My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the memorial and the feast of Saint Clare of Assisi. She was born in that beautiful little town on the countryside in the slopes of Assisi in 1193 into a wealthy and noble family. Now, as a young woman, she heard Saint Francis preach and she became captivated by the radical way in which he was trying to live the gospel. Around Palm Sunday of 1212, at approximately 18 years of age, she left her family home and went to the Porziuncola, where Francis received her commitment to religious life and the famous cutting of her hair.