Clarissen Charity, Care, and Consorority in Italy, 1250–1500

Abstract:In her Rule, St. Clare asks, "For if a mother loves and nourishes her child according to the flesh, should not a sister love and nourish her sister according to the Spirit even more lovingly?" This question served as a guiding principle for the saint and, by extension, her cloistered followers. Lovingly referred to as a holy mother, Clare comforted and doted on sick and ailing sisters, and the Order of Poor Clares followed suit. In adopting the language of familial kinship, the saint and her Poor Clares also adopted the dynamics of love and care that accompanied these ties, giving them new meaning in relation to the ties of the spirit. This emphasis on charity within the sisterhood was explained in Clare's vita, written by Ugolino Verino and commissioned by the sisters of Santa Chiara Novella in Florence. While the friendships and bonds formed around St. Clare were not exclusive to her—female friendships coalesced around saints throughout the Middle Ages, such as the cults formed around the English native St. Æthelthryth—these sources provide an especially clear example of the manifestations of female love and affection. Unlike monastic and male homosocial relationships, homosocial female relationships have not been explored in depth and have yet to be explored through the lens of hagiography. Furthermore, current scholarship on early modern friendship largely ignores St. Clare and her sisters, both while she was alive and after, despite the fact that the Poor Clares were one of the foremost female monastic groups. This essay contributes to the history of female homosocial relationships in the Middle Ages.