Why go
Read about Clare before following the Franciscan sites: the church at San Damiano became the home of her first community, while the Basilica of Saint Clare recalls its founder. Her own rule and letters show that she was a leader with ideas of her own, not simply a follower of Francis.
The full story
Born Chiara Offreduccio, Clare left her family home in 1212 after hearing Francis preach. At the Porziuncola, she exchanged her fine clothes for a simple habit and had her hair cut. Her family tried to bring her back, but she remained with the religious women to whom Francis had entrusted her. Her sister Caterina, later called Agnes, joined her. The sisters eventually settled beside San Damiano, the church Francis had repaired, and their community grew into the order later known as the Poor Clares. Clare's central concern was that the sisters should live in shared poverty. After Francis died, she resisted attempts to soften that commitment and wrote a rule for her community, as well as letters to Agnes of Prague. That work gives the places associated with her more meaning: San Damiano was the setting for an independent religious community, not just another stop in Francis's life. Tradition also connects a vision during illness with her later designation as patron saint of television; that account is devotional tradition rather than a reason to expect a visible object at the site.