Telling the story of the life of the universally acclaimed saint, St Francis of Assisi, this book explores the daily lives of Francis and Clare and the lives of thirteenth-century Assisi.

Clare of Assisi: Life, Writings and Spirituality examines Clare not merely as an obedient footnote to the friars, but as a Franciscan founder in her own right who kept primitive Franciscan ideals alive into the middle of the thirteenth century and transposed them into a woman's key. Bringing together the best of international research, the text examines Clare's importance within the early Franciscan milieu and her contribution to the thirteenth-century women's movement. It studies the radicalism of Clare's Franciscan choice, her life within the Monastery of San Damiano, her politicking...

A Companion to Colette of Corbie presents a collection of essays offering new historical and religious perspectives on the life, career, and influences of this little-studied fifteenth-century saint. Colette of Corbie, a contemporary of Joan of Arc, established an important reform movement in the Franciscan order; founded numerous monasteries for women in Burgundy, France, and the Low Countries; and had connections with high ranking Burgundian and French noble families. Essays in this volume draw upon many relatively unknown primary sources and add significantly to the scholarship on...