6

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THE ABBESS AND MOTHER

• The Election

• When the chosen one is no longer apt to

the service and common welfare of the
sisters

• How the Mother and Abbess should be

like

• How St. Clare governed

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CHAPTER IV, 1-14
1
The sisters are bound to observe the canonical
form in the election of the abbess. 2They should quickly
arrange to have the general minister or the provincial
minister of the Order of Friars Minor present. 3Let him
dispose them, through the Word of God, to perfect
harmony and the common good in the election that is to
be held. 4No one should be elected who is not professed.
5
And if a non-professed is elected or somehow given
them, she should not be obeyed until she first professes
our form of poverty.
6
At her death the election of another abbess shall
take place. 7If at any time it should appear to the entire
body of sisters that she is not competent for their service
and common welfare, the sisters are bound as quickly as
possible to elect another abbess and mother according to
the form prescribed above.
8
Whoever is elected should reflect upon the kind of
burden she has undertaken and to Whom she must
render an account of the flock committed to her(cf.
Matthew 12:36). 9She should strive as well to preside
over the others more by her virtues and holy behavior
than by her office, so that, moved by her example, the
sisters may obey her more out of love than out of fear.
10
Let her avoid particular friendships, lest by loving some
more than others she cause scandal among all. 11Let her
console those who are afflicted. 12Let her also be the last
refuge for those who are troubled, lest the sickness of
despair overcome the weak should they fail to find in her
the remedies for health.
13
Let her preserve common life in everything,
especially in whatever pertains to the church, the
dormitory, the refectory, infirmary, and clothing. 14Let
her vicar be bound to serve in the same way.
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 The Election

“At the election of the abbess the sisters are bound to

keep the canonical form.” Without much ado the Rule
soberly refers to the dispositions of the common right on
the election of abbesses. The Rule of Innocent IV had
declared that the election of the abbess at the monasteries
of the San Damiano Order should be carried out freely by
the community, without outsiders’ interferences; still the
chosen one has to be confirmed by the Minister General, or
in his name by the Provincial of the region where the
monastery is located. That was the logical consequence of
the dependence to the First Order to which the Poor Clares
were set under.
St. Clare’s Rule makes no mention to such
confirmation nor to any interference of juridical character
on the part of the Friars Minor. On the other hand, it
earnestly insists on the spiritual and fraternal support they
are called to lend them in favor of the “union and harmony”
so very often threatened at the time of exercising the right
of the ballot, when common good may be relegated, and
particular interests are made to prevail. The Minister
General or Provincial have here an important duty: to help
the sisters become imbued, through the Word of God, with
the spirit that should enliven them when taking part at the
election of the one to be the community’s guide.
On the mind of the saintly mother, this(the presence of
the General or Provincial Minister) should not only be a
ritual exhortation addressed by the chapter’s president but a
true prophetic call by a brother who lives up the very same
vocation and duly sent to set the sisters in front of the
interpolating Word of God till each and all be moved to
postpone personal interests and look only after the
community’s welfare putting before them the renewal to

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the embraced Gospel life and spiritual progress. Those
communities are very deeply within the Rule’s spirit that
usually prepare themselves for an elective Chapter by a
special retreat of fraternal reflection getting ready to give
way to the Holy Spirit.

When the chosen one is no longer apt to the

service and common welfare of the sisters

The Rule forbids electing one who has not professed

the life of the poor sisters. In order to understand the
meaning of this prohibition we have to go back to St.
Clare’s time. It was then of extreme importance. There
were at that time monasteries “on commission”, governed
from outside, and, above all, cases of daughters of noble
families living inside the convents, but without vocation,
served as ladies, without making religious profession, the
nuns being forced to resign themselves into accepting them
as abbesses, with the consequences one can easily guess to
regular life and to the interior atmosphere. It is then
understandable that the Saint would wish to so forcefully
forewarn her sisters against such a pernicious abuse. Were
the case ever to happen, they will have to declare
themselves rebellious. “And if a non-professed is elected
or somehow given them, she should not be obeyed unless
she first professes our form of poverty.” Because the
treasure she sees in danger is, above all, that of evangelical
poverty.
According to the Rule, the abbess was to be elected
without time limit, just as the General Minister of the Friars
Minor. This does not mean that the Office is to be for life
by right. The abbess will be substituted at the moment the
majority of the sisters gathered in Chapter may judge that

