Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

Clare of Assisi was born to a wealthy Umbrian family and her mother, Ortolana, was particularly devout. Clare put off marriage until she turned 18, at which point she became familiar with the teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi and left her family to follow him. Despite her family’s protests and attempts at forcibly removing her, Clare stayed on and eventually founded her own austere religious order, the “Poor Clares,” in tandem with Saint Francis and her sister Agnes. Jeryldene Wood has pointed out that the dossal of Saint Clare, together with earlier dossals depicting Saint Francis, corresponds visually to the structure of the saint’s contemporary hagiography by Thomas of Celano (Wood, 1991). While the dossal does not illustrate scenes from the hagiography, its visual correspondences to textual renderings of Clare’s sanctity worked to reinforce papal-sanctioned characteristics of female sainthood.