Testament of Saint Clare

Here begins the Testament of our holy Mother Saint Clare.

In the Name of our Lord. Amen.

Among the other benefits which we have received from our bountiful Benefactor, the King of Mercies, and daily receive from him, for all which we are bound to praise him, we should in a most particular manner be grateful to him for that of our vocation, for which the more perfect and great it is, the more we ought to thank him.

The Apostle says: See your vocation (1 Cor., i. 26). God himself hath shewn us the way, by word and example, and our holy father Saint Francis, a perfect lover and follower of the same way, hath taught it us.

Therefore, my beloved sisters, we ought to value this inestimable benefit which God hath bestowed on us, preferably to many others, and which he hath vouchsafed to work in us, through his servant our holy father Saint Francis, not only since our conversion, but even when we were in the captivity and vanity of this world.

For, after his conversion, not having as yet any brothers, he repaired to Saint Damian’s Church, where he was visited by divine consolations, and where, wholly abandoning the world, he was filled by the Holy Ghost with joy and illumination, and he prophesied to us what our Lord had afterwards fulfilled. Standing on the walls of the said Church, speaking with a loud voice, in the French tongue, to some poor people who lived there, he said: Come help me in this Church of Saint Damian, for women shall come here by whose good life and holy conversation our Heavenly Father shall be honored in his whole Church.

Wherein we may observe the great goodness of God towards us, who, out of his abundant mercy and charity, did vouchsafe to prophecy our vocation and election by his servant; and not only did our Father foretell these things of us, but also of those who hereafter shall be partakers of the vocation which our Lord hath called us to.

With what care of soul and body are we not then obliged to keep the commandments of God, and of our holy father Saint Francis, to the end that with the grace of God we may repay him his talent multiplied and increased; for the Lord hath placed us as an example and pattern, not to the laity alone, but likewise very particularly to all our sisters whom he shall call to our course of life, to this end, that they may become as a mirror and example to those who are in the world.

Whereas our Lord hath honored us with so high a vocation as to serve as models to those who ought to be an example to others, how much are we not bound to bless and praise him for so doing? Let us be delighted in him; let us live according to the form above mentioned; let us be an example to those who follow us, that so after those short labours, we may receive the reward of everlasting life.

A little after the conversion of Saint Francis, whose example and teaching caused me to begin to do penance, the Heavenly Father, through his great mercy and grace, was pleased to inflame my heart. I therefore, shortly after my own conversion, with a few sisters, whom our Lord had joined with me, did willingly vow obedience to the holy father Francis, on account of his marvellous life and holy doctrine; and this we were inspired to do by the light of the grace of the heavenly father.

Saint Francis then observing that although we were as to body weak and tender, yet were not dismayed by any necessity, poverty, labours, tribulation, or contempt of this world, but that we considered all those as great pleasures, a matter which he had experienced by the example of his brothers. He rejoiced in our Lord, and moved with charity towards us, obliged himself and his brothers to have always a diligent and special care of us.

It was by the will of God, and at the desire of our holy father Saint Francis, that we went to dwell in the Church of Saint Damian, for we had dwelt before in another place; soon after which our Lord, through his great mercy and grace, multiplied us in number; so thus was fulfilled what our Lord had foretold by his servant.

A little after he wrote for us this form of life, and principally insisted that we should persevere in most holy poverty; to this he often admonished us in his life time by many sermons and exhortations, thereby moving us to love and observe it; this also our holy father Saint Francis, with his brothers, did honor and observe during his life.

Wherefore I, Clare, servant and handmaid of Christ, and of the poor sisters of Saint Damian, although unworthy, yet being the little plant of our holy father Saint Francis, considering these things with my other sisters, and the great profession we had made to such a father; fearing our own and the frailty of others who were to succeed us after his death, who, next to God, was our pillar and comfort, I again and again bind myself to our Blessed Lady, to practise holy poverty; to the end that the sisters now with me, and those who are to succeed after my death, may by no means swerve from it, which I have always been careful (with the grace of God) to practise and cause it to be observed.

