Saint Clare Repels Invaders Nonviolently

The Miracles of Her Prayer
First: The Saracens Are Miraculously Put to Flight

The Legend of saint clare, Chapter XIV

I would like to recount the great things of [Saint Clare’s] prayers with as much fidelity to the truth as they merit in veneration.

The Spoleto Valley more often drank of the chalice of wrath (Rv 14:10) because of that scourge the Church had to endure in various parts of the world under Frederick the Emperor. (Footnote a.)  In it there was a battle array of soldiers and Saracen archers swarming like bees at the imperial command to depopulate its villages and to spoil its cities. Once when the fury of the enemy pressed upon Assisi, a city dear to the Lord, and the army was already near its gates, the Saracens…rushed upon San Damiano, [entered] the confines of the place and even the enclosure of the virgins. The hearts of the ladies melted with fear; their voices trembled with it, and they brought their tears to their mother. She, with an undaunted heart, ordered that she be brought, sick as she was, to the door and placed there before the enemy, while the silver pyx enclosed in ivory in which the Body of the Holy of Holies [the Eucharistic host] was most devotedly reserved, preceded her.

When she had thoroughly prostrated herself to the Lord in prayer, she said to her Christ with tears [in her eyes]: "Look, my Lord, do you wish to deliver into the hands of pagans your defenseless servants whom You have nourished with Your own love? Lord, I beg You, defend these Your servants whom I am not able to defend at this time." Suddenly a voice from the mercy-seat of new grace, as if of a little child, resounded in her ears: "I will always defend you. "My Lord, she said, "please protect this city which for Your love sustains us." And the Lord said to her: "It will suffer afflictions, but will be defended by my protection."

Then the virgin, raising her tear-filled face, comforted the weeping [sisters], saying: "My dear children, I guarantee, you will not suffer any harm. Just have confidence in Christ." Without delay, the subdued boldness of those [attackers] began immediately to be alarmed. They were driven away by the power of the one who was praying, departing in haste over those walls which they had scaled.

Immediately Clare advised those who had heard the voice mentioned above, saying eagerly [to them]: "Dearest children, be careful not to reveal in any way that voice to anyone while I am [still] in the body."

That Other Miracle of the Liberation of the City

The Legend of saint clare, Chapter XV

Another time Vitalis d'Aversa, captain of an imperial army, a man craving glory and bold in battle, directed that army against Assisi. He stripped the land of trees, devastated the entire countryside, and so settled down to besiege the city.  He declared with threatening words that he would in no way withdraw until he had taken possession of that city.  It had already come to the point that danger to the city was feared imminent.

When Clare, the servant of Christ, heard this, she was profoundly grieved, called her sisters around her, and said: "Dearest children, every day we receive many good things from that city. It would be terrible if, at a proper time, we did not help it, as we now can." She commanded that some ashes be brought and that the sisters bare their heads. First she scattered a lot of ashes over her own head and then placed them on the heads of those sisters. "Go to our Lord," she said, "and with all your heart beg for the liberation of the city."

Why should I narrate the details? Why describe again the tears of the virgins, their impassioned prayers? On the following morning, the merciful God brought about a happy ending to the trial (1 Cor 10:13) so that, after the entire army had been dispersed, the proud man departed contrary to his vow and never again disturbed that land. 12A little while afterward that leader of war was cut down by the sword.

FootnotES

 a. Cf. Process II:20, n. a., p. 154. The episode concerning the attack upon San Damiano by the “Saracens,” a band of Moslem soldiers of fortune or mercenaries in the pay of Frederick II (1210/15-1250), appears frequently in the Act of the Process (III:18; IV:14; VI:10; VII:6: IX:2; X:9; XII:8: XIII:9; XIV:3). It is one of the few incidents that can be dated with certainty: a Friday in September, 1230, at about the hour of Tierce. What is curious, however, is that no historical record of this episode can be found. (Cf. Ezio Franceschini, “S. Chiara e i Saraceni,” Chiara d’Assisi, Rassegna del Protomonastero 1 (1953): 147-157; “I due asalti dei Saraceni a San Damiano e ad Assisi,” Aevum XXVII (1953): 289-306.)

What is “The Act of the Process”? “The investigation prior to [Saint Clare’s] canonization was conducted with clear legal protocols. The document of this investigation has been called simply, “The Process.” In it we read the firsthand accounts of sisters who lived with her and citizens in Assisi who knew her and her family. This record gives us the official sources for her story as distinct from those tales that depended upon folklore and oral transmission.” Source: Margaret Carney OSF, Light of Assisi: The Story of Saint Clare [Franciscan Media, Kindle Edition, 2021], pp. 70-71.) 

b.    Iconography often depicts Clare holding a monstrance, which is not verified here. This iconography, however, may well reflect a trend that has its roots in 13th century feminine mystical experience according to the study of Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982), especially “Women Mystics and the Clericalization of the Church,” 247-262. Source: Margaret Carney OSF, Light of Assisi: The Story of Saint Clare [Franciscan Media, Kindle Edition, 2021], p. 69).