OrderingFamilies,Neighborhoods,andCities 151
the cathedral chapter itself paid respect, coming in procession to honor the
titular saints of individual cappelle on their patronal feasts. In the communal
period, titular processions proliferated everywhere.^56 At Siena, the canons
went in procession to San Lorenzo on its patronal feast.^57 Were there other
processions there? We do not know. But at Bologna, with more than fifty
urban chapels, they were a weekly event. The processions had social as well
as religious dimensions. The patronal feast not only brought a more splendid
liturgy than usual, it included a parish party. In Bergamo, Don Galdo of San
Vincenzo explained, the canons of the duomo went in procession to the city
chapels on the vigil of their patronal feasts. They helped chant Vespers, as
on the morrow they would help chant Mass. After Vespers, there was a
supper, with wine, fruit, and ‘‘clouds’’ (nebule)—fine white rolls of special
quality.^58 The canons of San Vincenzo made processions to the city’s other
major church, Sant’Alessandro, each Friday and Sunday during certain
times of the year. The cappellani of the city joined these processions, and
the duomo rang its bells.^59
We should not overemphasize the role of the cathedral clergy in these
patronal festivities. They provided the music and gave dignity to the occa-
sion, but the real festival belonged to the chapel priests and their laity, to the
parish itself. These feasts multiplied without hierarchical direction during
the communal period. In early-fourteenth-century Verona, the confraternity
of the lower clergy had already instituted and organized their own version
of the rite. They made Friday processions to the chapel of each confraternity
priest in rotation. On the day of the capella’s festival, the priests of the sur-
rounding neighborhoods came in procession with their people for the cele-
bration. Activities included a sermon as well as food and drink. The
confraternity requested and received an indulgence for those attending.^60
Even with music, spiritual benefits, and abundant food and drink, such
events could not have succeeded without being popular with the laity. And
so they were. Saint Bona of Pisa, a lay penitent, intervened to end a squabble
among the clergy of San Michele de Orticaria so that the parish procession
could leave for the feast of San Giacomo in Podio. The procession from San
Michele arrived on time. Saint Bona, it is said, herself arrived early—by
levitating and flying the distance.^61 Even saints did not risk arriving late for
a parish party.
Clerical processions were theology in motion; when the whole city itself
marched, this was political theory on the move. Towering in importance
- See Cattaneo, ‘‘Spazio ecclesiale,’’Pievi e parrocchie,ed. Erba et al, 1 : 473 , on the popularity of such
rites during the 1200 s.
57 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 384 ,p. 346. - ‘‘Instrumentum Litis’’ (September 1187 ), 3. 28 ,p. 173 ; on thenebule,see ibid., 111 n. 331.
- Ibid. (September 1187 —Galdo, primicerio of S. Vincenzo), 3. 28 ,p. 170 ; 5 ,p. 201.
- Rigon, ‘‘Congregazioni,’’ 16.
61 .Vita [Sanctae Bonae Virginis Pisanae], 3. 32 ,p. 150.