Description
Book SynopsisIn a work based on a meticulous analysis of sources, many of them previously unexplored, Catherine M. Mooney upends the received account of Clare of Assisi's founding of the Order of San Damiano, or Poor Clares.
Trade Review"Mooney's book accomplishes a rare feat: it is both a vital contribution to the study of Clare of Assisi and the religious worlds of which she is a part and an accessible case study of how the best and most careful work of historical scholarship in the study of religion is undertaken." *
Journal of the American Academy of Religion *
"Catherine Mooney has provided not only an invaluable handbook for the study of the Clarist rules but also a thought-provoking reappraisal of the traditional portrait of St Clare and the origins of the order that bears her name." *
Parergon *
"In this impressive display of scholarship, Catherine Mooney exposes some long-standing myths about Clare of Assisi and the historical context in which Clare lived, not only broadening the documentary sphere in which the lives of Clare and her sisters in religion are viewed, but also rethinking what the results of this increased scope mean." *
Renaissance Quarterly *
""Mooney's work is compelling and is an important contribution to Franciscan scholarship. As she demonstrates, penitential communities were diverse in the thirteenth century. However, Mooney also emphasizes that common among them was their insistence upon determining their own form of life amid interference from ecclesiastic authorities that sought to regularize them. Therefore, beyond the study of Clare and the penitential movement in Italy, the monograph also raises questions about the experiences of female penitential communities in other regions in medieval Europe, such as the Low Countries and France." *
Medieval Feminist Forum *
"[N]ot a traditional biography, Mooney's careful reading of the sources-about Clare herself, the origins of the Order of San Damiano, and the papacy's steadfast attempts to impose greater standardization and enclosure on female religious communities during the early thirteenth century-reveal a woman who was firmly committed to her faith, and determined to resist any attempts to prevent her from fulfilling her understanding of her vocation. Mooney scrutinizes a variety of sources-letters, papal documents, vitae, religious rules, and canonization testimonies-in order to better contextualize Clare and her contemporaries." *
Speculum *
"What makes Mooney’s book commendable is her meticulous scrutiny of the contemporary sources and the close reading of legal texts, chronicles, letters and the acts of the saint’s canonisation which result in a well-founded and reliable representation of Clare’s guidance of and her struggles for the religious life in San Damiano in the footsteps of St Francis and the Lesser Brothers." * Journal of Ecclesiasticl History *
"
Clare of Assisi and the Thirteenth-Century Church is a great gift to contemporary women religious, whether Franciscan or not. Too much of our actual history is smothered in the political wranglings of the clerical world and misrepresented by scholars who don’t ask biting questions (when will we stop confusing enforced conformity with reform?) but perpetuate tired old stories about our foremothers. This is the kind of thoughtful research we need from scholars today" * Magidtra *
"[A] superb book about Clare of Assisi and the 1253 rule for mendicant women attributed to her. She shows herself to be a sympathetic reader of Clare’s life and writings. Catherine M. Mooney is also a historian with the audacity to challenge received readings and provide readers with a 'new narrative'...[A]n exemplary publication that provides a model of good scholarship and a firm understanding of an important figure." * The Historian *
"Catherine M. Mooney’s study is researched, well-written, and responsibly balanced—an indispensable guide enabling a reader to navigate this turning point of the religious life of women." * Church History *
"This book is absolutely needed for its depiction of Clare not as a woman destined to be the founder of the Order of San Damiano but as a woman caught in the middle of a struggle between the papacy and the larger grassroots reform movement of the
vita apostolica." * Carolyn Muessig, University of Bristol *
