St.
Damian community by the fact of “being set as a model,
example and mirror to all the sisters called to the same
vocation.” Were the text of the “Blessing” truly her
writing, though it remains doubtful, we have a proof of
what she felt towards the end of her life: as spiritual mother
of “all the monasteries of the Poor Ladies”.
What seems certain indeed is the concern of the sisters
of St. Damian community at seeing their saintly Abbess
recognized everywhere as the Foundress of all the
Damianites. The text of the “Blessing” was probably sent
together with the circular letter announcing the death of the
venerated mother “to all the sisters of the Order of St.
Damian spread throughout the world”.
Clare, recognized Francis as the true Founder of what
was later to be called the “Second Order”. We cannot but
see her “little plant” richly endowed with the founder’s
charism, not only for having given her daughters a Rule
canonically approved by the Holy See but also by the
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presence of mind with which she assumed the guidance of
the Poor Sisters and the spiritual inheritance transmitted to
all those who, by the official naming of the Church, are
known as the Poor Clares On the other hand, all the other
numerous institutes of the great Franciscan family look up
to Clare as the female version of St. Francis’ evangelical
ideal.

What does St. Clare’s Rule represent?

Clare consecrated herself to Christ in 1212 before

the altar of the Portiuncula, promising obedience to Francis.
After sometime, spent first at the Benedictine Sisters’
monastery of St. Paul of Bastia, and later on at St. Angel of
Panzo, Clare took up residence at the church of San
Damiano with her first followers.
The first three-year period was one of searching and
trial. The contemplative community of Poor Sisters was
shaping up under the magisterium of Francis and in
accordance with a most simple “Form of Life” he gave
them in writing.
All through this process, other communities of
Franciscan inspiration were sprouting after the model of the
St. Damian group, sharing in common the withdrawal from
the world through the cloister, poverty and simplicity of
life. A set of standing rules was by all means necessary as
required by Canon Law. The Fourth Lateran Council held
in November 1215 forbade the establishing of new
religious Orders. As a consequence, the St. Damian
community saw itself constrained to embrace the Rule of
St. Benedict as its canonical basis, and Clare was
regretfully bound to take the title of Abbess. Through a
privilege she got from Innocent III, she succeeded in saving

6
what was essential to her calling: absolute poverty without
possessions or fixed income.
Cardinal Hugolinus, commissioned by Honorius III to
care after the Franciscan movement, and in particular, the
monasteries of the “Damianites”, wrote in 1218 or 1219 a
“Form of Life” where the Rule of St. Benedict was
expressly maintained as canonical basis, although some
norms being issued were adapted to the lifestyle of the new
communities. The Cistertian influence is quite evident:
perpetual silence, strict enclosure, continuous fasting with
abstinence to just bread and water four times a week at the
Major Lent and three times a week at that of St. Martin’s.
That rigor did not displease Clare probably, as it answered
her longings of immolation, but reasons were not lacking to
fear that the treasure of total poverty was not even
mentioned at Hugolinus’ statutes. But the St. Damian
monastery kept itself strong on its “privilege” that the
“little plant” of St. Francis made sure to have it approved
by Honorius III.
The alarm became more serious when Cardinal
Hugolinus became Pope under the name of Gregory IX.
He decided to endow with real estate and fixed income the
Damianite monasteries, and even tried to do the same with
the St. Damian community. Clare did not stop till she got
from the Pope himself in 1228 the confirmation of the
“privilege”, securing her against anyone who would in
future force the community to accept real estate possessions
and fixed means of livelihood.
Still, a legal basis of the Franciscan inspiration was
missing. Along this line, St. Agnes in 1243, from Prague,
was urging the Pope that mention of St. Benedict’s Rule
should be left out at the profession’s formula and that a
new form of life should be written better adapted to the
reality lived by the Poor Sisters. The Rule of Innocent IV
appeared at last on 1247 wherein the Rule of St. Francis
came to substitute that of St. Benedict at the profession
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formula. Moreover, the Order of the Damianites was set
over the jurisdiction of the Superiors of the Order of Lesser
Brothers. If this success were to fill up the heart of St.
Clare’s with joy, the new Rule, in exchange, contained a
clause that surely disappointed her exceedingly: “Let it be
lawful for you to receive and have in common and freely
retain rents and possessions.”
It was then perhaps that the saint, sick and afraid of
leaving her daughters behind on that ambiguity, decided to
write down her Testament firmly stating there the three
main points she deemed unrenounceable: faithfulness to
St. Francis, absolute poverty and fraternal unity. She got
herself a new confirmation of the “privilege”. Yet, she did
not see her ideal guaranteed once she had left the world.
On the other hand, Innocent’s IV Rule had met with so
strong opposition from most of the monasteries that the
Pope himself was to declare on June 6, 1250 that he never
meant to make the new Rule mandatory.
It was necessary to give stability to whatever had been
obtained so far through the “privilege”, and that was not
possible to happen but through a Rule that would embody
Clare’s ideas.
She set herself to work it out. Her form of life would
be that of St. Francis, as approved by Honorius III on
November 29, 1223, adapted of course to the life of a
female contemplative community. Regarding disciplinary
prescriptions, especially on the cloister, Clare would have
in mind the previous Rules of Hugolinus and Innocent IV,
though revised to serve the Franciscan spirit. She would
naturally set her own personal unmistakable seal mainly on
the passages about poverty and mutual relationship among
the sisters.
It must lawfully be called St. Clare’s Rule. It was first
approved by the Cardinal Protector Reginald on the 16th of
September 1252, on behalf of the Pope. The Holy See
however, was not satisfied with that approval but wished to
8
authorize it through a Pontifical Bull issued on August 9,
1253. This Bull is like the one with which Honorius III had
confirmed St. Francis’ Rule. Just two days later, Clare died
fully consoled, holding the Papal parchment within her
hands. She had been victorious!
The original Papal bull with the text of the Rule was
kept as a precious heirloom at the monastery of Assisi;
preserved in an ebony case that was rolled among the folds
of a mantle worn by the Saint. It was rediscovered by
chance in 1893. Its modern translations and editions are
made then on the sure basis of an authentic text.6
Clare’s victory, however, did not benefit the whole
Order. Ten years later, the Rule of Urban IV came out on
October 18, 1253, imposing the common denomination
“Order of St. Clare” to all of the monasteries born of the
Franciscan inspiration, and granting them to have
possessions and fixed income. Furthermore, it did away by
omission, with the most personal exhortations and
admonitions of the Saint, while multiplying minute
disciplinary norms meant to prevent abuses, thus framing
the sisters a system of surveillance, frontally opposed to the
climate of trustful communion which St. Clare had brought
up at the St. Damian community.7

