[The painting above is the work of St. Charles DeFoucauld when he worked as a gardner at the Poor Clare Monastery in Nazareth.]

In 1212, in the city of Assisi, Italy, a young noble woman by the name of Chiara di Faverone di Offreduccio gave away her inheritance and left all she had in order to follow in the footsteps of Jesus according to the example of Francis Bernardone and his friars.  Clare started something new: A form of monastic life in which the spirituality of St. Francis was lived rather than the traditional monastic spirituality of Sts. Benedict or Basil.  In Clare’s community, ordinary working class women could be nuns, and both upper and lower classes of women lived together in love and peace, serving one another, working with their hands, and trusting in Divine Providence.  With the help of our friars our Order became widely known and many foundations spread quickly all over the world.

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The Monastery of San Lorenzo in Panisperna, Italy, was established in 1305 following the Poor Clare Rule of Isabella, and later that of Poor Clare Urbanists following the Rule of Pope Urban IV.  It thrived as an Urbanist monastery until 1870 when Garibaldi’s troops entered Rome and suppressed religious life. San Lorenzo was taken from the sisters.

The Minister General of the Franciscan Order, Bernardino of Portuguaro, and the nuns themselves, felt called by the Holy Spirit to return to the original Primitive Rule of Saint Clare.  Pope Pius IX also wanted to send nuns living the First Rule of Saint Clare to the United States to pray for that wild young country.  Sisters Mary Magdalen and Mary Constance were chosen from the volunteers.  In 1875, they left San Lorenzo and went to stay with  the Poor Clares in Marseille, France, who lived the First Rule of St. Clare, where they made profession according to the First Rule.  They started off for New York, with the blessing of Pope Pius IX, to establish the Poor Clares of the Strict Observance in the USA.

After a long sea voyage they landed in New York. There were many disappointments and untold sufferings and rejections before the first Monastery of Saint Clare was officially established in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1878.  Other foundations were made from here.  Mother Mary Magdalen had long wanted to send sisters to Boston.  In 1905, days before her death, the awaited permission came from Archbishop John J. Williams of Boston.  I 1906, a group of sisters were sent from the monastery in Evansville, Indiana to a building situated amid the smoke stacks on Bennett Street in the South End of Boston.  After 28 years of hard work, and difficult times, and the help of many friends, they had raised enough money by 1932 to purchase land and begin building the Franciscan Monastery of St. Clare at Arborway and Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. From this monastery alone, sisters have been sent to start five new foundations, the last in Kiryu, Japan.  On December 15th, the Feast of Mary, Queen of the Franciscan Order, we moved to our present location in Westwood, MA.  Thirty-two monasteries descended from Mother Magdalen’s first foundation in Omaha.

Poor Clare Federation of the United States

In 1960 Poor Clare Nuns were directed by the Holy See to form federations in order to foster mutual encouragement and assistance. The photo above hardly portrays the excitement of meeting our sisters from the east coast for the first time at this first federation meeting held at our monastery at 920 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, MA. We decided on a name: The Poor Clare Federation of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, in order to underline our close connection to the federation of our Franciscan Friars who had chosen this as their federation’s title. The Poor Clares of the First Rule of St. Clare in the west had also federated as The Poor Clare Federation of Mother Maddalena Bentivoglio.

In true Franciscan peace and joy, we merged at the Federation Assembly of October 18-25, 2026, to become the Poor Clare Federation of the United States. Together we wrote our initial statement to be living witnesses to the God of love.

DIRECTION STATEMENT

Impelled by the Spirit and following in the footsteps of St. Francis, St. Clare, and our American foundresses, Mother Maddalena Bentivoglio and Mother Constance, we embrace the Gospel way of life as contemplative, evangelical Poor Clares.

In hope and faith, we commit ourselves to becoming a Community of Communities, witnessing to God’s love through solidarity, simplicity, and collaboration.

In a world longing for peace and healing, we empower our Federation with prayerful support, working in a synodal spirit to sustain and strengthen our Poor Clare life in the United States for generations to come. 

“Together in hope, grounded in faith, impelled by the Spirit.”