Literary Texts and the Lives of Thirteenth-Century Women Religious: The Letters of Clare of Assisi

Four letters by Clare of Assisi (1193/1194-1253) survive. These letters allow us to hear a voice belonging to a group – women – marginalized in the medieval literary canon. At the same time, because they were written, in part, to help guide the lives of their readers, the letters offer rare insight into the spiritual and emotional lives of a number of thirteenth-century women religious. While the letters have been studied by historians of religion, little attention has been paid to them as literary texts. This article argues that Clare acts as a liturgist (a typically male role), inserting liturgical texts of her own composition into her letters. Clare employs these liturgical texts – carefully crafted pieces of poetic prose – in multiple ways. Clare’s letters thus offer new perspectives on wider questions concerning female literary activity and religious authority, the liturgical functions of texts that critics often view as non-liturgical, and the relation of texts, lived practices, and the shaping of individual and communal identity.