This statue made of granite is in front of the convent qith the same name: Santa Clara. It shows the figure of the saint with the nun's robe holding the monstrance in her hands.
Santa Clara:
"Clare of Assisi (Italian: Chiara d'Assisi, born Chiara Scifi; Assisi, Italy, July 16, 1194-ibid., August 11, 1253) was an Italian religious and saint. A faithful follower of Saint Francis of Assisi, with whom she founded the second Franciscan order or of the Poor Clare sisters, Clara prided herself on calling herself "humble plant of blessed Father Francisco." 1 After abandoning her old noble life, she settled in the monastery from San Damiano to death. She was the first and only woman to write a rule of religious life for women. In its content and in its structure it departs from the traditional monastic rules. Her mortal remains rest in the crypt of the Basilica of Santa Clara de Asís. She was canonized two years after her death, by Pope Alexander IV
She was the eldest daughter of the marriage of Favorino di Offreduccio degli Scifi and Ortolana, who was a descendant of the Fiumi, an illustrious Sterpeto family. Both families belonged to the most august aristocracy of Assisi. Clara had four siblings, a male, Boson, and three females, Renenda, Ines, and Beatriz. Her father had the title of Count of Sasso-Rosso and her mother was a woman of great virtue and Christian piety, and she was devoted to making long pilgrimages to Bari, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land. Tradition says that before Clara was born, the Lord revealed to her in prayer that he would illuminate her with a brilliant light that would illuminate the whole world, and that is why the girl received the name of Clara at baptism, which contains two meanings, "resplendent" and "famous." The girl Clara grew up in the family's fortified palace, near the Old Gate, and she had no friends. It is said that from a very young age she excelled in virtue of it but she mortified herself harshly by wearing rough bristle haircloths and prayed so many prayers every day that she had to use pebbles to count them.
By that time, the young Francisco di Pietro di Bernardone, whose conversion had so deeply moved the entire city, had returned from Rome, with pontifical authority to preach. Clara heard him preach in the church of San Rufino and understood that the way of life observed by the saint was the one indicated to her by the Lord. Among Francisco's followers there were two, Rufino and Silvestre, who were close relatives of Clara and made the way to her wishes easier. So one day accompanied by one of her relatives, to whom tradition attributes the name of Bona di Guelfuccio, she went to see Francisco. He had heard about her, through Rufino and Silvestre, and from the moment he saw her he made a decision: "to remove such precious loot from the evil world to enrich his divine Master with it." From then on, Francisco was the spiritual guide. from Clara. The night after Palm Sunday, 1212, Clara fled her house and headed for the Porziuncola; there the lesser friars waited for her with lighted torches. Having entered the chapel, he knelt before the image of the Christ of Saint Damien and ratified his resignation from the world "out of love for the most holy and beloved Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying on the manger." rough, similar to that of the friars; she exchanged the jeweled belt for a knotted cord, and when Francis cut off her blond hair she became part of the Order of Friars Minor. Clara promised to obey Saint Francis in everything. Later, she was transferred to the convent of the Benedictines of San Pablo. When her relatives discovered her escape and her whereabouts, they went to look for her at the convent. After Clara's outright refusal to return to her house, she moved to the church of San Ángel de Panzo, where some pious women lived, who led the lives of penitents. Beginning of the Poor Clares Six or ten days after Clara's flight, another of her sisters, Inés, also fled to the church of San Ángel to share the same regime of life with her sister. Later on, her other sister, Beatriz, came to join them and, a few years later, in San Damiano, Ortolana, her mother. Clara and Inés soon left the San Ángel beguinage. Thus, Francisco spoke with the Camaldolese of Mount Subasio, who had previously donated the Porziuncola to the new Order, who offered to give them the church of San Damián and the annexed house, which would from that moment be Clara's house for 41 years until her death. In that convent of San Damiano, she germinated and developed the life of prayer, work, poverty and joy, virtues of the Franciscan charism. At that time the lifestyle of Clara and her sisters strongly attracted attention and the movement grew rapidly. The condition required for admitting a postulant to San Damiano was the same as Francis asked in the Porziuncola: to distribute all the goods among the poor. The convent could not receive any donation, but it had to remain unshakeable forever. The nuns' livelihoods were work and alms. While some sisters worked inside the cloister, others went begging from door to door. Clara, when the sisters came back from begging, she hugged them and kissed their feet. Soon after, Santa Clara wrote the norm of life for the sisters and, through the Saint, they obtained from Pope Innocent III the confirmation of this rule in 1215, because that year, by express order of Francisco, Clara accepted the title of Abbess of San Damien. Until then Francisco had been head and director of the two orders, but after the pope approved the rule, the nuns must have a superior to govern them. Santa Clara always fought for the vocation of poverty of her community, refusing to receive goods that would accommodate her life. That is why he requested and succeeded in 1216 for Innocent III to grant them the "Privilege of Poverty": You have renounced all ambition for the goods of this world ... You are not afraid of deprivation ... and we grant you that no one can force you to receive goods. He signed this text "cum hilarite magna" (laughing heartily) .Daily life in San Damián. Clara, despite being her superior, had the custom of serving the table and offering water to the nuns so that they could wash their hands, and she tenderly cared for them. They say that she got up every night to check if a nun was uncovered. Francisco many times sent the sick to San Damiano and Clara healed them with her care. Even when she was ill, which was frequent, she did not omit manual work. She was thus dedicated to embroidering bodily forms, in the same bed, that she sent to the poor churches in the mountains of the valley. Just as at work she was an example for the nuns, she was also an example in the life of prayer. After the compline, the last service of the day, she remained alone for a long time, in the church.
In the summer of 1253, Pope Innocent IV came to Assisi to see Clara, who was lying prostrate on her bed. She asked him for the apostolic blessing and the absolution of her sins, and the Supreme Pontiff replied: "May heaven please, my daughter, that I have as much need as you of God's indulgence." When Innocent retired, Clara said to her sisters: «My daughters, now more than ever we must give thanks to God, because, upon receiving Himself in the sacred host, I have been found worthy to receive the visit of his Vicar on earth. ». From that day on, the nuns did not leave her bed, even Inés, her sister, traveled from Florence to be by her side. In two weeks the saint could not take food, but her strength was not lacking.
Santa Clara is traditionally represented with the habit of the Poor Clares. This consists of a brown sackcloth and a black veil, fastened with the traditional three-knotted cord from whose belt comes a rosary. The traditional attributes of the Saint are the monstrance and the staff. The first derivative of the confrontation with the Saracen troops in 1230, being the first time that it was represented with this attribute in a fresco of San Damiano, currently quite deteriorated, in which Santa Clara is seen with the Blessed Sacrament resolutely confronting the Saracens fleeing in terror. The crozier comes from having been Santa Clara mitrada abbess. Another characteristic attribute is the lily, a flower that represents purity and virginity. In the incorrupt body of the Saint, exhibited in the Basilica of Saint Clare of Assisi, the Saint holds a precious metal lily in her hands. On the other hand, in the coat of arms of the Poor Clares, lily and staff intersect in sotuer (X shape)."
(
visit link)