St Clare of Assisi volume 1

The richness we see in Clarian studies today has culminated in Frances Teresa Downing’s five-volume study of St Clare published first in the US and now available in these handsome volumes published in England by Franciscan Publishing.

The structure underlying this volume are the four Letters of St Clare to St Agnes of Prague and Sr Frances Teresa’s ongoing work to render a good English translation has been supported and given heft by her additional volumes on The Context of Her Life, The Charism, and two volumes on The Spirituality of Her Letters. Add to all of this an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of Clare and the fact that Frances Teresa is a Poor Clare who has lived most of her life trying to live out the life and Rule of St Clare, and one sees the level of competence in a writer like Sr Frances Teresa. She is, as well, not just a scholar but a writer who is easy to read and who has honed her writing skills in other publications before this major project.

Even a casual skimming of the contents pages to these volumes shows how broad and deep are the subjects Sr Frances Teresa opens up for us, from chronologies to architectures, to biographies of people in Clare’s world, to mysticism and mystical writing as a genre, to the subtleties of Clare’s writing style, to in-depth studies of Clare’s charism, to Clare’s struggles with the papacy over the reign of five Popes, including and especially with Gregory IX, to the eventual approval of her request for the ‘Privilege of Poverty’ from Pope Alexander IV which she received on her deathbed.

Here is a cornucopia of Clare’s life and legacy, her Rule of Life and her spirituality, and her emerging image as one of the great founders of mediaeval women’s communities.Having worked with Sr Frances Teresa for ten years and having seen first-hand her dedication to Franciscan Sources, and having read her writings extensively, I heartily recommend these five volumes to anyone interested in St Clare and her world.

Murray Bodo OFM

It would surprise me to learn that there was a Poor Clare in the English speaking world who knew more about St Clare than Sr Frances Teresa. Her writing is a gift to us all, in the Order in Britain and further afield. She has a gift for seeing how things link together. It is this gift, along with her linguistic ability and more than fifty years of living Poor Clare life, which make these books so valuable for the Franciscan world. I hope all who read them are able to breathe the spirit of Francis and Clare through them.

Patricia Howes OSC