216 LaCitadeSancta
but these fees did not come from pilgrims or because of vows.^256 Where the
income at the shrine of a communal saint can actually be calculated—as
Daniel Bornstein has done for that of Saint Margherita of Cortona in the
period 1369 – 84 —the yearly ‘‘take’’ averaged a mere £ 30 , a quarter of the
yearly earnings of a day laborer in Florence.^257 Granted the local hostels and
taverns got some business from pilgrims, but one is left with the conclusion
that the communes did not promote their saints as a source of cash. Devotion
to the local shrine was synonymous with civic patriotism.^258 The shrine re-
flected the honor of the city that produced the saint; it made the city holy.
- San Gimignano Stat. ( 1255 ), 4. 101 , pp. 741 – 42.
- Bornstein, ‘‘Uses of the Body,’’ 174 ; on the Franciscan appropriation of her cult, see ibid.,
169 – 77. - As noted by Rigon, ‘‘De ́votion et patriotisme,’’ esp. 267.