Chapter Nine
Good Catholics at Prayer
Thirteenth-century Italians worshiped in a world of sacred spaces and sacred
rites. Individual piety arose within those spaces and rites, not in competition
with them. When Margherita of Cortona attended Matins, she stayed on in
the church for private devotions. She turned her attention to Christ’s Pas-
sion, visibly represented on the great cross above the choir screen. She re-
cited ten Pater Nosters in honor of the Last Supper, ten more for Christ’s
arrest, and ten for his crowning with thorns. Focusing directly on the cross,
she recited another ten for each of the five wounds, ten for each ear, ten for
each eye, and ten each for the spitting and the veiling of Christ’s eyes. Fi-
nally, she said ten for the gall and ten for the lance. Prayer was a physical
exercise, a speaking of sacred words, and here it honored the most precious
body of all, that of the Savior. That very body would become present on the
altar at the solemn Mass later in the day, and Margherita would adore it.^1
Margherita’s prayer grew out of and returned to the Church’s liturgy.
Other laypeople attended the liturgy of the duomo and joined their pray-
ers to it. Omobono of Cremona went for Matins and, like Margherita, ex-
tended the Office by his own devotions. He prayed lying prostrate on the
ground before an ancient painted cross until the hour of Mass.^2 Each partici-
pant in the liturgy had a different office. The bishop presided, the clergy
chanted, the lectors read, and the laity sang the simple responses and sup-
ported the cult with their own prayers. When Enrico of Treviso attended
Office and Mass, he always carried his knotted ‘‘Pater Noster cord’’ in his
hands. He joined his Paters, ‘‘according to his own understanding, for he
was unlettered,’’ to the community’s corporate praise of the Creator. As for
1. Giunta Bevegnati,Legenda... Margaritae de Cortona, 6. 12 ,p. 296.
2 .Vita Sancti Homoboni, 113.