Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was the crowning grace of the glorious foundress of the Second Order of St. Francis. The spot where she loved best to stay was before the altar where Jesus lay enthroned. There, prostrate upon the ground, she passed entire hours in unbroken prayer to God. Prayer was her spiritual comfort and strength. Even when sick in bed she spun with her own hands fine linen for corporals and for the service of the altar. These were then distributed throughout all the churches of Assisi and the surrounding mountainous districts, which were at that time devastated by the wild hordes of the Saracens.

Before long, the infidels came in great numbers to plunder Assisi. St. Damian’s convent, where St. Clare and her nuns lived, stood outside the walls of the city; and so, the Saracens attacked there first. In their terror the nuns ran at once to the sick-bed of their mother, who, forgetting her weakness, exclaimed, “Fear not, my dearest children; trust in Jesus Christ, and He will save you.”

Then she commanded that they should lead her to the gate of the convent, as she would place an insurmountable barrier to impede the rage of the infidels. In vain did they represent the danger and her own weakness.