Santa Chiara is a former

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church and convent in the city of

Rieti Rieti (; , Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina region. T ...

, province of Rieti, region of

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, Italy.

History

In 1229,

Pope Nicholas IV Pope Nicholas IV (; born Girolamo Masci; 30 September 1227 – 4 April 1292) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 February 1288 to his death, on 4 April 1292. He was the first Franciscan to be elected pope.McBrie ...

while visiting Rieti, granted the house of the blessed Angelo Tancredi of Rieti, a companion of St Francis of Assisi, to four women who wished to live as nuns under the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

rule. In time, these nuns gained further patronage and donations and were able to build next to their house a small church dedicated to San Stefano. In these restricted quarters, the order continued to gain adherents. In 1566, an aristocrat from the town of Casperia, doctor Paolo Buonamici, endowed the nun's convent with 36 thousand scudi. Buonamici's daughter and granddaughter were among the nuns. This endowment allowed for the erection of the present church, begun in 1567 and completed in 1594. The church while formally dedicated to St Clare, it was also referred to as San Stefano. In 1572, under Pope Gregory XIII, the nuns in Rieti entered a cloistered rule of the second order of

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare (Latin language, Latin: ''Ordo Sanctae Clarae''), originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and also known as the Clarisses or Clarissines, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Or ...

. The Clarissan convent functioned until 1860, when it was suppressed. however, nuns were able to remain lodged here even well into the 20th-century. In 1870 the buildings were transferred to the City. In 1924 the nuns converted part of the convent for use as a school, while the church remained property of the provincial ''Fondo Edifici di Culto'' (FEC). The facade has a formal

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

classicism. The bell-tower has mullioned windows. Presently the church is closed. Behind the main altar is a baroque organ.Office of the province of Rieti
entry on church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Chiara Rieti Roman Catholic churches in Lazio Chiara it:Chiese di Rieti#Santa Chiara