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With What Purpose Clare wrote
her Testament?
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“promised to God and St. Francis”. (nn. 37-55)The “way of
holy simplicity, humility and poverty” leads to the union of
hearts that builds up the will of serving in those who
command and obey (nn. 56-70). Lastly, turning back to the
vocational theme at the beginning, there is an exhortation
and a prayer about perseverance (nn. 71-78). Clare ends up
with a blessing, as an encouragement to “better observe this
writing” (79).
There is in this ending, as well as in the view of the
whole document, a clear will that the Testament the
foundress bequeaths the sisters “present and future” –up to
six times she calls the attention of the “sisters to come”–
may serve them as a guideline to test the authenticity of
their Gospel life.
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her Testament she keeps appealing to as Father and
Founder. And recalls the prophetic harangue that the Saint
addressed in French and by the style of a troubadour, while
repairing the little church of San Damiano. The event is
attested to by the Three Companions and The Second Life
of Thomas of Celano.3
She ponders again on God’s benignity shown in that
form of “vocation and election” through St. Francis. She
feels one in the common mission of “giving glory to the
heavenly Father through his holy universal Church, with so
many generations of sisters that will embrace the same kind
of life at the course of centuries. “And our most blessed
father prophesied not only for us, but also for those who
would come to this same holy vocation to which the Lord
has called us.”
She ends up this first part with an ardent appeal of
generosity in the response to that divine call. It is a debt
that ought to be settled “with eagerness and fervor of mind
and body by keeping the commandments of our God and
Father returning to him an increase of his talent”. Where
the theologians of that time got lost and entangled in
distinguishing between precepts and counsels, Francis and
Clare saw with evangelical intuition the “commandments
of the heavenly Father”. If the fulfillment of the design of
such Father is what really matters, then the pressing
invitations of Jesus to build up with him a kingdom of love
for which he has given up his life, cannot be just reduced to
“counsels”. This is how St. Francis expressed himself at
the 5th chapter of the Rule: “persevering in the Lord’s
command that the brothers have promised by the holy
Gospel and their form of life”.
To that debt towards divine benignity they have to add
the responsibility before God’s people and the sisters of so
many monasteries looking up to that of San Damiano:
“The Lord has set us as an example and mirror to other
sisters”, and insists on the duty of being also a “mirror and
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example to those living in the world”. And indeed it is so:
no matter how much virtue tries to hide itself behind the
enclosure of the most rigorous cloister – or perhaps because
of it – the world will not be deprived from perceiving the
fragrance of life immolated nor the splendor of so great a
light. “A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one
lights a lamp to put it under a tub, they put it on the lamp-
stand where it shines for everyone in the house”. (Mt 5, 14-
15)
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even thinking of it. Each sister [was considered] God’s gift
and his loving design.
Heroic indeed, was that adventure at the beginning
without any other guarantee but the burning faith of the
Poverello on the truth of the Gospel. The female
community of poor ladies had to experience everything:
penury, work, tribulations, insults, contempt. Yes, even the
“contempt of the world”. What kind of comments would
they not have to listen to coming from their relatives,
clergymen and the wise and prudent people of Assisi? It
was sheer madness insisting on such a hazardous existence
by a group of women, without fixed income, without steady
means of livelihood, living from day to day, at an
uncomfortable dwelling, when there are so many
monasteries , spacious and well equipped where they could
give themselves up to God without cares and worries. But
it was precisely that installed security that they wanted to
sacrifice.
Francis, Clare goes on, was highly pleased on seeing
them so full of joy in the midst of so many privations and
incomprehension. The female Gospel community under
the banner of Lady Poverty was set off. And it was then,
Clare recalls eager to strengthen union with the First Order,
when he committed himself “to always have the same
loving care and special solicitude for us as for his own
brothers”.
Besides, to consolidate what was just a searching at the
beginning, as it had been too at the fraternity of Brothers
Minor, he gave them a “form of Life”, of which strong
point was “holy poverty”. Francis, Clare says, continued
encouraging them ever to be faithful to poverty, and quotes
his last will, a part of which she transcribed into her Rule.
It is the very same faithfulness that the Saint kept up to his
death in imitation of God’s Son.
There is no doubt at all that, the obedience promised to
Francis, the guarantee of his assistance, his form of life and
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his last will constitute in the mind of Clare the authentic
basis of the kind of life of the Poor Sisters.
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our most blessed father Francis”. All her great soul is
revealed in those few lines full of fervor, humility and
uneasiness for the future of that “little flock which the Lord
and Father has begotten in his holy Church”.
She addresses the same recommendation, with no less
humility and warmth, to the successor of St. Francis and to
the entire Order: “let them always help us to progress in
serving God more perfectly”.
Clare, truly poor in spirit, keeps her heart fully
detached even from that dear enclosure of San Damiano,
crib of the Order and shrine of so sacred remembrances,
from that chapel where Francis heard the voice of the
Crucified and from which top he prophesied in song that
reality. She foresees that the day will come when her
daughters will have to leave the place and go somewhere
else. That is no problem to her since they are “pilgrims and
strangers”. The place, the building, the fondness to that
well known corner do not count to her. What really does
matter is the treasure of poverty. It will have to continue
alive at the new quarters of the fraternity, without
possession or fixed income, happy with a little land
necessary for the isolation and cultivation of vegetables.
And so as to avoid that this necessity be an occasion to
create stable means of livelihood, she forbids that the land
that might perhaps be necessary to acquire around the
monastery be cultivated. This last clause did not pass on to
the Rule; she realized perhaps, the inconsistency of the
luxury of having an uncultivated land under the pretext of
highest poverty.
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“Fraternally United in the Charity of Christ”
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At such an atmosphere, the leading function of the mother
would be more bearable and beneficial.
What should be cultivated first of all, according to St.
Clare, is the spirit of unity in the group of the poor sisters.
Otherwise mutual distrust will appear between those who
lead and those who obey.
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Seraphic Father Francis and of the blessing that she herself,
“mother and servant”, wishes would reach to each one.
Close to her death, she would still invoke upon all her
sisters, present and to come, an ample blessing of which
text is well known.
Faithfulness to poverty and fraternal union: that is the
double preoccupation expressed in the Testament. As an
echo of that fundamental content, Cardinal Rainaldus will
summarize the essence of the rule through his decree of
approval with this formula: “holy unity and most high
poverty”; Pope Innocent IV, at his bull of confirmation,
writes: “living community life in unity in spirit and in
commitment of most high poverty”. All the rest –
observances, organization, discipline of enclosure, etc. –
remain at the background, as it may be common to any
other religious Order. The uniqueness of St. Francis’ and
Clare’s ideal consist of having made of the binomial
“poverty – fraternity” the very heart of Gospel life.
The Testament of the holy Mother continues being for
Clare’s daughters the key to reading the Rule, as the actual
Constitutions thus proclaim:
“Our Mother St. Clare, before her death, expressed
her last will in her Testament. In it is contained
the authentic spirit, in the purity with which Clare
received it from our Seraphic Father Francis. Let
it be accepted, therefore, as the primary spiritual
explanation of the Rule.” (Cap CC, 4).
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Footnotes to Chapter 19:
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Notes
ABBREVIATIONS
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PC Perfectae Caritatis
Proc. Process of Canonization
R Inn Rule of Innocent IV
R Hug Rule of Hugolinus
Rnb Rule bullata
Rb Rule bullata
RHerm Rule for Hermitages
R Prof Religious Profession(?)
SC Sacrosanctum concillium
St. Saint
Salut V Salutation of Virtues
T Testament
v verse
VS Venite Seorsum
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