190 LaCitadeSancta
Lay prophecy need not deal with grand events. The pious goldsmith Saint
Facio of Cremona was staying in Modena and intended to return to Crem-
ona after two weeks. He mentioned in passing that he expected no rain
before his return. So it happened. The hearers ascribed this weather report
to divine illumination and recorded it in his vita.^61 No local prophet took
second place to the illiterate cobbler Asdente of Parma.^62 He was a simple
craftsman whose large teeth caused a speech impediment. The chronicler
Salimbene insisted that he could predict the future ‘‘like Abbot Joachim,
Merlin, Methodius, the Sibyls, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Daniel, the Apoca-
lypse, and Michael the Scot.’’ In 1282 , Asdente predicted the August death
of Nicholas III and the election of Martin IV.^63 He predicted the destruction
of Parma’s rival Modena and on another occasion the defeat of the Pisan
navy by Genoa. Salimbene admired his hometown prophet because Asdente
was unpretentious and humble. Bishop Obizzo of Parma agreed. He used to
invite the cobbler to dinner at the episcopal palace to hear his views on
ecclesiastical and secular politics. Asdente obligingly predicted tribulations
for Reggio and Parma after the death of Martin IV and then added that
Martin would be followed by three popes, two of which would be illegiti-
mate.^64 Such prophecies might amuse, but later observers of more refined
taste, like Dante, thought Parma’s prophet was a fraud. He placed him in
hell.^65 Did he have a cult in Parma after his death? Sadly, we do not know.
Christianity has produced convert saints since the days of Saint Paul.
What distinguished the conversi of communal Italy was their independent
practice of asceticism without entering a religious order, their predilection
for lay devotions such as pilgrimage, and their focus on charity and service
to the poor. Hagiographers emphasized just these features of their lives: as-
ceticism, pilgrimage, and charity; they were forms of piety intelligible to
clerics. But none of these activities required a dramatic conversion experi-
ence. If one reads the vitae of lay saints, paying attention to their encounters
with other laypeople, a different constellation of traits presents itself: neigh-
borliness, orthodox devotional practice, and civic responsibility.^66 Perhaps
- SeeVita Beati Facii,ed. Andre ́Vauchez, in ‘‘Saintete ́laı ̈que,’’ 36 – 49. For this incident, see ibid.,
46 (Miraculum 10 ); on Facio generally, see ‘‘Saintete ́laı ̈que,’’ 13 – 36.
62 .Mem. Pot. Reg.( 1282 ), cols. 1152 – 53 , describes Asdente and gives his trade, although no name is
given. - Salimbene,Cronica( 1282 ), 749 – 50 , Baird trans., 522 – 23.
- Ibid. ( 1284 ), 777 – 78 , trans., 541.
65 .Inferno, 20. 118 – 20. - Zucchero Bencivenni,La sposizione di questa santa orazione del paternostro,ed. Luigi Rigoli,Volgarizza-
mento dell’esposizione del paternostro(Florence: Piazzini, 1828 ), 23 , commenting on the Lord’s Prayer, paid
special attention to humility. Zucchero Bencivenni (fl. 1300 – 1313 ) translated Laurent of Orleans,Somme
du roi( 1294 ) into Italian; only these sections are published. On a Sicilian version, see Ettore Li Gotti in
Repertorio storico-critico dei testi in antico siciliano dei sec.xiv–xv(Palermo: Editrice Siciliana, 1949 ), 2 : 39 – 48.
Vauchez,Laity in the Middle Ages, 60 – 67 , perhaps allows the clerical voice too great a role in defining lay
communal sanctity. He is more on target (ibid., 65 ) when he notes traits the clerics have discounted (e.g.,
work, family, marriage).