14

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_

THE EXTERN SISTERS

• Complimentary Contemplative Mission

• Historical Vicissitudes

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CHAPTER IX, 11-18
11
Let the sisters who serve outside the monastery
not linger outside unless some manifest necessity requires
it. 12Let them conduct themselves virtuously and say little,
so that those who see them may always be edified. 13Let
them strictly beware of having suspicious meetings and
dealings with others. 14They may not be godmothers of
men or women lest gossip or trouble arise because of this.
15
Let them not presume to repeat the gossip of the world
inside the monastery. 16Let them be strictly bound not to
repeat outside the monastery anything that was said or
done within which could cause scandal.
17
If anyone should innocently offend in these two
matters, let it be left to the prudence of the abbess to
mercifully impose a penance on her. 18But if the sister
does this through a vicious habit, let the abbess, with the
advice of her discreets, impose a penance on her
according to the nature of the fault.

Complimentary Contemplative Mission

The Rule named them as “the sisters who serve

outside the monastery”. The word ‘to serve’ should not
lead us into thinking of a lower rank of sisters at the service
of the rest. Each one of the sisters, at her assigned place,
whether inside or outside the monastery, “serves” the Lord
and the sisters. Clare recognizes in these sisters, destined
to live in contact with the people, an authentic calling, and
wishes that the same directives regarding examination and
admission, established for the other sisters be likewise

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applied to them (ch. II). Even the formula of profession is
the same, except for the promise of enclosure. Urban IV’s
Rule had it decreed so.
The institution of the extern sisters was the fruit of the
experience during the first decades. A contemplative
community without fixed means of livelihood, and
committed therefore to living through work and depending
on the goodwill of men, needed of course a medium of
contact with outside reality.
The role however of the extern sisters is not just
confined to carrying out some indispensable errands:
buying, alms collecting, attending to the hospice, etc. but
has in Clare’s mind the high mission of conveying to the
world, a living testimony of the spiritual richness lived
within the monastery walls. Her presence among the
people should manifest the contemplative life that she
essentially shares with the other sisters.
For that reason, her staying outside should be limited
to what is strictly necessary. She should behave herself in
such a manner as to edify those who observe her. Still that
will not hinder her from keeping the eyes of her spirit wide
open to the values God has showered on all created things.
We know how well the holy Mother trained them:
“When she sent the serving sisters outside the
monastery, she reminded them to praise God
when they saw beautiful trees, flowers and
bushes, and likewise, always to praise Him for
and in all things when they saw all peoples and
creatures.” (Proc., XIV, 9).

Nevertheless, this sort of window open outwards is not

without its drawbacks. The extern sisters might turn into
vehicles of news, thus endangering the isolation and peace
of those who made the sacrifice of enclosure.
St. Clare “did not like to talk nor hear talks about
the things of the world”.(Proc., III, 3; XI, 5). They can
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also air throughout the neighborhood what is said or done
inside, thus causing discomfort. They might sometimes fall
into this fault through indiscretion, as the Rule says, or
literally, simplicity, or it might also be due to a “vicious
habit”. Clare binds the abbess to prevent this damage by
correcting the guilty with efficiency.

Historical Vicissitudes

The portrait of this type of serving sister that St. Clare

deemed essential at a community of poor contemplatives
was not at all an easy one. The Rule of Urban IV set a limit
to their number at each monastery and called them
”sorores servitiales”, “sisters of service/ serving sisters”,
and established a very rigorous criterion on their outings,
turning into a duty for them what is only an option at St.
Clare’s Rule: “Going about wearing shoes”. (Urban IV,
XIX, 32).
The insistence of the new Rule in danger of scandal
accuses a strong distrust about the spiritual firmness of the
externs, a distrust that seemingly grew stronger to the point
that Benedict II, on the Constitutions forced on the First
Order in 1336, bound the serving sisters to live in perpetual
enclosure, being substituted with lay women who in no way
could enter the cloister. That is the origin of the
“messengers” and an important step for the differentiation
between the “choir sisters” and the “serving sisters”, that
would later be given the odd denomination of “sisters of
obedience’.
In spite of all this, the institution of the serving sisters
lasted long everywhere. Nowadays, the Church
acknowledges in them a real calling, “not merely

