Franciscan Women

Lauren Mazzone

While it is easy to say that medieval Franciscan women could not contribute to society, they actually had pivotal roles.  Many believe that they were the subordinate gender, but this religious movement would not have developed the same without them.  Medieval Franciscan women actually contributed much more to society, despite their need for pastoral care from the men.  Even though the Friar’s believed this was a burden, they needed the women more than they thought.  Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, Angela of Foligno, and Margaret of Cortona, are among the many women that contributed to the Franciscan Order during this time period.  Despite a weak stereotype due to their gender, their strength allowed for others to follow in their footsteps, living through Christ in the means that each individual saw fit.

Clare of Assisi and Agnes of Prague had a calling to Christ to live in as strict poverty as possible.  Clare wanted to follow in Francis’s and Christ’s footsteps, and live in a similar degree of poverty.  According to Mueller, women of the thirteenth century, “risked both civil and ecclesial contempt for what their leader called ‘the one thing necessary’- the privilege to be poor.”^[1]  The leader she mentions, Clare, took this privilege of poverty to give up all possessions, which was not an easy fight.  When Gregory IX came to power, he required that monasteries had “possessions that would guarantee its stability and ensure the quality of its enclosure.” ^[2]  Referring to the ownership of land, Clare did not want any part in it.  She wanted to imitate the struggles that Christ faced.  Eventually, he granted her the privilege of poverty, which Agnes of Prague followed as well.  With Clare’s assistance, she transformed from royalty to poverty.  Since their view of poverty was so strict, Mueller stated, “the love of the poor Christ guided them even when others thought their voluntary poverty was unrealistic and outdated.”^[3]  Clare received the papal bull for her rule in 1253, which contained intense poverty.  She referred to Francis’ Form of life regarding not having possessions, “I resolve and promise for myself and for my brothers always to have that same loving care and special solitude for you as [I have] for them.”^[4]  He clearly intended on taking care of the sisters as his own.  However, as both genders lived in poverty, conflict eventually struck.  Knox explains, “During Clare’s lifetime the friars fought the incorporation of new convents into the Franciscan Order, complaining that their growing pastoral responsibilities to enclosed women took them away from preaching and teaching.”^[5]  Even if this was a burden for them, they should have been supportive of all who intended to imitate Christ.  Christ would not have wanted to see arguments over this, but the women did not give up without a fight.  Clare threatened a hunger strike after the friars withdrew from sisters’ communities until the pope ordered them to resume pastoral visits.^[6]  The sisters won the battle, but could also contribute more to the relationship.  Since Francis guided Clare in the beginning, she spoke on his behalf in regard to learning.  She explained to the brothers that Francis’s hopes that academic learning would yield divine inspiration and devotion, which buttressed her authority to speak about the Franciscan vocation.^[7]  This showed that women had a say in the way the Franciscans continued to live, and they were not docile to the brothers.