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she is no longer “competent for their service and common
welfare”. Today’s canonical legislation and Constitution
set a time limit in office of the person in-charge. It would
really be hard finding communities whose members would
have reached a sense of responsibility, so mature as to keep
in office a Superior as long as she fulfills properly her
office, and, on the contrary, would have the courage to
remove her from it as soon as they see she does not further
any longer the wellness of the community.
St. Clare, as St. Francis at the parallel passage in his
Rule, would have preferred to trust the righteousness and
prudence of the sisters. And she would have possibly been
right: were a Superior to know herself and her aptitude
exposed everyday to her sisters’ judgment, would she not
find therein an incentive to keep herself in a humble
attitude of service, aware of her own limitations and
therefore more devoted to God through prayer and more
continually open to the counsel and cooperation of all.”
Today’s Constitution stick to the common canonical
norms regarding the elective Chapter. The election of the
abbess is done under the presidency of the diocesan bishop
or of his delegate, or under the presidency of the regular
Superior, as the case may be. She is elected for three years,
may be reelected for a second triennium and even for a
third one in a row, but on this instance she will need getting
two-thirds of the votes. The vicar and the counsellors or
discreets are to be elected at the Chapter too. The Offices
of mistress of novices, secretary, doorkeeper and
accountant are provided for by the choice of the abbess and
her counselors after consulting the community; all the rest
of the offices are by appointment. The Constitutions insists
of course on the righteousness of purpose, awareness of co-
responsibility on common good, and the oneness of heart
that must prevail at every election. (Gen CC, art. 224-236;
Cap CC, 168-170, 172-178).

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 How the Abbess and Mother should be like

At the canonization Process we find a very significant

testimony: “Three years after Mother Clare had been in the
Order at the urge and request of St. Francis, and almost
obliged by him, she accepted the direction and government
of the sisters.” (Proc., I, 6) It was at that time that, by
imposition of the Holy See, she had to resign herself to be
called “abbess” and to its corresponding title “Mother”.
How did the San Damiano community govern itself during
those first three years? It is suggested by the biographer:
Clare had promised obedience to Francis and the
magisterium of Francis was the guideline of the Poor
Ladies’ life, without any need of setting structures or laws.
Clare was just a sister among the sisters, she wished in her
humility to be placed under others rather than above them
and, among the servants of Christ, to serve more willingly
than to be served.” (LCl, 12). On the other hand, faith,
nurtured by constant contemplation, “taught them what to
do and what to avoid”
The title of “abbess”, of monastic coinage was just for
external use. Within the cloister, Clare continued to deem
herself as “unworthy servant of Christ and of the poor
sisters”, and behaving among them as “mother and
servant”, as “useless slave”, as “sister and mother of the
poor sisters”.1
The picture the Rule offers of that “sister and mother”
is a summary of the one Celano puts on Francis’ lips in
reference to the General Minister (2Cel 184ff). Let us
analyze the qualities of an ideal abbess or mother superior:

1. Pastoral responsibility: “Whoever is elected should

reflect upon the kind of burden she has undertaken and to

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whom she must render an account of the flock committed
to her.”2

Pastoral care is the first duty of any person on whom

the duty of serving the community in the church falls. St.
Francis had written in his first Rule: “Let the ministers and
servants have in mind what the Lord says: “I have come not
to be served but to serve.” (Mt 20, 28), and that the care of
the brothers’ souls has been entrusted to them; if any would
get lost through their fault, they will have to give an
account on the judgment day before our Lord Jesus
Christ. (Rnb IV, 6). Pastoral responsibility supposes giving
preference, before all else, to the spiritual progress of each
one of the sisters and their fidelity to their calling, fostering
in them the renewed commitment to faithfulness. The
Mother Superior fulfills that duty not only by warning and
correcting, but above all by exhorting and teaching, either
personally or through priests or other persons who may
cause the community to progress on the knowledge of
God’s Word, on the love for Christ and his Church, on the
ongoing renewal and mutual charity.