175
contemplative”, and esteems them as complimenting the
other sisters in only one community.1
The Constitutions accept as normal their existence at
each monastery as real members of the contemplative
community, though not cloistered, for they do not profess
enclosure. Their role is to fulfill those activities outside the
monastery that may not be done by the cloistered ones and
bringing with them the testimony of the spiritual richness
of the monastery. Yet they are not to be considered the
same as the religious in the active life.
They enjoy the same rights that the rest of the sisters
do, except that of the passive voice for the offices of
Abbess, Vicaress and Mistress of Novices. When the
Constitution of the Capuchin Poor Clares was approved, it
was not possible to obtain for them the passive voice at the
election of the discreets, as the majority of the communities
desired; this was nevertheless obtained at the approval of
the General Constitution.
As far as their occupations allow, they take part in the
liturgical life and all common acts. According to the
tradition of each monastery, they may dwell either inside
the cloister or at a building attached to it. They are under
the abbess in everything, be it regarding religious discipline
as well as in the service to be rendered.
At their admission and formation, the same conditions
prescribed for the cloistered are to be observed, having in
mind though, their peculiar calling. Besides the full year of
novitiate that they will do within the cloister, they must
undergo a second year of probation before their profession,
training themselves in activities outside. The formula of
profession is the same as that of the other sisters, except on
the point of enclosure. Instead, they express their will of
giving themselves up to the Order as sisters assigned to the
outside services of the monastery. Regarding the
renouncement of possessions, the same canon law rules that

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is applied to all religious congregation is also applied to
them.

The Novitiate year done as an extern sister is also valid

for being a cloistered one and vice versa. The transfer of a
cloistered sister to an extern sister and vice versa becomes
definitive at the end of a full triennium by making the
respective profession. (Gen CC, art. 131-143; Cap CC, 143-
147).

Footnote to Chapter 14:

1. “Ecclesiae Sanctea”, II, 29.

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 15
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_

AUTHORITY AND OBEDIENCE AS

AN EXERCISE OF SERVICE

• Commanding and Obeying – both are

Service

• The Primary Service of the Abbess and

Mother

• The Limits of Authority

• The Renunciation of Self-Will

• Trustful Dialogue

178
Chapter X, 1-5
1
Let the abbess admonish and visit her sisters, and
humbly and charitably correct them, not commanding
them anything that is against their soul and the form of
our profession. 2Let the sisters, however, who are
subjects, remember that they have renounced their wills
for God’s sake. 3Let them, therefore, be firmly bound to
obey their abbess in all things they have promised the
Lord to observe and which are not against their soul and
our profession.
4
Let the abbess, on her part, be so familiar with
them that they can speak and act with her as ladies do
with their servant. 5For this is the way it should be: the
abbess should be the servant of all the sisters.

Commanding and Obeying –

both are Service

In chapter X [of the Rule], Clare follows the

corresponding one of St. Francis’ Rule, though with some
changes, additions and omissions. This proves her care at
adapting the Rule of the First Order, meant for an itinerant
fraternity, to the life of a community devoted to
contemplation and having a rather stable life at the convent.
But the evangelical framework of the relationship between
authority and obedience is the same. St. Francis had
termed those in charge as “Ministers and Servants”,
reminding them that they are truly “servants of all the
brothers”. And St. Clare, though accepting for herself the
canonical title of Abbess, stresses that she is to be the
“servant of all the sisters”.

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 Christ instituted the Church as a community of service
wherein the freedom of the children of God is shown in the
emulation of the brothers to serve one another “in love”
(Gal 5, 13), where far from any shadow of authoritarianism,
“anyone who wants to become great among you must be
your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you
must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be
served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for
many” (Mt 20, 25-28).
This is the biblical text more often quoted by the
documents of Vatican II. And if that is the model that must
regulate the relationship of “authority-obedience” at any
ecclesial community, all the more so should it be in
consecrated life. Paul VI teaches:
“Authority and obedience are exercised in the
service of the common good as two complimentary
aspects of the same participation in Christ’s
offering. For those in authority, it is a matter of
serving in their brothers the design of the Father’s
love; while, in accepting their directives, the
religious follows our Master’s example and
cooperate in the work of salvation. Thus, far from
being in opposition to one another, authority and
individual liberty go together in the fulfillment of
God’s will, which is sought fraternally through a
trustful dialogue.”1
St. Francis gets his inspiration from the above quoted
text of St. Paul, Gal 5, 13, to give us his definition of
obedience:
“Through the charity of the Holy Spirit, let the
brothers serve and obey one another voluntarily.
This is the true and holy obedience of our Lord
Jesus Christ”. (Rnb, V, 14-15).

