Clarissa

proper noun

1. 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.

noun

1. 1

   Synonym 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.

   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.

   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.

Forms

plural

Clarissas