N. Diotallevi*
Saint Clare Drives Back the Saracens
1912
Church of St. Clare, Assisi
This incident is narrated in Thomas of Celano's Life of St. Clare, pages 36-38. Troops of Frederick II were besieging the convent, so Clare took the Eucharistic Host with her in a casket to the door where the soldiers were trying to beat their way in. She then lay prostrate on the floor and prayed for God's protection. Immediately the enemies were struck with fear and retreated from the city.
The artist has heightened the drama of the event by having St. Clare stand at the head of her sisters rather than lie prostrate, and by putting the host not in a box but in a monstrance that she holds high above the troops. Thus it seems as if the light from the host is the cause of their fear, which the author emphasizes by having one of the horses jump out of the picture frame.
Frederick's troops were Saracen mercenaries, so the artist gives the man on the leaping horse a battle standard with crescent moons on the top and banner.
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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.