About 1220, Francis of Assisi, recently returned from the Middle East, went to that city to supervise the opening of a monastery of Poor Clares on land donated in the nearby village of Arcella, to which was attached a small friary of the Friars Minor he had founded.
Moved by a sermon she heard him give on the streets of Padua, Enselmini was inspired to become a Poor Clare at the age of 12, according to tradition receiving the religious habit from Francis himself.
[2] After her death, Enselmini was honored as a saint by Franciscan Order as well as by the people of Padua and the surrounding region.
A century later, Giusto de' Menabuoi included her in his mural of the patron saints of the city in the baptistry of the Cathedral of Padua.
In 1693 a delegation representing the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, as well as Gregory Barbarigo, the Bishop of Padua, and various other Church authorities, went to Rome to seek Enselmini's beatification.