clarissa

plural clarissas

1. CatholicismAlternative letter-case form of Clarissa: a nun of the Order of Saint Clare.

   1 more example

   […] all these obscene references of a sexual nature punctuate the ritualistic prodigality of the Northeast and its winter cycle, and if in the main popular qualification of the character of the clarissa nun called Maria Ermelinda Correia, the composer of the sweet in the mouth of the people, as an expression of her overblown greediness.

   2020, Richardo Ferreira de Almeida et al., “Popular Sweets in Douro Valley”, in Advances in Tourism, Technology, and Systems, page 188

1. A female given name from Latin or Italian.

   My wife's maiden name—Unmarried name, I should rather say […] was Harlowe—Clarissa Harlowe—you heard me call her my Clarissa— I did—but I thought it to be a feigned or a love-name, said Miss Rawlins. […] No—it was her real name, I said.

   1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa

plural Clarissas · alternative clarissa

1. CatholicismSynonym of Poor Clare: a nun of the Order of Saint Clare.

   Following Francis' example, Clare founded an order of religious women known as the Poor Ladies of Assisi (like Francis' Poor Men), and later as the Clarissas or Poor Clares in her honor.

   1991, Thomas Head, “Clare of Assisi”, in An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers

   2 more examples

   In the protomonastero of Santa Chiara in Assisi, erected from the outset for the Clarissas, however, equally frequent changes and modifications in the location of the nuns' choir suggest that there were still uncertainties as to the best place for it.

   1992, Caroline A. Bruzelius, “Hearing Is Believing: Clarissan Architecture, ca. 1213–1340”, in Gesta, volume 31, number 2, page 85

   The rule of Urban IV also clarified the nomenclature of the Clarissas, with the pope designating the group as the Order of St. Claire rather than Poor Ladies, or Poor Recluses, of San Damiano.

   1995, Caroline A. Bruzelius, “Queen Sancia of Mallorca and the Convent Church of Sta. Chiara in Naples”, in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, volume 40, page 75

   Synonyms: Poor Clare