214 LaCitadeSancta
dropsy.^239 A vow might be the only remedy for the misfortunes inflicted on
those who failed to recognize the saint’s holiness. Maria di fu Albertino of
Padua dragged her husband, Albertino, to visit the shrine of Saint Giovanni
Cacciaforte in Vicenza. As she stood paying her respects at the tomb, with a
crowd of other women, Albertino lost his patience. He blurted out, ‘‘Silly
women, what are you doing praying to that saint?’’ He left and went down-
town to the Palazzo Comunale to buy fish for Wednesday lunch. His wife
returned to find him deathly ill from eating the fish. He lay sick until Friday,
when he finally pledged a candle to Saint Giovanni. His friends Triviso and
Albrigetto carried him to the tomb and, after a sweat during Vespers, he was
healed.^240 Giovanni got his candle.
A candle like Albertino’s—or, better, one with particular specifications,
like Riccadonna’s—was by far the most common votive offering to the com-
munal saints. Such offerings by private devotees mirrored the city oblations
during their great candle-offering ceremonies. Some individuals vowed not
merely a single candle but sets of them representing sacred numbers, seven
for the sacraments, twelve for the apostles, or three for the Trinity—as devo-
tees of Saint Benvenuta Bojani did at the church of San Domenico in
Forlı`.^241 In Mantua, Giovanni di Ugo de’ Vitali promised Saint Giovanni
Buono a candle every year on his feast day, if the saint would heal his daugh-
ter of paralysis—which he did.^242 At the shrine of Saint Ranieri of Pisa, the
faithful commonly vowed candles as tall as themselves or of their specific
weight.^243 Such candles symbolically represented the person of the donor. In
desperate cases, they even vowed to circle the entire shrine with candles.^244
Sometimes the candles were so tall that it was impossible to relight them
when they blew out. Saint Giovanni Buono understood the problem and
intervened, rekindling candles at his tomb when drafts extinguished them.^245
One knew better than to remove such consecrated votive offerings. Or one
learned. Liutefredo, a novice of Santo Stefano in Bologna, walked off one
night with a very beautiful candle from the shrine of Saint Bononio. An
angel not only struck him with illness but revealed his crime to the abbot in
a dream.^246
While the lighted candle was always the most popular offering, many
preferred more permanent memorials, albeit also in wax. These represented
- Cristoforo of Parma,Legenda Beati Francisci, 49 ,p. 193 ; for similar practices at the shrine of Saint
Ambrogio Sansedoni, see Gisberto of Alessandria et al.,Vita [B. Ambrosii], 10. 91 ,p. 197 ; and at the Servite
shrine of Saint Filippo Benizzi,Processus Miraculorum B. Philippi [Benitii], 1. 23 , fol. 52 r.
240 .Inquisitio de vita Joannis Cazefronte, 248. - Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae Benevenutae, 15. 124 ,p. 183.
242 .Processus... B. Joannis Boni, 2. 7. 145 ,p. 808. - E.g., Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 18. 183 ,p. 380 (height); 13. 135 – 36 ,p. 372 ; 16. 160 ,
p. 376. - E.g., ibid., 15. 149 ,p. 374.
245 .Processus... B. Joannis Boni, 6. 16. 450 ,p. 884. - Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1473, fols. 164 v– 165 r.