OrderingFamilies,Neighborhoods,andCities 163
Unlike processions, which always carried marks of their churchly origins
because of the necessary presence of the clergy, communal candle offering
was a lay ceremony, and its forms bespoke the sensibilities of lay piety. Re-
sponsibility for candle offerings fell to the rectors of the city, not the bishop.
At Ravenna, city statutes put the podesta under oath to organize the bian-
nual candle offerings at the church of San Vitale.^132 At the commune’s deter-
mination and expense, he organized the offerings of his knights, judges,
notaries, and officials. They assembled with their candles at the monastery
of San Vitale the night before, so as to be ready to lead the city on the
morning of the feast. That morning messengers summoned both the men
and the women of Ravenna (mares et mulieres ravenne), under penalty of a 5 s.
rav. fine for failure to appear. In Ravenna, government leaders alone made
the actual offering; elsewhere more people participated. At Mantua, the city
as a whole made one candle offering yearly, at the duomo on the feast of
Saint Peter ( 29 June). Organized as at Ravenna, the rite differed in that
representatives of the societies of the commune joined city officials in the
offering.^133 Mantua later added a second offering on the feast of Saints Philip
and James ( 3 May) at the Augustinian monastery of Sant’Agnese. This was
truly a mass offering. Heralds and trumpeters circulated throughout the city
two days before, reminding all men of the city (omnes milites et pedites et omnes
boni viri) to be present for Mass on the feast. At this Mass, each citizen offered
his candle.^134
By the 1260 s, Parma had systematized its annual offerings. On vigils of
the Assumption and Saint Lucy’s day, that city sent criers to announce the
events.^135 The next day, all presented themselves with candles in hand. It fell
to the podesta to check attendance and punish any ‘‘enormity.’’ Along with
the people’s individual candles, the commune offered two one-pound can-
dles for altar use. Each city chapel and baptismal church presented a five-
pound candle inscribed with its name.^136 The candles remained on display
in the church—doubtless the labels on the large ones did something to dis-
courage theft, an abuse Lucca had to enact laws to control.^137 The rites
of candle offering acquired popular touches. At Gubbio, for example, the
traditional candle offering became an athletic spectacle. The candle offering
on Saint Ubaldo’s feast there remains to this day a major holiday. During its
festivities, theceri, huge, heavy candles, are carried up the hill to the
town—in a contest to see who can carry the biggest candle up the fastest.
- Ravenna Stat., 356 – 61 , pp. 169 – 72.
- Mantua Stat. ( 1303 ), 5. 1 , 3 : 93.
- Ibid., 5. 2 , 3 : 93.
- Eventually offerings were added on the feast of Saint Hilary as well: Parma Stat.ii( 1266 ), 158.
- Ibid., 155 – 58.
- For these laws, see Domenico Barsocchini,Dissertazioni sopra la storia ecclesiastica lucchese, 2. 1 , Mem-
orie e documenti per servire all’istoria del ducato di Lucca (Lucca: Bertini, 1844 ), 5 : 1 : 11 n. 3.