The great celebrity which the sanctity of Francis gained in the world,
could not be unknown to young Clare.--Aware that this wonderful man
renewed a perfection on the earth which was almost forgotten, she
wished much to see him and to have conversations with him. Francis
also, having heard the reputation of Clare's virtues, had an equal
desire to communicate with her, that he might tear her from the world
and present her to Jesus Christ. They saw and visited each other several
times. Clare went to St. Mary of the Angels with a virtuous lady, a
relation of hers, whose name was Bona Guelfucci; Francis also came to
see her, but always taking the necessary precautions to have the pious
secret kept. She placed herself entirely under his guidance, and he
soon persuaded her to consecrate herself to God. An interior view of
eternal happiness inspired her with such contempt for the vanities of
the world, and filled her heart with such divine love, that she had
a complete loathing for finery, which it was not as yet permitted her
to throw aside; and from that time she entered into engagements to
live in a state of perpetual virginity.

The holy director did not choose that so pure a soul should continue
longer exposed to the contagion of the world. She had herself come to
him some days before Palm-Sunday to hasten the execution of her
intention; he told her to assist at the ceremony of the delivery of
palms dressed in her usual ornaments, to leave Assisi the following
night, as our Blessed Saviour had left Jerusalem to suffer on Mount
Calvary, and to come to the church of St. Mary of the Angels, where
she would exchange her worldly ornaments for a penitential habit, and
the vain joys of the world for holy lamentations over the Passion of
Jesus Christ.

On the 18th of March, being Palm-Sunday, Clare, magnificently dressed,