Fundamental Traits of the Fraternity of Poor

Sisters According to the Rule of St. Clare

The Bull of confirmation sums up fittingly the very

basic contents of the “Form of Life” with this formula: “to
live out a common life in the spirit of unity and
commitment to most high poverty”. These are the two
features firmly established by St. Clare in her Testament
and were also stressed by St. Francis, before his death, to

9
the Poor Ladies in his “Last Will” and in a sort of lyrical
testament written for them.8

1. Faithfulness to St. Francis

Clare declares herself a “little plant” of St. Francis and
reaffirms her obedience, as promised to the Seraphic Father
and his successors (Test. 4ff). She wishes to maintain
union with the First Order as a guarantee to assuring her
authenticity to St. Francis’ spirit. Therefore, the Divine
Office shall be like that of the Lesser Brothers (III,1).
Likewise, both Orders are to have the same Cardinal
Protector (XII,12); the Visitator of the Poor Sisters shall
always be a Lesser Brother (XII,1); their spiritual and
temporal assistance will ever be the responsibility of Lesser
Brothers (XII,5); before the Elective Chapter, the General
or Provincial Ministers ought to prepare the sisters with the
Word of God to fulfill their duty in a spirit of fraternal
harmony and unselfishness (IV,2). Yet it is mainly at the
Central Chapter on the most high poverty where she mainly
appeals to St. Francis (VI,1).

2. Poverty: essential element of evangelical life

This is truly the intangible heritage received from St.
Francis. The approved decree of Cardinal Reginald sets
poverty as the distinguishing mark of the new Rule – “you
chose to live in highest poverty”. The commitment of
those professing among the Poor Sisters simply consists in
“keeping the life and form of our poverty”. (II,4; IV,5) The
subject of poverty occupies the three core chapters of the
Rule and are the most personal, written down with greatest
energy and warmth. (VI, VII, VIII). The Poor Sisters are
to remain submissive to the Roman Church as the sign of
fidelity to “the poverty and humility of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, and His Most Holy Mother, and to the holy
Gospel”. (XII,13)

10
3. Oneness in Charity
The Rule is written to serve as the guide of an
evangelical community whereby all the sisters live together
at the same parity level, led by the common endeavor of
following Christ through their “Abbess and Mother”, who
acts among them as the servant of all, friendly and
available, attending to the needs of all both sound and ill
(IV,9ff; VII,5; VII,12-20; X,4-7). The distribution of jobs
and chores will seek the higher wellness of “mutual love
and peace” (IV,22). Work has to be carried out in the spirit
of mutual understanding and solidarity (VII,1-5) by
observing common life (VIII,9ff. All of them should serve
one another at all times as one would wish to be served in a
similar situation, but especially so during sickness. They
should manifest mutually their own needs with total
confidence (VIII,15). They should avoid getting angry or
being disturbed with guilt (IX,15). Humble and generous
obedience to the Mother will be the expression of the good
will of reciprocal service by renouncing selfishness (X,2).
In order to build up day by day the bond of fraternity as the
foundation of self-giving and selfless love, the sisters will
strive to shed from within whatsoever may sound as “pride,
vainglory, envy, greed, care and solicitude of this world,
detraction and gossip, strife and division, ever solicitous in
showing one another the oneness of mutual affection which
is the bond of perfection.” (X,6ff).