180
 For that reason he calls it “loving obedience”, and at
his “Salutation of the Virtues” he makes it the sister of
“Lady Holy Charity”.
Francis cannot just conceive that there possibly be any
attitude of control in those exercising authority at the
atmosphere of an authentic fraternity:
“Likewise, let all the brothers not have power or
control in this instance, especially among
themselves” (Mt 20, 25-27).…
“Let no one be called “prior”, but let everyone in
general be called a lesser brother. Let one wash
the feet of the other” (Rnb VI, 3).
“I did not come to be served but to serve, says the
Lord. Let those who are placed over others boast
about their position as much as they would if they
were assigned the duty of washing the feet of their
brothers” (Adm. 4).

No one could be more imbued with that Gospel

teaching than St. Clare when declaring herself to be “a
handmaid of Christ and of the Poor Sisters of the
Monastery of San Damiano, although unworthy” (T, 37).

The Primary Service of the Abbess and Mother

“Let the abbess admonish and visit her sisters, and

humbly and charitably correct them.” Pastoral duty is the
main and primary service that anyone who exercises
authority in the Church must lend his brothers, and more
reasonably so in consecrated life:
“Superiors will have to render an account to God
of the souls committed to their care (Heb 13: 17).
They should be docile to God’s will in performing

181
 the task laid upon them and should exercise
authority with a spirit of service to their sisters or
brothers, thus reflecting God’s love for them.”2
Of this responsibility made service, St. Francis speaks
firmly in his first Rule. (chapters IV and V).
The exhortation and correction is not only the duty of
the abbess but moreover, it is the right of the sisters who
have chosen her as guide and teacher. Far from
showing herself offended, the sister who receives the
correction is to feel grateful on account of the abbess’
charitable zeal. St. Francis wrote: “Blessed is the servant
who always remains under the rod of correction“. (Adm.
23, 2)
Yet of course, the abbess will have to fulfill that
delicate duty with humility and charity”, as St. Clare did it,
more attentive to consoling and encouraging than to
crushing the negligent sister with humiliation. The
testimonies about her manner of exhorting and correcting
are plentiful:
“She was certainly most diligent about
encouraging and protecting the sisters …”.
She was never upset, but treated the sisters with
great meekness and kindness and at times, when
there was a need, she diligently corrected them.”
“She was very diligent and solicitous … in
exhorting her sisters.”
“Her holiness consisted on … humility, patience
and kindness in the necessary correction and
sweet admonition of her sisters.”
“If she at times heard something that was not
pleasing to God, she would try to correct it with
great compassion and without delay.”
“Great was her humility and kindness toward the
sisters… her charity toward all, her prudence and
ease in exhorting the sisters, her gracious and
sweet ways of reminding the sisters.”3
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 No other testimony could be more eloquent than this
grateful remembrance of the San Damiano Sisters who
were in life the object of the “sweet exhortation” and “the
gracious and gentle correction” of the Holy Mother.
The expression “to visit” the sisters is taken from the
Rule of St. Francis, and the meaning is clear in sense: it is
about the regional Superior who goes making the rounds of
the places where the brothers dwell and work, in order to
spiritually comfort and incite them on to fidelity at the
embraced life. In St. Clare’s Rule “to visit” means
fostering personal contact with each sister, the abbess
taking the first step.

The Limits of Authority

Religious obedience does not imply abdication of

personal responsibility, which should never be substituted
in any case by the conscience of the one in charge. The
Superior, like any one of her sisters, continues being a child
of obedience, and it is her duty to respect and serve God’s
design in each one. St. Francis had a living faith in the
“spirit of the Lord”, to which both should equally be docile:
those who command and those who obey.
Starting with the respect toward the responsibility of
the person, Francis and Clare take care of reminding the
Superiors about the limits of authority, which are: “the
soul”, that is to say, the conscience, and fidelity to the
Gospel calling. This is expressed by the Saint with a very
precise term: “the form of our profession”.
St. Francis wrote in his Rule: “If any one of the
ministers commands one of the brothers something
contrary to our life or to his soul, he is not bound to obey

183
him because obedience is not something in which a fault or
sin is committed.” (Rnb, V, 2)
Still, in the case of abuse of authority, the open
resistance to the will of a Superior ordering something
against a subject’s conscience or turning him aside from his
vocation, should not be reason enough to get away from
him or break the ties of union with the brothers. St. Francis
adds: “Even though he may not obey him, let him not
however, abandon him. And if he then suffers persecution
from others, let him love them all the more for the sake of
God. “ (Adm 3, 7).

The sister who has offered herself up in obedience,

continues to be directly and freely responsible for her
actions before God and her conscience.

