HolyPersons andHolyPlaces 193
Service,Citizenship,andSanctity
Asceticism was ultimately second to service. When Giovanni of Chiusi visited
Galgano’s hermitage, he found the ex-knight not performing acts of mortifi-
cation but preparing loaves of bread for the poor. Galgano asked the visitor
to take them to town and distribute them to the needy.^84 Lay saints also
proved their holiness in the work they did to earn a living.^85 The pious
domestic Zita of Lucca found her real penance in the abuse she received
from her master and other domestics; she used her free time to serve the
poor and won over her detractors by her patience and humility. The illiter-
ate Enrico of Treviso (d. 1310 ) daily visited every church in his city and
practiced mortification by night, but his neighbors knew him as a day laborer
who gave away all he acquired.^86 Pietro Pettinaio was selling combs from his
bench in the Siena Piazza del Campo when a man rushed by and knocked
it over. Rather than get angry, the combmaker blessed God and patiently
set it up again. Mortified, the man came back and asked pardon. Pietro
cheerfully granted it, recalling Jesus’ recommendation of forgiveness.^87
It was consistency in small acts of charity that made the saint. Miracles,
when they came, confirmed little acts of kindness. Omobono’s wife left him
at home with a cake (torta)—he gave it to some beggars. When she returned
home and wanted the cake to serve at dinner, Omobono prayed and God
miraculously replaced it. On the way to deliver lunch wine to vineyard work-
ers, Omobono weakened and gave it away to some beggars. He filled the
bottles with water in desperation. God changed it to wine. ‘‘Per Dio, meior
vino’n may noy gustassemo piu`de questo,’’ said the workers—‘‘By God,
we’ve never tasted wine better than this.’’^88 Omobono refrained from critic-
izing their use of the Lord’s name in vain. Charity included overlooking the
peccadilloes of others. God could work miracles in spite of saintly humility.
Maria Bella of Modena brought her son Vivaldino to Giovanni Buono and
asked him to heal an ulcer on the boy’s leg. Giovanni refused to come out of
his hut, insisting, ‘‘Ego non sum Deus’’ (I’m not God). The boy was healed
anyway.^89
No saint matched Pietro Pettinaio as a model of day-to-day holiness.
When a butcher offered him a good deal on soup bones, he insisted on
paying the ‘‘just price’’ of 24 s.—refusing the 12 s. bargain.^90 On arrival in
84 .De Vita et Actibus Galgani,ed. Fedor Schneider, 3 , in ‘‘Der Einsiedler Galgan von Chiusdino
und die Anfa ̈nge von S. Galgano,’’Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken 17 ( 1914 –
24 ): 73.
85. A point well taken by Sophia Boesch Gaiano, ‘‘Lavoro, poverta, santita fra nuove realtasociali e luoghi comuni agiografici,’’Cultura e societanell’Italia medievale: Studi per Paolo Brezzi,Studi Storici, 184 – 87
(Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, 1988 ), 117 – 29 , esp. 121 – 25.
86 .Miracula [B. Henrici Baucenensis], AS 22 (Jun.ii), 369 – 88. See also Butler,Lives of the Saints, 2 : 520.
87. Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 10 , pp. 113 – 14.
88 .Vita di s. Omobono, 168 – 69.
89 .Processus... B. Joannis Boni, 1. 8. 73 – 74 ,p. 791.
90. Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo,p. 7 ; Pietro’s willingness to forgo profit has
special significance, since in the 1200 s greed overtook pride as the most serious of the deadly sins; see