Her Bright Merits: Essays Honoring Ingrid J. Peterson, O.S.F.

Clare of Montefalco 1268 – 1308 I Bear in my Body the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Clare of MontefalCo 1268 – 1308 I Bear In My Body the Cross of our lord Jesus ChrIst Margaret Klotz, o.s.f. I am honored to dedicate this essay on St. Clare of Montefalco to Ingrid Peterson. Years ago, Ingrid showed us how to look at the women of the Middle Ages in a different light: to honor their wisdom, their union with Jesus Christ in both his humanity and his divinity and to confront the men and women of their day with a life spent in dedication to truth, love of God, a life of penance. These women brought about a new way to look at God, Jesus Christ, the world and each other. It is for this reason that I chose, for my doctoral dissertation, the translation of the Process of Canonization (1318-1319) of Clare of Montefalco,1 in order to bring this little known woman and her spirituality/theology, especially her Christology, into the present day. Although Clare of Montefalco professed the Augustinian Rule and is not considered a Franciscan, there are many aspects of Clare’s life that show her Franciscan roots, since her parents were members of the Secular Franciscans of their day and her brother was a Franciscan friar. Like Francis and Clare of Assisi before her, she had an 1 Enrico Menesto, ed., “Inquisitio processus caonizationis Clarae di Cruce Montisfalconis ordinis sancti Augustini (+17.VIII.1308) ab 6.IX.1318 ad VII.1319 facta,” in Il Processo di canonizzazione di Chiara da Montefalco (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1984), 1-513. Note: this text will be abbreviated as PC followed by a number, which represents one of the 222 articles of the process of canonization addressed to the 400 witnesses. MARGARET KLOTZ 174 intense love of Jesus Christ and his Passion. Her dedication to following in the actual footprints of Jesus shines forth in her life from her early childhood until her death at the age of 40. A major part of this dissertation was not just to illuminate her life, but also to prove that Clare of Montefalco was a theologian, even though she was not educated in either the monastic or scholastic theology of her day. Therefore, a new way of looking at the theology of this period was necessary. Bernard McGinn introduced the term vernacular theology or vernacular theologian in 1994.2 Clare of Montefalco could be classified as one of the vernacular theologians of this period in history along with Francis and Clare of Assisi and many other women and men of this time. While there are many different aspects of vernacular theology which could be discussed,3 I have chosen to use the following five aspects of vernacular theology in relationship to Clare of Montefalco: 1) Vernacular theology has as its aim and goal to be a “serious attempt to foster greater love of God and neighbor through a deeper understanding of faith,”4 as well as a “desire for union with God by love and the surrender of the human will to the divine will.”5 2) Vernacular theology is based on natural wisdom, knowledge of human nature and the powers of obser2 Bernard McGinn, “Meister Eckhart and the Beguines in the Context of Vernacular Theology,” in Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechtilde of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete, ed. Bernard McGinn (New York: Continuum, 1994), 1-14. Note: this text will be abbreviated as ME in further notes. 3 For a more thorough discussion of the topic of Vernacular Theology and its relationship to Monastic and Scholastic theologies, consult Margaret Klotz, “Clare of Montefalco (1268-1308): The Life of the Soul is the Love of God” (PhD diss., University of St. Michael’s College, 2001), Appendix. 4 ME, 9. 5 Robert Hammer, “St. Francis of Assisi as an Educator and his Pedagogical Method,” Franciscan Education Conference XI, no.11 (November, 1929): 25. This text will be abbreviated as FAS in further notes. Clare of MontefalCo 1268 – 1308 175 vation, which come from the ability to read the hearts of oneself and others.6 3) The basic users of vernacular theology were men and women who were not educated in the university or monastic setting. This implies, therefore, that “men and women begin on the same footing.”7 Vernacular theology offered an “entirely new kind of sublimity, in which the everyday and the low were included, not excluded, so that, in style...