St. Colette of Corbie

Colette began her religious life as a Franciscan tertiary and then lived for several years as an enclosed anchoress at Corbie. She later left that solitude to undertake reform among the Poor Clares, seeking a return to the demanding poverty and communal discipline associated with Clare of Assisi.

Born at Corbie in 1381, Colette first pursued an especially secluded vocation. Her four years as an anchoress preceded the work that took her into the affairs of numerous religious communities. The change was substantial: a woman once separated from ordinary society became responsible for guiding an extensive reform.

Her observance emphasized communal poverty, fasting, and the refusal of fixed revenues. These requirements affected the monasteries’ everyday support and administration as well as their prayer. Establishing communities during a divided papacy demanded persistence and practical decisions amid competing ecclesiastical loyalties.

She established or reformed seventeen monasteries, and communities following her observance became known as Colettine Poor Clares. Her work unfolded during the Western Schism, when rival papal claimants divided European Christianity. It joined personal asceticism with extensive practical leadership rather than remaining a purely private devotion. She died in 1447 and was canonized in 1807. Her liturgical feast is March 6.

Colette's reform required written governance as well as personal example. The Colettine constitutions received Franciscan approval in 1434 and subsequent papal approvals after her death. These documents helped carry a particular observance across communities and generations, making reform less dependent upon the continued presence of its founder.

Its beginnings also reveal the difficulty of acting during the Western Schism. Colette received authority from Benedict XIII, then recognized as pope in France but classified in Catholic history as an antipope. Later approval of the constitutions under other popes shows why this history cannot be reduced to a simple story of reformers standing outside institutional confusion. The work developed through that confusion and outlasted it.