Saint Clare of Assisi

But St. Clare deserves more than a footnote appearing in a life of another saint. Unlike Francis, she was a noblewoman, being groomed to marry a wealthy knight or even duke, but she forsook a life of privilege to live in the same abject poverty as St. Francis and his earliest disciples, founding a woman's branch of the Franciscan Order. Despite her austerities and constant poor health, she nursed…