Robert Barron, the bishop of Winona-Rochester, celebrated the feast day of St. Clare recently.

“St. Clare of Assisi, pray for us!” Barron said in an Aug. 11 tweet.

St. Clare of Assisi was born in Italy in 1194, Britannica said. Her parents wanted her to get married, but she had been deeply influenced by St. Francis of Assisi and decided to give her life to the Church instead. She ran away to a chapel near Assisi, and St. Francis received her vows in 1212. Soon afterward, Clare began the Second Order of St. Francis. Many other women joined her, including her mother and sister, and they soon became known as the Poor Clares. The Order lived in the church and convent of San Damiano, near Assisi.

The Poor Clares were said to have led lives of extreme discipline, poverty and seclusion, Franciscan Media said. St. Clare became the abbess at age 21. As abbess, she led the Sisters in their austerity, not wearing shoes or eating meat and sleeping on the ground. Although Clare never left San Damiano, she had such influence that bishops, cardinals and even popes would travel there to consult with her. 

Clare died at 59, and a mere two years later Pope Alexander IV canonized her, Catholic.org said. She is the patron saint of eye disease, goldsmiths and laundry, and in 1958 Pope Pius XII made Clare the patron saint of television. This was because when she was sick and unable to attend Mass, she could see and hear it on the wall of her bedroom. Catholics celebrate her feast day each year on Aug. 11.