Assisi · Italy · Relic

Basilica di Santa Chiara

The custodian explains that surviving bones are enclosed in a body-shaped reliquary. Visitors see that reliquary.

FROM THE ACTUAL LOCATION

Look closer

Select a photograph to enlarge it. Captions explain what is shown.

The dressed figure in Clare’s tomb space at Santa Chiara. The custodian distinguishes this body-shaped container from the remains it protects.
José Luiz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo source · 19 September 2016

Santa Chiara Basilica’s facade in Assisi, distinct from the church of the same name in Naples.
Art Anderson · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photo source · 20 April 2014

Remains, figure and container

Santa Chiara’s custodian explains the dressed figure protecting Clare’s remains. A reclining human appearance is not proof of an unchanged complete body since 1253. The gallery caption retains this distinction.

Basilica of Saint Clare

San Damiano and Santa Chiara

San Damiano was the setting of Clare’s community life; Santa Chiara is the later basilica that received her remains. A building named for a saint is not necessarily where that saint lived.

The Holy See Basilica of Saint Clare

Reading material traces

The gallery shows the facade and tomb space with individual photo credits. For other devotional objects, consult the custodian’s catalogue: this site does not treat every old object in a photograph as Clare’s relic.

Basilica of Saint Clare Basilica of Saint Clare

HISTORY OF THE REMAINS

Transfers, examinations and memory

1253
Clare dies; San Damiano is the setting of her final life.
Basilica of Saint Clare
1255
Canonization.
The Holy See
1260
Remains transferred to Santa Chiara.
Basilica of Saint Clare