Francis and Clare: The Struggles of the Saints of Assisi

Biographer Brady (Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball) delivers an intriguing if somewhat ponderous dual portrait of the 13th-century Catholic saints Francis of Assisi and his follower, Clare of Assisi. Born into a middle-class merchant family, Francis’s spiritual awakening occurred when he encountered a leper on the road. “Surrendering to his greatest horror,” Francis raised the man’s hand to his lips and “was in that moment set free.” He publicly renounced his possessions and began serving the poor and sick of Assisi. In 1210, Francis and his followers were recognized by Pope Innocent III as a formal order, bringing the movement under Church control. One of Francis’s most devoted disciples was Clare of Assisi, a young noblewoman who fled her prosperous family to seek the spiritual life. Brady focuses on Clare’s extreme devotion and defiance of the controls church officials placed on women of the faith, detailing how she slept with a rock for a pillow and battled the papacy over the rules of cloistering. Though deep dives into church politics and theological disputes bog the story down in places, Brady succeeds in presenting a more radical, less-anesthetized portrait of Francis and Clare. This impressively researched biography casts its subjects in a new light. (Self-published.)