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Raimondo Palmerio of Piacenza (ca. 1140 – 1200 ) was able to initiate his life
of penance and the first of his many pilgrimages only after God had freed
him from his wife.^33
For lay men and women, penance often began with pilgrimage. One
might choose the career of a holy person, but convention required that God
accept the choice. So many took to the road, seeking ratification of their
conversion. No extravagant portent was required. God might respond to
prayer by unlocking the door so a pilgrim could visit the catacombs while in
Rome. Or he might provide an unexpected opportunity to hear Mass at the
altar containing the relics of Peter and Paul in the Vatican. He did both for
Giacomo Salomone, and that was enough.^34 The father of Bona of Pisa
( 1156 – 1207 ) abandoned her at the age of three to go on pilgrimage to the
Holy Land. When she came of age, Bona went to Jerusalem herself, inspired
by a vision. Jesus Christ ratified her conversion to penance by appearing to
her in a dream, breathing into her mouth, and saying, ‘‘Receive the Holy
Spirit.’’^35 Although a woman, she made pilgrimages throughout the world
for the rest of her life.^36 In the church of the Holy Sepulcher, Ranieri
stripped himself of his clothing as a sign of conversion, a gesture that prefig-
ured the later conversion of Francis of Assisi.^37 Pisa adopted both as patrons,
which counted as canonization in the maritime republic. Lay saints enjoyed
similar freedom and mobility after conversion. Gualtiero of Lodi (d. 1223 /
24 ) locked himself up as an anchorite at the hospital of San Bartolomeo, but
he continued to leave and go on pilgrimage when the urge hit him.^38 For lay
saints, pilgrimage decisively separated them from their past sins, much as
entry into a religious order signaled a new life for clerics. Bona and Ranieri’s
travels, facilitated by Pisa’s commercial links to the Levant, replaced the
monastic novitiate.^39
Pilgrimage marked conversion, not sanctity. Saint Gualfardo of Verona
(d. 1127 ) was the earliest communal lay saint.^40 He arrived in Italy as a Ger-
man pilgrim; his name is probably an Italianization of the GermanWall-
fahrer—‘‘pilgrim.’’ He earned his reputation for holiness only after settling
- Rufino of Piacenza,Vita et Miracula B. Raymundi Palmarii, 1. 7 ,AS 33 (Jul.vi), 646 ; 5. 20 [i.e., 2. 20 ],
p. 648 ; on Raimondo Palmerio and his vita, see Luigi Canetti,Gloriosa Civitas: Culto dei santi e societacittadina a Piacenza nel Medioevo(Bologna: Patron, 1993 ), 167 – 227. Vauchez, ‘‘Nouveaute ́,’’ 72 – 73 , suggests that the
frequency with which deaths of family members cleared the way for entrance into a life of penance shows
a tension between sanctity and married life.
34 .Vita [Beati Jacobi Veneti Ordinis Praedicatorum], 3. 16 – 17 ,AS 20 (Mayvii), 457.
35 .Vita [Sanctae Bonae Virginis Pisanae], 1. 9 ,p. 145. - Contrary to later tradition, Bona was never a Franciscan nun or affiliated with the mendicants,
although it is recorded that she prophesied the coming of the Dominicans:Vitae Fratrum Ordinis Praedica-
torum, 1. 2 , ed. Benedict Maria Reichart, MOPH 1 (Louvain: Charpentier & Schoonjans, 1896 ), 12 – 13. - On Ranieri’s conversion, see Morris, ‘‘San Ranieri of Pisa,’’ 592.
- Bongiovanni of Lodi,Vita Beati Gualterii Confessoris,ed. and trans. Alessandro Caretta, 7 , in ‘‘La
vita di s. Gualtiero di Lodi,’’Archivio storico lodigiano 88 ( 1968 ): 20 ; on Saint Gualtiero, see Vauchez,Laity
in the Middle Ages, 57 – 58. - On their pilgrimages, see Vauchez, ‘‘Reliquie, santi e santuari,’’ 478 – 79.
- On Gualfardo, see Vauchez,Laity in the Middle Ages, 54.