The Renunciation of Self-Will

“Let the sisters, however, who are subjects, remember

that they have renounced their will for God’s sake.”
There comes now the other side of “charitable
obedience”: the voluntary submission. Within those limits
wherein personality is safeguarded, Franciscan obedience is
total and extends to “all the things they have promised the
Lord to observe”.
The starting point is the disappropriation done on the
day of profession regarding the highest gift received from
God: the free will. This does not stay annulled or chopped
off, not even diminished, but rather liberated toward a
ripened maturity. Every Gospel renunciation is a liberation
for the Kingdom. We have renounced our own will for
God’s sake, and the fruit of that renouncement will be the

184
lessening of the load of our selfishness and our pride, the
defense against our inconstancy and fickleness.
Along this line, Vatican II has this to say:
“By their vow of obedience, religious offer the
full surrender of their own wills as a sacrifice of
themselves to God, and by these means they are
united more permanently and securely with God’s
saving will” (PC, 14).

Francis, who so much exacted from the superiors their

readiness to serve, so likewise requires prompt and
unlimited submission of each brother to the orders of the
“minister and servant” through the spirit of inner
disappropriation and of fraternal self-giving. Adam sinned
– he says – through disobedience, and everyone who
disobeys “appropriates his own will” and imitates Adam,
while he who “renounces whatever he possesses and gives
his life fully, abandons himself into the hands of his
superior” (Adm 2 & 3). In his Testament he stated, as a
remedy against lack of discipline, his aim to devoted
obedience, in these terms:
“And I firmly wish to obey the general minister of
this fraternity and the other guardian whom it
pleases him to give me. And I so wish to be a
captive in his hands that I cannot go anywhere or
do anything beyond obedience and his will, for he
is my master” (T 27-28).

This is Franciscan obedience. That is how St. Clare

understood it: “the sister who will be in an office for the
sisters”, must serve them as if to their ladies, but each sister
in turn must entrust herself to obedience to her “servant”
sister as if to her lady. This becomes a competition of
mutual service in which each one accepts the place fitting
her.

185
 Obeying thus is not letting ones own initiative
atrophied. On the contrary, St. Francis proclaims “good
obedience” that of a brother, totally abandoned into his
superior’s hands, nevertheless acts on his own” as long as
he knows it is not contrary to his will and provided that
what he does is good” (Adm 3).

The Trustful Dialogue

“Let the abbess on her part be so familiar with them

that they can speak and act with her as ladies do with their
servant.”
Loving and prompt submission ought not to create
timidity before the one exercising authority. On the
contrary, the “spirit of family” is to show itself first of all in
the freedom and trust which every sister has recourse to
her. Thus obedience gets strengthened in a climate of open
dialogue, without reverential distances, without airs of a
maternal protector on the part of the superior, or the
inhibited attitude , or even worse, flattering, on the part of
the subject.
Clare considers herself like an elder sister – “sister and
mother” – solicitous in attending to each one in her needs,
prompt to any service no matter how humble, destined “to
whatever pertains to the welfare and good of the sisters”
(R, IV, 17). For that reason, she wrote in her Testament:
“Let her also be 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, 65).
But she again reminds the sisters about the “giving
up of their own free will that they made and with full
submission as they have promised the Lord. (T, 67).

186
 St. Bonaventure teaches: “If done because of love,
it is voluntary obedience; if through fear, it is merely a
compulsion. The more obedience is voluntary, the greater
and more excellent its merit.”4
That “familiarity” on the part “of the servant of the
sisters” should not cause them to forget what authority
represents to them, as the same Seraphic Doctor points out:
“Love somehow becomes sweeter if united to respect”.5
The Constitutions contain a very well attained
synthesis wherein the evangelical teachings of St. Francis
and St. Clare get intertwined with those of Vatican II on
life of obedience on its double meaning: to command and
to obey in the spirit of service under the dictates of charity.
To the abbesses this is required: zeal for the welfare of the
sisters commended to their guidance and solicitude, by way
of familiar and welcoming treatment with all according to
the portrait drawn up by St. Clare in chapter IV; and from
the sisters who have given up their own free will for the
sake of God, this is expected: obedience born from faith,
seeing the laws and orders of the superior as the
instruments to know and carry out God’s will; and that not
only in the abbess but in any other sister holding a
responsibility, such as the mistress of novices and those in-
charge of a sector of the conventual activity. It is not dealt
here with a passive, mechanical obedience, but a prompt,
active and responsible attitude; a service to the community,
offered with “spontaneous will”, as the Rule asks, be it the
exercise of authority as well as the lending of charitable
obedience should be done in an atmosphere of trust,
uprightness, and single-mindedness with the desire of doing
God’s will and cooperating to the common good of the
community. (Gen CC, art. 40-45, 103-108; Cap CC, 158-
167).