4. Docility to the Lord’s Spirit in freedom of spirit

Like Francis, so does Clare firmly believes in the
action of the Lord’s spirit within herself and on each sister.
That is why everyone should above all aspire to “posses the
spirit of the Lord and His holy operation” (X,9). Readiness
to follow the spirit of the Lord rather than the impulse of
selfishness gives authenticity to the freedom of God’s
children. In order to find such freedom, Clare and her
sisters have shut themselves up within the cloister “so as to
11
serve the Lord, spiritually free”, as Cardinal Reginald states
in the Decree of Approval.
This freedom of spirit, as opposed to servility, comes
out at many instances in the Rule, in many ways and forms
such as: when an aspirant is allowed “to freely dispose her
things as God may inspire her” (II,10); or when a general
criterion is set on the reasons for leaving the cloister
(II,13); or when it is left up to the Abbess’ discretion to
provide the sisters with garments “according to the
distinctive character of persons, places, times or needs
(II,17);or when the cloister gets open so that the Chaplain
may hold services within the monastery on communion
days (III,15); or in the flexible norm of silence (V,1-4;
VIII,19).

5. Moderation and discretion

Her freedom of spirit shows up in the fine and serene
evangelical humanness of the aforementioned points, like
clothes, footwear, enclosure, silence, etc. by leaving their
implementation, in particular circumstances, “up to the
prudence of the Abbess or her Vicar”. A noteworthy detail
is that each sister is to be given whatever her relatives or
others might send her, so that she herself may share it with
the other sisters, were she not be in need of it (VIII,9ff).
Let us say nothing of the gentleness the sickly sisters
should be treated with (VIII,9).

6. Sharing of common responsibility among sisters

This is one of the most striking and meritorious aspects
of St. Clare’s Rule. The Abbess does not appear as the
only one responsible for the concerns of the community,
but positively shares it with all of the sisters.
In order to accept an aspirant “she is bound to ask the
consent of all the sisters” (II,1ff). And it is “the Abbess
and the sisters” who jointly deal with the young aspirant,
send her to some God fearing people to take from them a
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piece of advice regarding the disposal of her worldly
possessions, and give her afterwards the three tunics and
mantle (II,10)
All of the sisters take part in the election of the Abbess,
and it is they who are to judge whether it is no longer
convenient that she should lead the community. They are
also to assume the responsibility of removing her from
office, and of choosing one in her stead. (IV,7ff). No
significant debt may be contracted without the common
consent of the sisters; both “Abbess and sisters ought to
take care not to receive anything to be deposited in the
monastery for safekeeping.(IV,120). The “officials” of the
monastery as well as the “discreets” are to be chosen “by
common consent of all the sisters” and the sisters may
remove them from office and choose others in their stead, if
it would seem to be convenient and fitting (IV,22-24).
“The Abbess and all the sisters” are responsible in
observing poverty (VI,10-15; VIII, 1-6) as well as the care
of the sick, the observance of silence and of the enclosure
(V,1ff; VIII,19; XI,8). “The Abbess and the sisters” are to
treat with broadmindedness the guilty one (IX,5).
On the passages stamped more sharply by the seal of
her personality, Clare uses the personal pronoun “we” (us/
our) in tune with the style we know to be her own in
leading her community, something that affords the text the
force of a common commitment; were one to come to us”
(II,1); “the life and form of our poverty” (II,14; IV,15);
“the form of our profession” (II,22; XI,1); “let no one
abide with us …” (II, 24); when our Holy Father saw that
we did not fear poverty…but rather held these things a
great delight, he wrote for us …” (VI, 2); “and that we
may never get apart…he wrote for us” and “I, together
with my sisters” (IV, 6-11); “our visitator” (XII,1); “so
that we may keep the poverty and humility… that we
promised firmly” (XII, 13).

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 The awareness of joint responsibility shines most
clearly – call it co-responsibility – in the prescription on the
“community chapter” which has two parts: the first one,
where all of them – Abbess as well as sisters – accuse
themselves of their common and public shortcomings; and
the second, where all speak out their minds on matters of
the monastery (IV, 15-18). The expression “common
good” is several times repeated (IV, 3 & 17; VIII, 1,5).

7. Voluntary enclosure
Cardinal Reginald’s Decree of Approval, quoted
above, which captured exactly the key points of the Rule,
states: “you chose to live in seclusion”. From the very
beginning, the Damianites were known as the “Reclused
Sisters”. We see this willing seclusion evident in chapter
II,13 and in chapter V, where the norms are established for
their communication with the outside world, and in chapter
XI that regulates the general keeping of the cloister.