2. The Power of Example: “She should strive as well to

preside over the others more by her virtues and holy
behavior than by her office, so that, moved by her example,
the sisters may obey her more out of love than out of fear.”3
There is no exhortation stronger than good example.
Few things demoralize a community more than the
continuous contradiction between what the leader
commands and what he does. When the “mother and
servant” goes ahead of all with her example, she does not
have to make her authority felt; love renders the hardest
demands of obedience bearable, that kind of obedience
termed by Francis as ”loving obedience”.

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3. Free From Preferences: “Let her avoid particular
friendships, lest by loving some more than others she
causes scandal among them.”
Is there a single community that has no experience on
how sensitive the sister can be about even the likelihood of
preferential treatment or partiality on the part of the Mother
Superior? In fact, what worried Clare most was not the fact
of a sister feeling herself left behind of the Mother’s
attention, but the discomfort and disunion that may arise
from female peevishness.
Among the “appropriations” that St. Francis denounced
as opposed to inner poverty was “affective appropriation” –
amores privati – i.e. to monopolize the brother’s affection.

4. Motherly Solicitude: “Let her console those who are

afflicted. Let her also be the last refuge for those who are
troubled, lest the sickness of despair overcome the weak
should they fail to find in her the remedies of health.”
There is room for just one preferential attention, and it
is towards those who are sick in body or spirit, towards the
afflicted ones, perhaps under the burden of a crisis of
vocation, or under lack of understanding of the sisters, or
under the cross of the “state of depression”. That is the
reason why the Saint wishes that she “who will be in an
office for the sisters “be discerning and attentive to her
sisters as a good mother is to her daughters” providing for
them according to their needs and being “so kind and
available that they may safely reveal their needs and
confidently have recourse to her at any hour, as they see fit
both for themselves and their sisters”. (T, 63-66).
Such a disposal requires on a Mother Superior
equilibrium and serenity at highest degree which alone a
life of faith and unceasing disappropriation may guarantee.
When this self-possession and calm get lost through
impolite manners and fits of rage – St. Bonaventure warns
– the Superior spoils the good he could do, since he shocks
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his brothers, makes himself despicable before them and the
rest, brings about a reaction in them, causes them to close
up to him and dare not to manifest their needs, fills the
house with gossip and resentment, drives away the
fainthearted, rendering them pusillanimous and no one has
the courage to inform him what ought to be prevented.”4

5. Faithful to Common Life: “Let her preserve common

life in everything, especially in whatever pertains to the
church, the dormitory, refectory, infirmary and clothing.”
Here we are again in front of a serious admonition of
St. Clare to block the entrance into the poor community the
figure of a monastic abbess, with its bearing of a great lady,
her separate place at table, seat of honor and prie dien,
spacious rooms and distinctive peculiarities of dress. The
visitors of the little San Damiano convent can still check up
to what degree the Foundress was faithful to the norm of
full equality with her sisters by the place she took at the
dining room, choir and common bedroom.

