Creating Clare of Assisi : female Franciscan identities in later medieval Italy / / by Lezlie S. Knox.

• Superior document: The medieval Franciscans, v. 5
• Author: Knox, Lezlie S.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Medieval Franciscans ; v. 5.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (243 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Earlier scholarship has characterized female Franciscanism as an institution established by Clare of Assisi in collaboration with Saint Francis. This understanding is anachronistic, however, and overlooks the more complicated disputes over what it meant for enclosed women to have a mendicant vocation. This book clarifies Clare’s contributions to these debates by distinguishing the historical figure from the uses made of her legacy by the papacy, the Friars Minor, and, most importantly, the enclosed sisters between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. By examining the diversity of female communities and their complicated institutional formation in medieval Italy, it examines how and when Clare was appropriated as a model of spiritual authority by the women to shape their identity as Franciscans.

Table of Contents

The friars and sisters -- Clare and the Poor Sisters of San Damiano -- The Order of Saint Clare -- Beyond Clare : a Franciscan centered order -- The Clarisses and observant reform -- Writing female Franciscan identity -- Conclusion: The true daughters of Francis and Clare.