Saint Clare of Assisi

Bret Thoman

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9781505109726
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Just as with his stirring narrative of the life of St. Francis, Saint Francis of Assisi: Passion, Poverty, and the Man Who Transformed the Church, author Bret Thoman draws upon his profound knowledge of original sources, his familiarity with the places where these two great founders lived and breathed and changed the world, and his own Franciscan spirituality, to bring to life, like never before, the story of St. Clare of Assisi.Join Thoman as he skillfully weaves the known facts of Clares life with imaginative passages that bring the reader into the profoundly spiritual world of the ;Light from the Cloister.; Hailing from an aristocratic or ;Major; family, Clare continually—in imitation of Our Lord and Francis—sought to make herself lesser or ;minor.; In the process, through another of Gods ;divine paradoxes,; she became a giant, not only of her age, but of all time.Tenaciously attached to poverty, she became rich as only the saints are; docile and obedient, she stood up to her aristocratic family and, later, princes of the Church in following the path upon which God had set her; frail and vulnerable, she caused Saracen invaders to turn tail and run . . . merely by prostrating herself before the Blessed Sacrament; and though not learned in either theology or canon law, she became the first woman to write a Rule for a new religious community.St. Clare truly was a ;light from the cloister; not only for her era but for all time. Meet her as never before in these pages, and, in what is sure to be a profoundly spiritual reading experience, let her light shine upon you.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Author’s Note
• Preface
• Prologue: Her Name Shall be “Light”
• 1. War and Exile
• 2. Back to Assisi
• 3. Francis
• 4. The Encounter
• 5. Fuga Mundi—Flight From the World
• 6. San Paolo of the Abbesses
• 7. Knights and Nuns
• 8. Sant’Angelo in Panzo
• 9. San Damiano: Enclosed and Open
• 10. Just One Privilege
• 11. Community
• 12. The Struggle for San Damiano
• 13. The Transitus of Francis
• 14. “Gaze, Consider, Contemplate, and Imitate”
• 15. Saracens
• 16. The Transitus of Clare
• Epilogue: Light Shines Again—From San Damiano to San Giorgio
• Afterword
• Timeline
• Notes
• For Further Reading
• Acknowledgments