Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes 1125-1325

(Darren Dugan) #1

HolyPersons andHolyPlaces 203 


water-related miracles: safety during storms at sea, aid for dropsy, and cures


for jaundice.^151 Clavello the fisherman reported Ranieri’s first miracle, a


catch of fish. In the later 1200 s, when hierarchical involvement had become


more common in making saints, the papal commissions were very interested


in saints’ ‘‘virtues’’ while still alive. Nevertheless, a glance at the 1253 canon-


ization-commission report of Saint Simone of Collazone, who died in 1250 ,


reveals drab and stereotyped depositions on virtue. When reporting the mir-


acles, the witnesses came alive.^152


The good records for the shrine of Saint Zita at Lucca show how miracle


working established the cult and canonized the saint. Zita died on 27 April



  1. A handful of miracles were reported at her tomb over the next five


years. The cult might have died. But in 1278 , the family who had employed


Zita as a domestic hired the notary Fatinello de’ Fatinelli to keep track of


her miracles and publicize them. In his first year he notarized, catalogued,


and publicized some 150 miracles at her tomb. Fatinello recorded sixty-eight


of the miracles in the period from 1 to 5 May 1278 , and eighty by the end of


May. His good record keeping got Zita the recognition she deserved. With


such statistics, none could question the serving girl’s heavenly power.^153 Al-


most all the vitae of communal saints, especially the women, include collec-


tions of notarized shrine miracles as appendixes.^154 After miracles, publicity


came next in importance. Domenico of Capodistria was in jail for homicide,


awaiting execution, when he heard a blind man outside his window praising


the miracles of Armanno Pungilupo of Ferrara. He vowed a week’s fast and


a pilgrimage to Armanno’s tomb if he were freed. On the night before his


execution, a pale man appeared to him and said, ‘‘Arise and leave this


place.’’ Domenico then found himself outside in the piazza. In accord with


his vow, on 21 February 1270 , he submitted a deposition to Don Giacobo de’


Azani, the bishop of Ferrara’s vicar. Word had traveled fast; it was hardly a


month since Armanno’s death.^155 At Ferrara, Armanno’s cult was already a


fixture, but the formal collection of miracles for his official canonization did


not begin until 1286.^156



  1. Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 12. 131 ,p. 371 ; 13 , pp. 372 – 73 ; 15. 154 ,p. 375.
    152 .InSummarium Processus Vitae et Miraculorum B. Simonis a Collazzone Discipuli S. Francesci Fabricatum A.
    1252 et 1253 ,ed. D. M. Faloci Pulignani, in ‘‘Il b. Simone da Collazzone e il suo processo nel 1254 ,’’
    Miscellanea Francescana 12 ( 1910 ), compare the ‘‘virtutes,’’ on pp. 117 – 20 , with the ‘‘miracula,’’ on pp.
    120 – 32.
    153 .Vita [Sanctae Zitae Virginis Lucencis], 5. 33 , pp. 512 , 515 – 32.

  2. E.g., for Saint Bona of Pisa,Vita [Sanctae Bonae Virginis Pisanae], 6 , pp. 156 – 60 ; for Saint Margher-
    ita of Citta`di Castello,Vita Beatae Margaritae Virginis de Civitate Castelli, 10 – 15 , pp. 29 – 36 ; for Agnese of
    Montepulciano, Raimondo of Capua,Legenda Beate Agnetis de Monte Policiano, 3. 1 – 12 , pp. 68 – 102 ; for Saint
    Margherita of Cortona, Giunta Bevegnati,Legenda... Margaritae de Cortona, 11 , pp. 453 – 78 ; for Saint
    Umiliana, Hippolito of Florence,Miracula intra Triennium ab Obitu Patrata [B. Humilianae de Cerchis], AS 17
    (Mayiv), 402 – 7 (first three years of the cult); and, finally, for Saint Ambrogio Sansedoni,Miracula [B.
    Ambrosii], 200 – 207 (for the first two months of the cult). For another male example, see the records of
    Saint Antonio ‘‘the Pilgrim’’ of Padua in the 1270 s, described in Rigon, ‘‘De ́votion et patriotisme,’’
    270 – 71.

  3. ‘‘Acta contra Armanum [Punzilupum],’’ 78.

  4. On this incomplete process, dated 15 April 1300 , see ibid., 72.

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