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235 Franciscan Studies 64 (2006) One and the Same Spirit: CLARE OF ASSISI’S FORM OF LIFE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES Thomas of Celano’s second biography of Francis clearly recognizes the saint’s affection for the female community he had helped establish at San Damiano. The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul (1245-1247) praises the sisters’ spiritual virtues, in particular, the commitment to apostolic poverty which they shared with the early brotherhood. Thomas noted that although Francis spent little time with the women, he recognized the holiness of their way of life and so promised that they always would receive pastoral guidance from his followers. Nearing death, he reminded the friars that they owed this ministry and affection to the sisters because “one and the same Spirit (1 Cor 12:11) had led the brothers and those little poor ladies out of this world (2 Cel 204).”1 Nonetheless, this positive reference to the practical and spiritual connection between the friars and sisters is conspicuous in a text which otherwise seems to emphasize the need for distance between Francis’s male and female followers. Margaret Carney was one of the first scholars to demonstrate the difficulties faced by Thomas in writing about Francis and the Poor Ladies.2 He had to show that Francis tempered his own affection for the sisters in order to set a proper example in both word and deed of how the brothers should manage their pastoral responsibilities. Thus, his promise of perpetual care was followed by a story that emphasized the rarity of his visits to their houses. Echoing the Later Rule, the biography stressed that those brothers chosen for the task of ministering to female communities should be reluctant to undertake the assignment and must be possessed of an ir1 Thomas of Celano, The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul, 204 in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, R. J. Armstrong, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, and W. J. Short, eds. (New York: New City Press, 1999-2001), vol. 2, 377-79. Hereafter abbreviated FAED with vol. number and pages. 2 Margaret Carney, “Francis and Clare: A Critical Examinationof the Sources,” Laurentianum 30 (1987): 25-60. 236 LEZLIE KNOX reproachable character (2 Cel 205).3 The following chapter offered contrasting examples of friars who were punished for being too eager to attend to the sisters, even if they had done so out of compassion or to visit a relative (2 Cel 206). Elsewhere Thomas included Francis’s protestation that he could recognize only two women by sight. We might grant this claim some credence if the Poverello’s refusal to look at his audience when preaching to the sisters extended to other situations as well (cf. 2 Cel 112-114). These anecdotes, coupled with others from the rich trove of early Franciscan sources, sometimes have been read as examples not of Francis’s affection for his female followers, but rather his antipathy.4 However, Carney and others have taught us to pay careful attention to how the Franciscan Order’s internal struggles often lie behind these representations . Specifically, tense debates over the brothers’ obligation to provide pastoral care to an increasing number of convents help explain Thomas’s cautious approach to Francis’s relationship to women in second biography.5 But if this passage in The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul acknowledges the spiritual equality of the friars and sisters, it also is notably silent concerning his most famous female convert: Clare of Assisi. Certainly , the contrast between Thomas’s two biographies is striking. His earlier life of Francis (composed between 1228-1229) had described Francis ’s role in establishing the community at San Damiano and praised Clare by name. Thomas concluded this section by acknowledging that these women deserved a history of their own – indeed, he seemed eager to write it (1 Cel 18-20).6 Yet nearly two decades later, he no longer mentioned Clare by name. Again, Margaret Carney was one of the earliest scholars to identify some reasons for this occlusion. Clare’s mutual understanding with Francis that both men and women could adopt a form of religious life based on identification with the Poor...

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