How St. Clare Governed

The line drawn by St. Clare at her Rule and Testament

is the same she had devised for herself in her service to the
sisters. How perfectly she carried it out during the forty-
three years of her “holy governance”. The declarations at
the Process of canonization speak to us at every turn. It is
her grateful daughters who speak: “When she commanded
the sisters to do something, she did so with great fear and
humility and more often than not she wished to do what she
had commanded to others.” (Proc., I, 10).
… “she was humble, kind and loving to her sisters” (Proc.,
I, 12)

95
…”she was so humble she washed the feet of the sisters …
used to hand water to the sisters and, at night, covered them
from the cold.” (Proc., II, 3)
… “she was always rejoicing in the Lord, was never seen
disturbed.” (Proc., III, 6)
…”her humility was so great that she consistently looked
down upon herself and abased herself before the others,
making herself less than the other person. (Proc., III, 9)
….”even during the time of her illness she never wanted to
depart from anything of the Order. In her holiness, she
governed herself and her sisters almost forty-three years.”
(Proc., IV, 17; I, 14).
… “She was certainly most diligent about encouraging and
protecting the sisters showing compassion towards the sick
sisters … humbly submitting herself to even the least of the
serving sisters.” (VI, 2) What a precious detail! It is an
excellent principle of good government to respect and let
each one develop the responsibility of her office.
….”She was very diligent and solicitous in prayer,
contemplation and exhorting the sisters. She had
committed herself to this.” (VII, 3)
… “In so far as she could she tried to please God and to
teach her sisters in the love of God. She had great
compassion for the sisters, both for their body and soul.”
(Proc., VIII, 3)
… “She was thoughtful and discreet in her direction of the
monastery and the sisters, far more than may be said.” (XI,
5).
… “She loved her sisters as herself. If she sometimes heard
something that was not pleasing to God, she would try to
correct it with great compassion and without delay…. The
sisters believed the Holy Mother who so prudently, kindly
and vigilantly protected them, the Religion and their
promise of poverty on earth was in heaven praying to God
for them.” (XIII, 3).

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 “The sisters who were lucky enough to live under her,
acknowledge to have experienced deeply her “spiritual
magisterium”. She was a guide to all along the way to
God, endowed with exquisite wisdom, tact, and sense of
adaptation to the different personal situations of every one.
“Sister Benvenuta said that Lady Clare had taught her to
love God above all else; secondly, she taught her to totally
and frequently confess her sins; thirdly, instructed her to
always have the Lord’s Passion in her memory.” (XI, 2).
An outsider witness, perhaps a former suitor of Clare in her
youth, declared that “when Lady Clare went to stay in San
Damiano, since she was holy, she thus taught her sisters to
serve God in holiness as is seen today in her daughters.”
(XVIII, 5).
At the Bull of canonization, Pope Alexander IV
summarizes in these terms Clare’s style of government:
“This woman, the first of the poor, the leader of the
humble, the teacher of the continent, the abbess of
the penitents, governed the monastery and the
family entrusted to her within it with solicitude and
prudence, in the fear and service of the Lord, with
full observance of the Order: vigilant in care,
eager in ministering, intent on exhortation, diligent
in reminding, constant in compassion, discreet in
silence, mature in speech, and skillful in all things
concerning perfect government, wanting to serve
rather than to command, to honor than to be
extolled. Her life was an instruction and a lesson to
others.”5

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Footnotes to Chapter 6:

1. Testament, 37, 79; heading at her letters to St. Agnes of

Prague; Blessing.
2. St. Benedict had written in his Rule: “Once elected, let the
Abbot bear in mind how great a burden he has taken upon
himself and to whom he must give an account of his
stewardship and let him be convinced that it is better to serve
than to rule.” St. Clare on the other hand, gets her inspiration
from Hebrews 13: 17.
3. Testament, St. Clare had said: …”They obey her not so much
because of her office as because of love.” (T, 62); it is possible
that at the chancery of Cardinal Reginald, where the text of the
Rule was revised, would have seemed more usual the
expression “because of dread”, but Clare’s is a lot finer. St.
Benedict exhorted in his Rule: (to the Abbot) “Aim to be
loved rather than feared.” (64, 15)
4. “De sex alis Seraphim”, IV, 5; “Opera Omnia”, VIII, 139.
5. I. Omaecheverria, “Escritos”, p. 121 f.; LCl, 12)

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