Poor Clares' "Covenant Day"

Friday, June 22nd is Covenant Day, which is an extremely important day for Poor Clares all over the world. Not only does Covenant Day commemorate St. Clare and Our Lord rescuing Assisi from the Saracens, but it is also the day that Poor Clare monasteries around the world typically bring new postulants into the cloister. It's understandable how postulants are brought in on this day...just as Clare and her sisters must have been frightened out of their wits as the Saracens attacked, postulants also must be very frightened as they move into this entirely new phase of their lives. However, trust in God pulled St. Clare and her sisters through the darkness of their fear and so it will be for the new postulants. Please pray for them!

Below is the story of St. Clare and the Saracens:

In 1244, Emperor Frederick II, then at war with the Pope, was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, which was part of the patrimony of the Holy See. He employed many Saracens in his army, and a troop of these infidels came in a body to plunder Assisi. St. Damien's church, standing outside the city walls, was one of the first objectives. While the marauders were scaling the convent walls, Clare, ill as she was, had herself carried out to the gate and there the Sacrament was set up in sight of the enemy. Prostrating herself before it, she prayed aloud: "Does it please Thee, O God, to deliver into the hands of these beasts the defenseless children whom I have nourished with Thy love? I beseech Thee, good Lord, protect these whom now I am not able to protect." Whereupon she heard a voice like the voice of a little child saying, "I will have them always in My care." She prayed again, for the city, and again the voice came, reassuring her. She then turned to the trembling nuns and said, "Have no fear, little daughters; trust in Jesus." At this, a sudden terror seized their assailants and they fled in haste. Shortly afterward one of Frederick's generals laid siege to Assisi itself for many days. Clare told her nuns that they, who had received their bodily necessities from the city, now owed it all the assistance in their power. She bade them cover their heads with ashes and beseech Christ as suppliants for its deliverance. For a whole day and night they prayed with all their might- and with many tears, and then "God in his mercy so made issue with temptation that the besiegers melted away and their proud leader with them, for all he had sworn an oath to take the city."