On March 4 in Matelica (MC - Italy) the funeral of Sister Chiara Augusta Lainati, OSC, esteemed philologist and scholar of the writings of St. Clare and St. Francis, was celebrated.
Born in 1939, she studied and obtained a doctorate in classical philology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, with the thesis "Studies on St. Clare of Assisi", whose supervisor was Professor Ezio Franceschini, Dean of the faculty and an important medievalist. Two weeks later she entered the Protomonastery of St. Clare of Assisi: she took the habit of the Poor Sisters of St. Clare on the 21st January, 1963, made her First Profession on the 19thApri, 1964 and her solemn profession on the 20th April, 1967.
Sister Chiara Augusta continued her studies and research on Franciscan-Clarian spirituality, so much so that she was invited to numerous conferences and publications on the subject.
Amongst her many works are the Spiritual Themes from the Writings of the Second Franciscan Order (1970); she was in charge of the second section of the Franciscan Sources, dedicated to the biographies and writings of St. Clare (1977). She was responsible for the creation of a magazine of the Poor Clares, Forma Sororum, which she edited for about thirty years, thus achieving and supporting the Franciscan formation of Italian monasteries and the world. In 1977, together with Br Giovanni Boccali, OFM, she discovered the "Audite Poverelle," that is, the writing in the vernacular that Francis, on his deathbed, sent to Clare and her community of San Damiano. She also worked on the drafting of the new General Constitutions of the Order of the Poor Sisters of St. Clare in 1988.
In her religious life she was involved in the animation and formation of young women in various monasteries, including S. Maria di Monteluce in St. Erminio and St. Agnese in Perugia, St. Lucia in Città della Pieve, Buon Gesù in Orvieto, continuing at the same time to devote herself to the reception and vocational orientation of many young people and people, including friars, who recognized in her the gift of a great spiritual motherhood.
Since 2001 she had been living in the monastery of Matelica, where was affected by various illnesses. She returned to the Father's house on the 2nd March , the feast of St. Agnes of Prague, the princess of Bohemia and correspondent of St. Clare.
Amongst her numerous studies and publications, the "Spiritual Themes from the Writings of the Second Franciscan Order" and a life of St. Clare continuously reprinted and translated into many languages.
We entrust her to the eternal love of the Lord, grateful for having had the precious gift of Sister Chiara Augusta.
"You have given me a woman's heart, Lord,
A warm and anxious heart,
Made to love and be loved:
A heart that suggests the warmth of a home
And the joyful laughter of children
and deep, brown gazes that rest tenderly on the children."
(From the "Cloistered Maternity" by Sr. Chiara Augusta Lainati)
With the contribution of Br Pietro Messa, OFM: Those unpublished words of Francis to the ' Poor Ladies’, published in L'Osservatore Romano on the 4th March, 2024.
