The conversion of Bernardina's house began before the residents received official permission from Pope Eugenius IV on 4 April, 1431, to build a convent with a church, campanile, workrooms, and accommodations for professed nuns following the order of Saint Clare and the laws of enclosure. Sister Caterina describes the disruptions early in the Sette Armi Spirituali as part of her third vision of the devil. She recounts that she left the house, which she consented to do because it would be ‘in better condition when they returned’. After some time, ‘she returned with the five sisters who had been there before, and they began to put everything back in a good order … but some time passed before they were able to enter clausura’. This passage tells us that after Ailisia de Baldo's departure, there were six pinzochere and that the residence was being substantially renovated.

Corpus Christi's foundation occurred at a critical political moment in Observant history. On 23 August, 1430, Pope Martin V issued the bull Ad Statum that permitted Franciscan houses to retain property as long as it belonged to the Holy See. This reversed an agreement made in Assisi a few months before and was a major victory for the Conventual party that set back the Observant Reform. As Moorman describes it, ‘the winter of 1430–1431 was a sad time for the Observant leaders who felt they had been betrayed’. However after Martin's death in February, Gabriel Condulmer was elected pope on 4 March, 1431. Pope Eugenius IV immediately issued the bull Vinea Domini that revoked most of Martin V's changes. His bull recognizing Corpus Christi dates 4 April, exactly one month after his elevation to the papacy, which was followed by his call for universal reform of the Order of Saint Clare on 12 May, 1431. In the broader historical view, Corpus Christi represents a first step in Pope Eugenius's support for the Observant movement and reform of the Poor Clares.

The old, relatively anonymous pinzochere house had to be transformed into an urban convent with a ‘public face’ that was more visible and charged with religious authority. The new Observant convent was in part a reaction to the secular lifestyle of the Urbanist house of San Guglielmo.