When St. Clare was a young girl, she had the comforts of an aristocratic home. She was inspired by St. Francis’ and his friars to embrace the life of holy poverty, and thus received the habit by St. Francis. The nuns who joined her were known as the Poor Clares, whose life of prayer and asceticism is well known to this day. The Poor Clares are an enclosed order of nuns known as the Order of Saint Clare. They are the 2nd Franciscan order that Saint Clare established with St Francis of Assisi in 1212. Poor Clares are known for their contemplative, cloistered life of prayer, penance, and manual labor.