I have likewise, for greater security, made profession of it to our holy father Pope Innocent IV., in whose time we began, and have renewed it to his successors, that so we might by no means deviate from the holy poverty which we had vowed to God and to Saint Francis.

Wherefore I, in all humility, bending the knee of my inward and outward man, commend to the Church of Rome and to our holy father the Pope, and especially to the Cardinal to whose protection, together with the Friars Minors, we are committed, that for the love of God, who was born with great poverty in the manger, lived poorly in this world, and died poorly on the cross, they will preserve this little flock, which God the Father hath gained to his Church, by the words and example of our holy father Saint Francis.

May God, who caused them to follow the humility and poverty of his dearly beloved Son and of his holy Mother, and to make vow of the holy poverty which we promised to God and to Saint Francis, grant we may be strengthened by his grace from above to observe it. And as God gave to us our holy Father Saint Francis as our founder and helper in his service, in those things which we vowed to the Almighty and Saint Francis to observe; and as the holy Francis was careful while he lived to water us as his little plants, both by word and example; so I, Clare, commend and leave my sisters, as well those with me as those who are to succeed me, to his successors and to the whole order, that they may always assist them to soar higher and higher in the service of God, and to accomplish and observe holy poverty.

If it happen at any time that the said sisters should leave their country or city to go to any other, they are firmly bound after my death, in what place soever they may be, to observe the holy poverty which they have vowed to God and to Saint Francis. Those who are in office, as also the other sisters, shall receive no more ground than extreme necessity requires, such as a garden for recreation. And if for the defence and decency of the Cloister, it be needful to have more ground, they are to take only what is necessary, and which they are not to plough or sow.

I admonish you all, my sisters, who are and shall be, to endeavour to walk in the ways of simplicity, humility, poverty, modesty, and holy conversation, which we, in the beginning of our conversion, were taught by Christ and our holy father Saint Francis, so that, not through ours, but through the merits and mercy of the liberal Giver, the Father of Mercies, the odour of our good name may be diffused amongst those who are afar off, as well as amongst those who are near us.

For the love of our Lord Jesus keep union among you; the charity you have inwardly, shew it outwardly by works, that through your example, the sisters who are called to your profession may increase in the love of God and mutual charity. I also beg of all those who are chosen to offices among the sisters, that they will study to excel the others in virtue and modesty, rather than in the authority of their office, that by their example, the sisters who were called to religion may be moved to obey them from love as from respect for their office. The Abbess must be careful and discreet towards her sisters, as a good mother is towards her children; she must carefully provide for every one according to their necessities, out of the alms that God is pleased to send her; she must likewise be sweet to all, that the sisters may, without fear or doubt, declare to her their necessities, and have confident recourse to her.

When the Abbess and the sisters shall think any thing necessary, let those who are subject remember that, for the love of God, they renounced their own will, wherefore they are to obey their mother, as they have of their own accord vowed to God to do, that seeing their union and the charity which they show to each other, she may the easier bear the charge of her office; and as it is painful and heavy, they are, by their goodness and holy conversation, to render it sweet and pleasing.

And as the way is narrow, and straight is the gate which leads to life, and as few there are that find it, blessed are they who receive grace to walk in that way and to persevere to the end. Wherefore let us be careful who have entered into the ways of our Lord, that by our fault or negligence we fall not from the same, as by committing sin we shall injure our Lord, his Blessed Mother, our holy father Saint Francis, and the triumphant church; for it is written, cursed are those who decline from the commandments.

To obtain this grace, I bend my knee to the Heavenly Father, through the merits of our Lord Jesus, his Blessed Mother, of our holy father Saint Francis, and all the saints, that his Divine Majesty, who gave us a good beginning, will be pleased to grant us the grace to proceed in the same perfection, and to persevere therein to the end.

Dearly beloved sisters, present and to come, I leave you this writing in token of our Lord’s benediction, the benediction of our holy father Saint Francis, and of me, your mother and servant.