346 BuoniCattolici
the importance of proper pronunciation, along with correct use of gestures.^18
The need to combine gestures with words reflects the Italian scene. Donna
Risa di Giacomo di Andrea was obsessed by a demon. Among its other
baneful effects, she ‘‘could not raise her arms to heaven, place them on her
head, make the sign of the cross, cry out to God or the Virgin Mary, or
recite the Pater Noster or the Ave Maria.’’ A visit to the tomb of Saint
Filippo Benizzi in the church of San Marco on the first Wednesday of June
1287 allowed her to resume her earlier, more physically and verbally demon-
strative, habits of prayer.^19
Prayer began with movement. On entering a church, worshipers’ actions
placed them in harmony with its sacred space. A good Catholic entered the
door and turned to the right, not the left—thus recalling that Christians
should turn away from sin (left) and toward grace (right). The devout moved
around the church counterclockwise, imitating the movement of the heav-
ens, as the priest did while incensing the altar. On finding a place to pray,
one saluted the altar, bowing three times and saying three Paters in honor
of the Blessed Trinity.^20 The altar, though partly hidden by the choir screen,
was the site of the miracle of the Mass. People directed their gaze to it,
making God’s mysterious presence there the focus of prayer.^21 Many began
their devotions with a triple salutation to the altar. Peter’s booklet assumed
three genuflections; Sicardo’s prescription, three bows. At each reverence,
one recited a Pater.^22 The devout similarly reverenced crosses, since they
too represented the presence of Christ, the second person of the Trinity.
Genuflection here meant going down on both knees, rather than the later
medieval single-kneed genuflection common to this day.^23 Peter describes
the exuberant lay practice, Sicardo the habits of the more conservative
clergy. Fra Salimbene of Parma commented on the habits of the saintly king
Louis IX of France, whom he had seen at Auxerre. On entering a church,
the monarch saluted the altar with genuflections and knelt before it for an
extended period of prayer. The king knew the proper lay style. When ser-
vants brought benches out for the convenience of courtiers, Louis showed
his humility by sitting on the ground.^24
The good Catholic always saluted the cross, an image of Christ, or any
painting of the saints, with at least some gesture, commonly a bow and
suitable prayer.^25 In churches of the communal period, to greet the altar was
also to greet the great crucifix above the door of the screen through which
18. Trexler,Christian at Prayer, 41 – 42.
19 .Processus Miraculorum B. Philippi [Benitii], 1. 36 , fol. 53 r.
20. Sicardo,Mitrale, 4. 1 , cols. 149 – 50.
21. Trexler,Christian at Prayer, 114.
22. Ibid., 46 (citing Peter the Chanter, lines 941 – 60 ).
23. Ibid., 86 – 87.
24. Salimbene,Cronica( 1248 ), 323 , Baird trans., 216.
25. Peter the Chanter,De Oratione, 191.