St. Colette

St. Colette restored strict poverty and contemplative discipline among the Poor Clares during a troubled age of schism and war.

The story

Colette Boellet was born at Corbie in Picardy on January 13, 1381. Her father worked for the local Benedictine abbey, and her parents were already advanced in age when she was born. After they died, Colette distributed her inheritance to the poor. She sought her vocation among several religious communities, but none provided the austere contemplative life she desired. In 1402 she became an anchoress, living in a small cell adjoining a church at Corbie.

Colette gradually became convinced that she was called to reform the Poor Clares. Many monasteries had accepted property and mitigations because strict corporate poverty was difficult to maintain. With the guidance of the Franciscan Henry de Baume, Colette left her enclosure. In 1406 she traveled to Nice and met Pedro de Luna, the claimant Benedict XIII during the Western Schism. He received her profession under the Rule of St. Clare and authorized her to reform existing monasteries and establish new ones.

Her work began amid political conflict, ecclesial division, and resistance from communities that did not welcome stricter observance. Colette required enclosure, common prayer, fasting, simplicity, and the renunciation of stable revenues in accordance with the Rule approved for St. Clare in 1253. She established or reformed about seventeen monasteries in France and the Low Countries. Her reform also influenced Franciscan friars who sought a more exact observance of their rule. The communities associated with her became known as Colettine Poor Clares.

Colette governed firmly but remained personally devoted to silence, prayer, and care for her sisters. Reports of visions and miracles belong to her early hagiographical tradition, but her enduring historical achievement is the network of reformed monasteries she founded and guided. She died at her monastery in Ghent on March 6, 1447. Her reform continued after her death and remains a living branch of the Poor Clare tradition. Pope Pius VII canonized her in 1807.

What Colette teaches

St. Colette shows that authentic reform begins with conversion, prayer, and fidelity rather than criticism alone. Her love of evangelical poverty recalls that religious life follows Christ through the public profession of the evangelical counsels, as taught in CCC 915.

Patronage

Poor Clares, women seeking children, sick children, religious reform.

Prayer

God of mercy, you called St. Colette to renew religious life through prayer and poverty. Through her intercession, free us from attachment to possessions and make us faithful to the duties of our vocation. Amen.