"Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! And transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead itself through contemplation."
-St. Clare

Saint Clare of Assisi - July 16, 1194 - August 11, 1253

On the night of Palm Sunday, March 18, 1212, when Clare was still a few months shy of 18, she left home to become the first female disciple of Francis of Assisi. The eldest daughter of a nobleman, she willingly sacrificed her fine clothes, marriage proposals, and all the comforts a beautiful young woman of her station in life could expect, to cut off her hair and don a rough habit of homespun fabric, eager to radically live the Gospel as she had heard Francis preach and had seen him do. A few weeks later she was joined by her younger sister Agnes, and eventually by sister Beatrix, aunt Bianca, and even by her mother, Ortolana - as well as many other young women of Assisi.