Following the tradition of the Order of St. Clare, our community of Poor Clares of the Immaculate, leading a fully contemplative life, professes the Rule of St. Clare of Assisi (confirmed by Innocent IV). Moreover, in addition to the evangelical counsels (chastity, poverty and obedience), we make two other vows: the cloister and the vow of consecration to the Immaculate.

In our contemplation we never separate Christ from the “Most holy Queen, holy Lady, Mother of God, Mary”. Just as she “carried Christ materially in her womb, we too, following in his footsteps, especially in humility and poverty, will spiritually carry him in a chaste and virginal body and contain within us the One from whom the whole universe is contained” (3 Lag 2425). 

In the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, the Sisters strive to conform themselves ever more to Her and, according to the intuition of St. Maximilian Kolbe, commit themselves to be “carried in Her womb” in order to “be reborn according to the form of Jesus Christ” (SK 1295), to be Christified by Her.

The particular characteristic of our monastic community is the marian aspect, expressed particularly by the consecration to the Immaculate, both personal and communal, contained in the vow called the “Marian vow”. Our communal form of contemplative life is essentially oblative, as “absolute property” of the Immaculate, for the whole Mystical Body, in support of the Church. Thus, living in seclusion hidden with Christ in God, to whom we dedicate ourselves entirely in the totality of love, the fundamental norm of our consecration as Poor Clares of the Immaculate is to become “conformed to the image of the Son”, in the likeness of the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, living the evangelical life according to St. Francis of Assisi, St. Clare and St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe.

Our Seraphic Father St. Francis, through his incessant contemplation of the Mysteries of Christ, has become a conforming image, and our Mother St. Clare continually associates Our Lady to Christ the Redeemer in his writings. 

St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, knight of the Immaculate, indicates as a “shorter, safer, easier” (SK 542) way, that of becoming “servants and children, things, properties and docile instruments” (SK 1327) in the hands of the Immaculate, Mother Coredemptrix and Queen. 

Therefore, the Sisters conform themselves to Christ through their “unlimited, unconditional, irrevocable” (SK 326) consecration to the Immaculate and, with a religious life of prayer, poverty and penance, they wish to sing the wonders that the Most Holy Trinity has worked in the Immaculate, bringing fully to life the Marian dimension of Clarian contemplative life.

In this way, St. Maximilian’s intention to unite his own life on this earth to the life of Jesus through Mary is realized for us. “The more we belong to the Immaculate, the more perfectly we will understand and love the Heart of Jesus, God the Father and all the Most Holy Trinity” (SK 605). Elsewhere St. Maximilian writes: “To love the Immaculate out of love for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, to bring Him the greatest possible pleasure, to fulfil His will, to walk along the way that He has indicated by example and teaching, to obtain the strength to carry out His commands” (SK 1272). And further: “this is the only way to reach the easiest and most sublime holiness, to procure the greatest possible glory of God” (SK 1325).