Pilgrimage series: Basilica is monument to St. Clare

Editor's note: Eighth in a series on the sacred places and tombs of saints included in The Compass pilgrimage to Rome and Paris that retired Green Bay Bishop Robert Banks will lead May 3-13. (More information on pilgrimage)

By Tony Staley

	Basilica of St. Clare of Assisi What: Burial site of St. Clare and home of the San Damiano Cross When: Built in the 13th century shortly after Clares' death Where: Assisi, Italy

The second day of touring in Italy, the Compass pilgrims will go to Assisi. One of the four important sites they will tour is the Basilica of St. Clare of Assisi.

This basilica was literally and figuratively built over her dead body. Yes, Clare is buried in the basilica. But building a basilica in her name is something Clare probably would never have approved, because it violated all she believed about poverty as a follower of Jesus and Francis.

In 1228, when Pope Gregory IX came to Assisi to canonize Francis, he tried to convince Clare to allow the nuns to own some property and to accept an annual gift to meet their unforeseen needs. She refused.

Gregory then offered to absolve her from her strict vow of poverty. She replied, "Holy Father, I crave for absolution from my sins, but I desire not to be absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ."

Clare was born in the late 12th century into a wealthy, noble family in Assisi. Her life had always been one of prayer and mortification, but she found new purpose, at the age of 18, when she heard Francis preach during Lent at St. Giorgio Church in Assisi. The two, who instantly recognized each other's holiness and importance, became soul mates for the rest of their lives.

On Palm Sunday, Clare met Francis and his followers in the chapel of the Porziuncula. Francis cut off her hair, gave her a rough tunic and thick veil for her habit, then took her to a nearby Benedictine convent.

Clare's irate father failed to pry her from the convent, where her sister, Agnes, had joined her. Francis soon gave them a simple house by the Church of San Damiano, the church which Francis had rebuilt after receiving a vision from Jesus. Clare lived there for the rest of her life and was consulted by bishops, cardinals and popes.

Eventually, her mother, another sister, an aunt and many other women joined the community at San Damiano. Other houses were established in France, Germany and elsewhere in Italy. They were called "the order of the poor ladies," but eventually became known as "the Poor Clares."

At first, the community's only written rule was a short formula stressing poverty, which Francis composed. Clare refused all efforts to lessen that element of poverty and finally, two days before her death, Pope Innocent IV approved a rule to her liking.

Clare twice saved Assisi from attacks by foreign troops, so, after her death, city leaders feared that her enemies would try to steal her body. So instead of letting the Poor Clares keep her body with them at San Damiano, Assisi's officials forced them to place her remains in San Giorgio Church until a new church could be built.

In 1257, two years after Clare was canonized, work began on an Italian gothic basilica, under the direction of Filippo Campello, a leading architect. The church was built on the site of San Giorgio, part of which remains. The new basilica was completed in 1265.

It's pink stone is common in the area and the structure is simpler than the name "basilica" implies. Clare's remains were moved to their new resting place on Oct. 3, 1260, and buried deep under the high altar, where they lay hidden until 1850.

By then, only Clare's perfectly preserved skeleton remained. Her bones were transferred again on Sept. 29, 1872, to their current location, a shrine in the church's crypt.

The basilica also is home to the San Damiano Cross, under which Francis heard Christ tell him: "Rebuild my Church." The cross is more than six feet tall, nearly four feet wide and five inches thick. The basilica and the adjacent Poor Clares' protomonastery were both damaged in 1997 by earthquakes in Assisi.

(Staley is a retired editor of The Compass.)

Next: Church of San Damiano, Assisi