210 LaCitadeSancta
Petronio. She found freedom when the custodians covered her with the altar
linens from the shrine containing the relics of Saint Vitalis and Agricola. The
woman went away praising all three Bolognese saints and their power.^206
While the tomb provided the most direct access to the saint, custodians
provided portable objects of devotion. At the shrine of Saint Enrico in Trev-
iso, Bartolomeo of Castagnolo, Antonio of Baone, and Girardo di Narlo, the
three lawyers paid by the commune to record miracle depositions, super-
vised a stall distributing blessed bread and wine to pilgrims.^207 At the tomb
of Saint Gerardo of Cagnoli, the custodian Bartolomeo wrote out cards with
hymns and collects in honor of his saint. These could be taken away and
used like relics for curing the sick—one touched them to the affliction.^208
The perfectly orthodox practice of leaving unconsecrated hosts on a saint’s
tomb overnight and keeping them as relics was not restricted to the shrine
of the somewhat dubious Saint Guglielma at Milan.^209 The royal saint Eliza-
beth of Hungary’s body famously exuded a trickle of miraculous oil. In this,
she was outdone by the poor serving girl of Lucca: streams of oil gushed
from the tomb of Saint Zita. Clergy and laity mopped it up and carried it
away.^210 What the saint did not provide, the shrine custodians could. At the
shrine of Saint Giovanni Buono, the custodians dipped his relics in water
and distributed that to the faithful. At the shrine of Saint Gerardo of Cag-
noli, they added rose essence to the infusion. At the tomb of Saint Simone
of Collazone, Catarinuccia of Spoleto received a cure for cataracts by rinsing
her eyes with water used to wash the tomb.^211 No saint’s water was more
celebrated in communal Italy than that of Saint Ranieri of Pisa. Saint Ranie-
ri’s Water originated when someone noticed that water used to wash his
tomb had become perfumed with an aroma of wine.^212 His relic-infused
water was available to all who visited. His hagiographer reminded readers
that the saint himself had, while alive, blessed water for the sick.^213 Ranieri’s
- Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1473, fol. 328 r.
- Pierdomenico of Baone,Vita B. Henrici, 2. 20 – 22 , pp. 368 – 69.
- Bartolomeo Albizzi,Legenda Sancti Gerardi, 1. 18 – 20 , pp. 403 – 4 , which includes one of the hymns.
- Known from the trial of her followers for heresy:Atti inquisitoriali [contro i Guglielmiti], Milano 1300 :
I processi inquisitoriali contro le devote e i devoti di santa Guglielma,ed. Marina Benedetti (Milan: Scheiwiller,
1999 ), esp. 1. 5 , pp. 64 – 65. On this heresy, see Marina Benedetti,Io non sono Dio: Guglielma di Milano e i figli
dello Spirito Santo(Milan: Biblioteca Francescana, 1998 ), and, more briefly, Stephen E. Wessley, ‘‘The
Thirteenth-Century Guglielmites: Salvation Through Women,’’Medieval Women,ed. Derek Baker (Ox-
ford: Blackwell, 1987 ), 289 – 303 ; the trial is partly translated by Trevor Dean inThe Towns of Italy in the
Later Middle Ages(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000 ), 88 – 94. - Salimbene,Cronica( 1228 ), 50 – 51 , Baird trans., 11 , on Elizabeth of Hungary; andVita [Sanctae
Zitae Virginis Lucencis], 5. 36 ,p. 513 , on Saint Zita. On this kind of miraculous secretion, technically called
manna, see Charles M. Jones,Saint Nicholas of Myra, Bari, and Manhattan: Biography of a Legend(Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1978 ), 66 – 73. I thank Fr. Michael Morris, O.P., of the Graduate Theological
Union, Berkeley, Calif., for this reference.
211 .Processus... B. Joannis Boni, 6. 16. 450 ,p. 884 ; Bartolomeo Albizzi,Legenda Sancti Gerardi, 2. 48 ,p.
412 ;Summarium Processus... B. Simonis, 2. 1 ,p. 120. - Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 14. 143 ,p. 374 ; see Morris, ‘‘San Ranieri of Pisa,’’
595 – 97 , on the miracle cult at this shrine. - Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 14 , pp. 373 – 74.