Written Letter and Spirit

A Rule is not the only juridical basis by which an

Order exists, nor is it a historical document looked upon
with reference inasmuch as it contains the initial
formulation of the founder’s ideal. The Rule, as an
expression of a specific charism and a program of life,
holds a perpetuity that causes it to be ever actual and ever
adaptable to times and places.
But how can a Rule, like Clare’s, remain actual if it
was written more than seven centuries ago when social and
religious life, i.e. culture, ascetic models, ways of dressing.
eating, working, praying – everything - in a word - was so
different from what we know today?

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 St. Francis had long foreseen this adaptation problem,
and so that his Rule would ever continue being “Rule, life,
and form of life” and could face the vicissitudes of “times
and places”, he constantly used to distinguish between
“letter and spirit”.
Jesus had forcefully accused the Pharisees of having
brought the law into a deep state of deformation on account
of their servile interpretation by holding fast to their own
traditions. St. Paul sets the letter that kills against the spirit
that gives life (2 Cor 3,6).
To Francis’ mind, keeping the Rule spiritually means
reading it “purely and simply” after the intention it was
written and in agreement with the spirit that enlivens it.
That is the only attitude that saves us from pliable
deviations and lifeless formalisms. Thus focused, we will
not be able to find in the “form of life of the sisters” even a
simple precept that may have lost its reason for being, even
though its written letter may seem outdated, for it is a
commitment of life rather than blind observance of a law.
Were the daughters of St. Clare to take the “letter” as it
literally sounds, they should have to be satisfied today with
receiving the Eucharist only seven times a year (III, 7). By
its literal sense, there is no reason for ambiguity but, setting
ourselves at the time the Rule was written, when even good
Christians did not receive communion more than three time
a year, and most of them just once a year, then we realize
that St. Clare assigned her community the maximum
possible by the mentality and practice of the day. If
furthermore we pay attention to the detail that, on those
seven communion days, she wanted to see the community
gathered around the altar and dispensed with the rule of the
cloister, then the “spirit” of the precept and the saint’s
intention become quite apparent: a very deep Eucharistic
life. This is translated today into a daily active and full
participation in the Eucharistic banquet and sacrifice. On
the contrary, certain prescriptions whose “letter” had
15
remained unfortunately unfulfilled for centuries, such as the
duty of weekly encounters to dialogue on common matters
of interest of the monastery and to enhance the sense of the
sisters responsibility, have become again more pertinent
through today’s efforts of renewal.
The renewal and adaptation that the Council desires is
only possible on the basis of the “spirit” which is
permanent, further than the shifting “letter”. One has yet to
learn finding out and applying faithfully and loyally St.
Clare’s intentions. We tend by instinct to remain on
common ground, avoiding a creative search. Jesus praises
the wise disciple of the kingdom of heaven who like a
householder brings out from his storeroom new things as
well as old (Mt. 13, 52).

_______________________________________________
_
Note: For a full groundwork on the contents of this commentary, may I
refer the reader to the book “Vocacion franciscana. Sintesis delos
ideales de San Francisco y Sta. Clara”. 3rd edition, Editorial Asis,
1989.

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Footnotes to Introduction:

1. LG, 45; PC, 2b; Pope Paul VI Evangelica Testification,. 11.

2. “The General Constitutions of the Poor Sisters of St. Clare”
were approved by the Holy See on May 13, 1988. There
are 236 Spanish speaking monasteries governed by them,
since they profess the Rule of St. Clare approved by Innocent
IV on 1253. Of these 168 are in Spain and 68 in America.
There are besides, 56 Monasteries that follow the 2 nd Rule
approved by Urbanus IV on 1263. Of these 46 are in Spain
and 10 in America. The Constitutions of the Capuchin Poor
Clares were approved on July 19, 1986. there are 102 Spanish
speaking Monasteries governed by them. Of these, 32 are in
Spain and 70 in America. Cf. Elenco dei Monastery.
Monache Francescane di vita contemplative a cura del
Protomonasterio S. Chiarra in Assisi. Assisi 1984. Since
then their number has significantly increased.
3. I. Omaechevarria, Escritos de Sta. Clara. p. 199ff.
4. “Sermo II de b. Francisco, Opera omnia, IX, 576.
5. Text in Bull. Franc. II, 509ff.
6. The translation used here is personally done by the author
from the Latin text of his book “Escritos de San Francisco y
Sta. Clara de Asis”. Lazaro Iriarte, OFM Cap. 3rd Edition,
Valencia, Editorial Asis, 1992.
7. I. Omaecheverria, Escritos de Sta. Clara.
8. Translation in “Escritos de San Francisco y Santa Clara” p.
107ff.

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