Aristocratic ladies were important #14thCentury patrons of English communities of the Order of St Clare, the Franciscan nuns also known as the Minoresses or Poor Clares. #StClare had died on 11 Aug 1353; #TIL from the excellent Wikipedia page that she’s now the patron saint of television! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_of_Assisi #medieval#NameDay 🧵 1/
🎨 detail of fresco from San Damiano convent in Assisi
📷 Gunnar Bach Pedersen / Wikimedia
Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law Maud of Lancaster had joined an Augustinian nunnery after being widowed, & then started a chantry college at #Bruisyard in Suffolk with Bishop Bateman of Norwich (founder of #TrinityHall Cambridge). Her newly-rediscovered statutes for that are minutely detailed, but a few years later she closed the chantry & founded a third Minoress community, where she stayed & was eventually buried. 🧵 5/