The first of these episodes took place on a Friday morning in September 1240. Mercenary soldiers scaled the walls of San Damiano, intent on pillaging the monastery before beginning their attack on Assisi. St. Clare, although seriously ill, had the Blessed Sacrament brought down to the door, where she prostrated herself before the Lord, begging Him to defend her community. The Sisters supporting her heard the voice of a little child saying, I will always take care of you. After receiving our Lord's assurance that He would also defend the city, the Seraphic Mother turned to her weeping daughters and bade them not to fear_ Suddenly the soldiers who had so boldly clambered over the enclosure walls retreated, without harming the Sisters, the monastery or the city.
A short time later, in June 1241,
Vitale d'Aversa, an ambitious captain of the imperial army, began a
campaign of slaughter and destruction intended to culminate with the
capture of Assisi. On learning that the enemy forces were nearing the city
gates, St. Clare led her Sisters in a daylong prayer campaign before the
Blessed Sacrament, entreating God's protection for their beloved city. The
following day, the imperial army inexplicably disbanded and d'Aversa was
forced to retreat, his mission unaccomplished. Every year on June 22 the
citizens of Assisi still gratefully recall this miraculous deliverance
with Masses, prayers, processions and ceremonies in honor of St. Clare.
The great faith which was crowned with such great rewards did not
spring from a vacuum. It was the fruit of a lifetime of deeply cultivated
faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In the
monastery of San Damiano,
Jesus was contemplated with spousal
affection in the Eucharist.
Pope Benedict XVI,
Letter for the 86 Centenary of the Consecration of St Clare Day and night. Clare could he found
prostrate before the Tabernacle, adoring, praising, loving, entreating her
beloved Lord. The Sisters saw bow reverently — and often with tears — the
Lady Clare approached the Eucharistic table.
She feared Him no less in
the Holy Sacrament than ruling heaven and earth, one of them remarked
during the Process for Clare's canonization. Her Eucharistic faith was
also expressed in very practical ways. Even on her sickbed, Clare spun
fine linen which her Sisters then sewed into corporals and other altar
accessories for the churches in the area around Assisi. There was even a
Eucharistic tenor to some of the miracles wrought through the Seraphic
Mother's intercession — as when a halt loaf of bread multiplied into fifty
good portions to feed her hungry community,
O woman, great is your faith! Our Lord exclaimed to the
woman who pleaded, humbly and persistently, for the deliverance of her
child. Recalling the strength, the persistence and the ardor of the
Eucharistic faith of St. Clare, the same exclamation readily comes to
mind: O woman, great is your faith.
Her witness
of great faith invites us to become people of an ever-growing faith in the
Eucharistic Presence of Jesus and to allow that "Eucharistic amazement" to
shape and transform our prayer, our participation in the liturgy and our
daily lives.
Great faith deserves great rewards, St. Bernard once declared. We see this verified in the life of St. Clare when God dramatically repaid her great faith in His Son's Eucharistic Presence with two miracles of liberation and deliverance.
There
are two episodes in which, with the strength of her faith
and with the humility of
prayer, Clare succeeded in freeing
the city of Assisi and
(her) monastery from the danger of destruction,
Pope St.
John Paul II Letter for the
750th anniversary of the Death of St. Clare