187
Footnotes to Chapter 15:
1. “Evangelica Testificatio”, 25.
2. Perfectae Caritatis, 14.
3. Proc., VI, 2, 4; VII, 3; XII, 6; XIII; XIV, 4.
4. “De sex alis Seraphim” V, 4; Opera omnia, VIII, 141.
5. Ibid. V, 6, 141.

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 16
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_

THE UNITY OF RECIPROCAL LOVE

• The Enemies of Common Charity

• Humility and Charity

• “Let those who do not know letters not be

eager to learn”

• “Total Leveling in the Evangelical

Fraternity

• Above all, “The Spirit of the Lord and his

Holy Operation”

189
CHAPTER X, 6-13
6
In fact, I admonish and exhort the sisters in the
Lord Jesus Christ to beware of all pride, vainglory, envy,
avarice, care and anxiety about this world, detraction and
murmuring, dissension and division. 7Let them be always
eager to preserve among themselves the unity of mutual
love which is the bond of perfection.
8
Let those who do not know how to read not be eager
to learn. 9Let them rather devote themselves to what they
should desire to have above all else: 10the Spirit of the
Lord and His Holy manner of working, to pray always to
Him with a pure heart, and to have humility, patience in
difficulty and infirmity, 11and to love those who persecute,
blame, and accuse us, for the Lord says: 12“Blessed are
those who suffer persecution for the sake o justice, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). 13But
“whoever perseveres to the end will be saved” (Matthew
10:22).

The Enemies of Common Charity

The theme of authority and obedience brings

directly fraternal unity in love. Consecrated life is
meaningless unless it is founded on love and leads to it.
Any possible conflict of mutual relationship will only find
solution in that interior emptiness – disappropriation of the
ego – which is the necessary condition to open up to the
brother and accept him as he is. In a group gathered
together in the name of Jesus, charity presupposes a daily
effort to overcome selfishness and the desire of being

190
above the others, or considering oneself to be better than
the rest, according to Paul’s exhortation: “Nothing is to be
done out of jealousy or vanity, instead, out of humility of
heart, everyone should give preference to others, everyone
pursuing not ones selfish interests but those of others”
(Phil 2, 3-4).
The expression “I admonish and exhort the sisters in
the Lord Jesus Christ” tells us the importance both Francis
and Clare gave to the call to fraternal unity. Gospel life is
indeed a life nourished by love. That is the reason why a
Franciscan community is in fact a “fraternity”, in which the
sisters are to feel united among themselves, as “spiritual
sisters”, by an affection greater than that of a mother for her
own daughter. Loving one another “spiritually” means to
Francis, having overcome selfishness, the “flesh”, and
having disappropriated inwardly, following the poor and
humble Christ until one becomes docile to the Spirit of the
Lord, in simplicity and purity of heart.
The Rule enumerates now the manifestations of that
background of ego worship which the sisters are ever to be
vigilant against: “pride, vainglory, envy, avarice, care and
anxiety about the world, detraction and murmuring,
dissension and division”.
On her own, and quite significant, Clare adds to the
enumeration at St. Francis’ Rule, this danger of “dissension
and division”. Perhaps she saw it appear more than once
among her “poor Sisters” at San Damiano. The truth is that
the spirit of dissension can so easily instill itself inside the
best of communities even under the disguise of good zeal,
especially through the boast of “detraction and
murmuring”. Can there be anything more pitiful than a
group of women gathered together for life under the same
roof, but devoured by mutual suspicions, factions, jealousy
and other miseries that usually sprout under the cover of
female susceptibility?

191
 Humility and Charity

A soul that is poor is also humble and this humility

renders it available to love. There is no better weapon to
win over the enemies of fraternal charity enumerated by the
Rule, in the opinion of St. Francis: “Lady Poverty, may the
Lord protect you with your Sister holy Humility! … Holy
poverty confounds the desire of riches, greed and the cares
of this world. Holy humility confounds pride, all honors of
this world and all that is in the world” (Salutation of the
Virtues, 2, 11).
Christian humility consists not so much on despising
oneself as on “regarding others as more important than
oneself” (Rom 12, 10). St. Francis teaches: “We must
never desire to be above others, but instead we must be
servants and subject to every human creature for God’s
sake” (2 Lt, F, 47).
St. Clare had succeeded in marvelously uniting
humility to charity in her manner of conducting herself
with the sisters. A fruit of that union was her exceedingly
great “affability” the sisters emphasize so much at the
Process, a trait that already distinguished her before her
change of life.1 Thomas of Celano described in 1228 the
climate of the community led by Clare in these terms:
“First of all, the virtue of mutual and continual
charity that binds their wills together flourishes
among them. Forty or fifty of them can dwell in
one place, wanting and not wanting the same
things, forming one spirit in them out of many.
Second, the gem of humility, that sparkles in each
one, preserving the good things bestowed from
heaven that they merit other virtues as well” (1
Cel 19).

