Clare of Rimini (c. 1260 – 10 February c. 1326) was an Italian holy woman who was beatified. She was born to a wealthy family and married at a young age. She was sent into exile when her husband died, witnessed the political execution of her father and brother, and remarried. She received a calling after attending Mass and founded a penitential community. Her feast day is 10 February.

Life

Chiara was born to a wealthy family of Rimini. Married at a young age, she was sent into exile with her family. Upon her return, she witnessed the execution of her father and brother by a rival political faction. She remarried and lived a life of pleasure and dissipation.Donovan, Stephen. "Blessed Clare of Rimini." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 16 July 2016 According to Stephen Donovan, one day when she was 34, she attended

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

in the church of the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

Friars, she seemed to hear a mysterious voice that bade her say an

Our Father The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, Will of God, will, and Kingship and kingdom of God, kingdom, as well as h ...

and a

Hail Mary The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (from its first words in Latin), also known as the Angelic or Angelical Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the ...

at least once with fervour and attention. Clare obeyed the command, not knowing from where it came, and then began to reflect upon her life. She became a model of every virtue, but especially of charity towards the destitute and afflicted. She abandoned her life of luxury and established an informal community for a group of women under her direction.Delaney, John J., "Blessed Clare of rimini", ''Dictionary Of Saints'', Image/Doubleday, 2005
When the

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare (Latin language, Latin: ''Ordo Sanctae Clarae''), originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and also known as the Clarisses or Clarissines, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Or ...

were compelled to leave Regno on account of the prevailing wars, it was mainly through the exertions of Clare that they were able to obtain a means of sustenance at Rimini. Later, Clare is believed to have worked numerous miracles and towards the close of her life to have been favored in an extraordinary manner with the gift of contemplation. Her body is now in the cathedral of Rimini. On 22 December 1784, the cult of Blessed Clare was approved by

Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI (; born Count Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio called Giovanni Angelo or Giannangelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to hi ...

, who permitted her feast to be celebrated in the city and

Diocese of Rimini The Diocese of Rimini () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Emilia Romagna, Italy. From earliest times, it was a suffragan to the Holy See, despite repeated attempts by the Diocese of Ravenna to claim ...

on 10 February.

Critique

In 1751

Giuseppe Garampi Giuseppe Garampi (29 October 1725 – 4 May 1792) was an Italian scholar and collector of documents and books. Biography He was born in Rimini, the son of Count Lorenzo Garampi, a patrician of the city of Rimini. As a youth he studied in Rimini u ...

was appointed Prefect of the Vatican Archives. He published an anonymous fourteenth century ''vita'' of Clare of Rimini, which had served as the basis of subsequent biographies. Through the use of careful philological and historical analysis he disputed that Clare had been a Franciscan tertiary and later a Poor Clare. He also argued against her having founded the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rimini. Garampi described her as similar to a

Beguine The Beguines () and the Beghards () were Christianity, Christian laity, lay religious orders that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in monasticism, semi-monastic ...

, and was a devout laywoman who dressed in a religious habit and practiced poverty and penance, but never took vows or was under a rule. With the details of her ''vita'' disputed, the promotion of her ''cultus'' (Catholic veneration) to canonization effectively ended. The most important modern scholarship on Clare has been the work of Jacques Dalarun, including a new critical edition of her fourteenth-century Italian vita, and a recent English translation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clare Of Rimini 1282 births 1346 deaths Italian beatified people Medieval Italian saints Poor Clares Franciscan nuns 14th-century venerated Christians Female saints of medieval Italy 14th-century Italian Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns People from Rimini Beatifications by Pope Pius VI