She was born in Assisi in 1194, but nothing is known of her life until she was convened by the preaching of St. Francis, renounced her possessions and took the habit of a nun, joining him outside the town at the delapidated Portiuncula chapel. Formed in the religious life, she was then offered by Francis a house next to the church of San Damiano, below the town, where she became abbess of a community in 1215; her mother and two sisters became members. Their life was extremely poverty-stricken; a Papal privilege of 1228 allowed them to live entirely by asking for alms, without any kind of endowments. The Poor Clares spread rapidly, especially to Spain, though Clare never left her convent. Devoted to prayer and penance (and suffering from frequent ill-health) she interceded for her town in times of crisis. When the army of the Emperor Frederick II threatened Assisi, she had herself carried to the wall of the convent clutching the Blessed Sacrament, and the army apparently fled. That is why in art she is always shown holding a pyx or monstrance. She died in 1253 and was canonised in 1255. As with the male branch, controversy over absolute poverty continued after the death of the Founder. The Order was reformed by St. Colette in the 15th. century, retaining its contemplative vocation and an csscntial poverty of spirit. St. Clare is enshrined in the church of her dedication in Assisi (a church badly damaged in the recent earthquakes).