192
 Clare “loved the sisters as herself”, she looked
down upon herself and abased herself before the other
sisters, making herself inferior than the other persons.”2
The tenderness of her love becomes obvious in her
letters to St. Agnes of Prague. Following her example; that
fraternity of poor sisters were doing their best to make a
reality the ideal of forming “one heart and one soul” (Acts
4, 32), “always eager to preserve among themselves the
unity of mutual love”, as she expressed it in her Rule,
completing Francis’ thought.
In the song that the holy Founder himself made
resonant shortly before his death in front of the grilles of
San Damiano by the “troubadours of God”, he urged them
to “live unanimously in charity dealing with all lovingly”,
asking them that “as the Lord had brought them together
from many parts and provinces to live in charity, holy
poverty, and obedience, they ought to remain always, even
up to death, in the practice of those virtues.”3
An eloquent testimony of the atmosphere of the deep
affection reigning at San Damiano is the most tender letter
written by St. Agnes of Assisi, “the humble and least of
Christ’s servants” to her sister St. Clare and community,
soon after she arrived at the monastery of Monticelli to
guide it as an abbess. The separation had caused her “great
distress and immense sadness and has burdened and
tormented her, almost incapable of living “physically
separated from you and my sisters with whom I had hoped
to live and die in this world”…. “My dear sisters,” she
exclaims, “sympathize with me, I beg you, and mourn with
me so that you may never suffer such things …. My eyes do
not cease to pour out flood of tears. I am overwhelmed
with sadness. I feel exhausted. Even though I seek
consolation, I do not find it. I conceive sorrow upon
sorrow, when I ponder within me that I have no hope of
coming back to see you and my sisters again.”
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 But as a counterbalance to her loneliness, she adds:
….”but on the other hand, I am very much consoled and
you can congratulate me for this: I have found great
harmony and no factions here, which is beyond belief.
Everyone has received me with great happiness and joy,
and has very devoutly promised me obedience and
reverence.”4
Love among sisters can not just remain reduced to an
interior sentiment. If it exists, it comes out from within in
sincere expressions and deeds of service. It is what St.
Clare recommends in her Testament:
“Loving one another with the charity of Christ, may
the love you have in your hearts be shown
outwardly in your deeds, so that, compelled by such
an example, the sisters may always grow in love of
God and in charity for one another” (T 59, 60).

“Let those who do not know letters

not be eager to learn”

The last paragraph of chapter X transcribes almost to

the letter the text of St. Francis’ Rule. It only substitutes
the word “persecution” for “tribulation” As a matter of
fact, the test of persecution for the brothers destined to go
around the world, of which they should be forewarned,
does not apply at the enclosure of a monastery where the
trial of inner tribulation requires as much courage. In good
logic, Clare omits the Gospel quotation used by Francis on
the love for enemies and the prayer for persecutors and
slanderers (Mt 5, 44).
“Let those who do not know letters not be eager to
learn.” This prescription has given way, both in the First
Order as in the Second Order, to erroneous interpretations

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that have strained its meaning. Some have attributed to
Francis the intention of keeping in their ignorance the
illiterate brothers, while the rest were given the means to
develop their knowledge. Nothing could be more against
the Saint’s will than this anti-Gospel discrimination about
fraternal leveling. That text of the Rule is nothing else but
the expression of Francis’ will hindering the establishment
of Studies in the fraternity, in spite of the great esteem he
harbored for theologians and men of science. He was
afraid that, were the Studies instituted in the Order, a sort
of class of learned might some day spring in the Order, thus
endangering not only equality, but even that “manner of
simplicity” to which all the brothers were called.
The deep thought of St. Francis is quite transparent at
the parallel text of his first Rule, chapter XVII:
“Therefore, let all the brothers beware of all pride
and vainglory. Let us guard ourselves from the
wisdom of this world and the prudence of the flesh.
Because the spirit of the flesh very much desires
and strives to have the words but cares little for the
activity; it does not seek a religion and holiness in
an interior spirit, but wants and desires to have a
religion and a holiness outwardly apparent to
people…. The Spirit of the Lord, however, wants
the flesh to be mortified and looked down upon …
and strives for humility and patience, the pure
simple and true peace of the spirit, and , above all,
desires the divine fear, the divine wisdom and the
divine love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”
(Rnb, XVII, 14-16).

