November 19: The Feast Day of St. Agnes of Assisi

St. Agnes of Assisi

Sometimes only our siblings truly understand what we are doing. This was certainly the case with St. Agnes of Assisi, Clare of Assisi’s sister. We celebrate St. Agnes’ feast day on November 19.

Agnes left her aristocratic life only a couple of weeks after Clare to join her sister in a life devoted to God. Agnes was Clare’s first follower. The fact that not only Clare but also Agnes had left the family home did not please the two women’s parents. Desperate to restore what had once been, they attempted to forcibly remove Agnes from her new life in a local monastery. Yet, their attempt proved to be fruitless. When several knights grabbed onto Agnes and pulled her, they found the young woman’s body too heavy to move. Agnes’ uncle Monaldo – furious about what was happening – raised his arm to strike Agnes and immediately lost all motor functions for a period of time. Eventually, the family left Agnes alone. She was able to continue her life as a Poor Clare.

Chapel of San Damiano, Assisi, Italy

Devoted to prayer and penance, Agnes lived with her sister and fellow Poor Clares in the Chapel of San Damiano – just down the hill from Assisi. During her life, she also travelled to Monticelli (not far from Florence) and became the abbess of a community of Benedictine nuns who had decided to become Poor Clares. Agnes missed her sister terribly while she was away in Monticelli. She did however travel throughout the north of Italy where she established a number of Poor Clare monasteries. Only in 1253 did she return to the Chapel of San Damiano where her sister Clare lay dying. Three months after Clare’s 1253 death, Agnes died herself. Exactly half a millennium later, she was canonized.

The north of Italy in winter time

(Webpage and homepage photo sources: www.wikipedia.org and www.franciscans.org.)