The admonition of the Rule, then, is not only meant for

the illiterate brothers – who later, through the
clericalization of the First Order came to be called “lay
brothers” – but to all. The desire to stand out and occupy
positions of privilege on account of learning, when inspired
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by the cult of the ego, is a danger to the necessary docility
to the Spirit of the Lord. In such a situation, one cannot
reach [to] God’s wisdom.
We are not going to believe that St. Clare would have
wished to give a different meaning to St. Francis’ words.
No one would attribute her, [on anybody’s guess], the
intention of keeping at the community of poor sisters a
depressed group of illiterate women without any possibility
of associating with the rest and penetrating in their
consciousness the richness of faith.5
Let us leave therefore, the “letter” and try to focus our
attention to the “spirit” of the clause, somehow odd at first
sight, specially with our mentality today.
The “spirit” appears clearly in what follows, equally
addressed to the learned and the illiterate:
“Let those who do not know how to read not be
eager to learn. Let them rather devote themselves
to what they should desire to have above all else:
the Spirit of the Lord and his holy manner of
working, to pray always to him with a pure heart,
and to have humility, patience in difficulty and
infirmity, and to love those who persecute, blame
and accuse us …”

Total Leveling in the Evangelical Fraternity

St. Clare’s Rule excludes any inequality at the inner

group of the sisters. That is what St. Francis had also done,
since that leveling is for him an essential condition in a
fraternity inspired by the Gospel. “He wanted to unite the
greater with the lesser, to join the wise and the simple in
brotherly affection, and to bind together with the same love
those coming from different places… with God, there are
no preferences. The Holy Spirit, the general minister of the

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fraternity, rests equally upon the poor and simple …” He
called the world “the land of inequalities” (2 Cel 191-194).
Inequalities were considered at that time as something
natural and even ordained by God. Not even monastic life
was able to evade such a worldly and anti-christian
discrimination. At the monasteries, only those of noble
birth could usually aspire to the rank of monks, while the
plebeians had to content themselves with being admitted
just as “converts”, thus accepting a lower category of life
regarding work and spiritual learning; even their garments
were to be different. Saint Hildegard, who flourished a
century ahead of Clare, had it written: “We are to keep a
clear distinction between nobles and plebeians … God
himself has established this distinctions among his people,
and not only here on earth but also in heaven.”6
We understand the merit of Francis and Clare having
known how to start off a fraternity of absolute leveling,
wherein nobility, wealth and learning did not confer any
title of superiority, but at most a greater duty to serve.
Unfortunately, it did not take a long time before the
“world” gained access to the First Order when the clerics
were instituted as a class, against St. Francis’ will by
keeping for themselves the direction of the fraternity and
the liturgical life, while leaving to the lay brothers the
manual humble work and a second class life of piety. And
to the Second Order as well, when, likewise, against St.
Clare’s will, when the “serving sisters were turned into a
lower degree of nuns meant for domestic chores and barred
from the choral Office, as we have said.7 As we have noted
in the commentary on chapter III of the Rule, St. Clare did
not establish two sets of sisters, first of “choral”, and the
other, “of obedience”, but she offered a practical solution
for the recitation of the divine Office, having in mind that
there were in the community those unable to read, from
whichever social class they were coming from. That

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difference however did not create any inequality of rights at
all.

Above all, “The Spirit of the Lord and

His Holy Operation”

“They should desire to have above all else, the Spirit of

the Lord and His Holy manner of working.”
Here is one of the most personal and deeply biblical
elements of St. Francis’ spirituality fully assimilated by St.
Clare. “All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of
God”. (Rm 8, 14). This “Spirit of the Lord, opposed to the
spirit of the “flesh” is actually identified with the Holy
Spirit dwelling within us, giving testimony of our being
sons of God, aiding our weakness, interceding for us and
directing the longings of the higher part of our being (Rm
8: 9, 26).
Francis lived inwardly persuaded by the Holy Spirit’s
influence and guidance at every step of his life, and
because of it his only care was ever to be open with docility
and readiness to his “holy operation”, attentive to every
sign of God’s will in his life. He likewise believed in the
presence and action of the Spirit upon each one of the
brothers. He entrusted the progress of the fraternity to the
righteousness and availability with which each one follows
“divine inspiration” that he also called the “unction of the
Holy Spirit”.
Such a docility becomes possible only if we open up to
the Lord “ever praying to him with a pure heart”. “Purity
of heart beholds God”, says Bro. Giles. It is the sixth
beatitude which Francis paraphrases this way:
“Blessed are the clean in heart for they will see
God. The truly clean of heart are those who look
down upon earthly things, seek those of heaven

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 and with a clean heart and spirit never cease
adoring and serving the Lord God living and
true.” (Adm 16).

The heart is pure that has succeeded in exposing the

demands of the ego: greed, pleasure, selfish emotion – and
so it feels free for God and to give itself up to the brothers.
That is the way Francis wished to see his brothers:
“But, in the holy love which is God, I beg all my
brothers, both the ministers and the others, after
overcoming every impediment and putting aside
every care and anxiety, to serve, love, honor and
adore the Lord God with a clean heart and a pure
mind in whatever way they are best able to do so,
for that is what He wants above all else” (Rnb,
XXII, 26).

The charity that springs from that course is unselfish

and generous. It is not closed upon itself but spreads to all
men, even to those “who persecute, reprove and accuse us”.
“They are our best friends”, St. Francis teaches (Rnb XXII,
3). Charity of this caliber is necessarily accompanied by
“humility and patience in tribulation and infirmity”.
“Fraternal life”, according to the new Canon Law (c
602)is in all religious institutes part of the fundamental
commitment of profession together with the three
evangelical counsels; with even greater reason it has gained
importance in the whole Franciscan family. The
Constitutions, which consistently present each one of the
aspects of contemplative life as a set of fraternal
commitments, have devoted one special chapter to fraternal
communion. A community of Poor Sisters must be
characterized by the oneness in reciprocal love, friendliness
and sincerity in mutual relationship, confidence to manifest
their needs and the active availability of a generous help.

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 One of the manifestations of that unity is the joint
sharing of all at community acts, avoiding isolation and
singularity. The sisters are supposed to draw out from
prayer and mainly from the Eucharistic table the power for
that union.
By virtue of profession itself, an absolute equality is
established among the sisters. All are “sisters” by deed and
name; the abbess and the president of the federation, during
their office, receive the title of “mother”. Regarding
“precedence”, the General constitution determine: “May
the sisters take freely their place at community exercises.
At cases wherein an order is required, let seniority in
perpetual profession be kept.” As for the Constitution of
the Capuchin Sisters: “In community exercises, the sisters
are placed according to the order of their first profession,
unless the monastery chapter has arranged otherwise.” (Gen
CC, art. 88-102; Cap CC, 137-142).
Regarding “the studies”, the condition of the
candidates embracing religious life today has remarkably
changed from a cultural point of view; The Constitutions
determine that if one comes without a sufficient basic
learning, she will have to get it at the period of her
postulancy. And all of the sisters will have to cultivate the
study of Holy Scripture, Liturgy, Spirituality, most of all
the Franciscan spirituality. Each sister will be given the
necessary time for her own formation; and the means will
be provided for her ongoing formation. There will be in
every monastery a well furnished library with books fit for
contemplative life (Gen CC, art. 64, 75s, 100, 178, 188,
201-204; Cap CC 13, 20, 54-56, 62, 142).

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Footnotes to Chapter 16:

1. Proc., II, 1,3; III, 3,7,9; IV,12; VII, 2; VIII, 1; X, 2,6; XI, 5;
XII,6; XIV,4 XVI,2.
2. Proc., III,9; IV,18.
3. Cf. Legend of Perugia, 45. The lyrics composed by Francis
said: “Listen little poor ones called by the Lord, who have
come together from many parts and provinces. Live always in
truth that you may die in obedience, “ etc.
4. I. Omaechevarria, “Escritos”, p. 369-370.
5. A clause of Hugolinus’ Rule, kept also by Innocent IV, had to
do with the intellectual promotion of the sisters, left to the
good judgment of the abbess: “If there are some young or
even older ones who are humble and capable of learning, the
abbes, if she sees fit, may appoint a capable, discreet mistress
for them to teach them to learn.” Rule of Hugolinus, 5. We do
not know whether this was previously applied at San
Damiano.
6. K. Esser, The Franciscan Order: origins and ideals”.
Arianzazu, 1996, p. 66, note 59.
7. Cf. Ch. 14. It was the result of a decision inserted into the
Constitutions of Benedictine monastic taste, imposed by
Benedict XII upon the Friars Minor in 1331. Hist. Franc.
Arch., 13 (1920) 96.

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