WorldWithoutEnd.Amen. 391
breast the Blessed Sacrament, concealed in a pyx covered with a clean white
veil. He went in procession to the house of the dying, preceded by his clerics,
who carried lighted candles—especially at night—and rang a small bell. On
the way, he quietly recited the seven penitential psalms. The bell alerted
neighbors of his mission.^48 That viaticum be always a public event, the
church of Padua specifically forbade priests to bring Communion without
bell and candles, or in such a way that they hid the sacred vessels under
their cloak. The devout, hearing the bell or seeing the procession, not only
venerated the sacrament, they also assisted the dying with their prayers.
They knelt in the street as the Host passed, and bowed low, men uncovering
their heads.^49 Sibyllina Biscossi never omitted these gestures and her prayer
for the dying—except once, when by miraculous spiritual insight she realized
that the priest mistakenly carried an unconsecrated Host. She immediately
warned him of his oversight.^50
Once viaticum reached the sickroom, the rite’s audience shrank to the
family and such close friends as had followed the procession to the house.
Although a cleric and priest, Ambrogio Sansedoni took his final Communion
in the same way as pious laypeople. He got out of bed to kneel before taking
the Sacrament, first exchanging a kiss of peace with his brothers.^51 To the
best of his ability, after Communion, he joined in saying the prayers for the
dying. As these concluded, he quietly passed to his Maker.^52 Ambrogio also
received extreme unction, the anointing of the dying, after his Communion.
But there is little evidence that this sacrament played much part in the death-
bed rituals of the laity.^53 Perhaps it was the complexity of the rite that dis-
couraged it. Bishop Sicardo of Cremona explained that the anointing should
properly be done by a group of seven priests, something possible only in a
rather clerical environment.^54 The ritual books of Milan’s Ambrosian Rite
contained a ceremony that allowed for more frequent lay use of extreme
unction. There, anointing preceded viaticum and, with the seven penitential
psalms and the litany of the saints, was an integral part of the preparation
for Communion.^55 The Milanese rite was also much simpler than the Roman
usage, including only two anointings rather than the multiple anointings of
- Piacenza Stat. Cler. ( 1297 ), pp. 531 , 539 ; Padua Synod ( 1339 ), 11 ,p. 1137 ; Bologna Synod ( 1310 ),
- As Bonvesin de la Riva,Vita Scholastica, 68 , lines 421 – 25 , explains.
- Tomasso of Bossolasco,Vita [B. Sibyllinae], 3. 15 – 16 ,p. 69.
- On the universal desire to kneel when receiving viaticum, see Browne, ‘‘L’attegiamento del corpo
durante la Messa,’’ 408. - Gisberto of Alessandria et al.,Vita [B. Ambrosii], 8. 63 ,p. 193.
- For the texts of this ritual, see Pont. Rom. (xii),49a–band 50 , pp. 266 – 77 ; and, for local Italian
usages,Rituale di Hugo [di Volterra], 287 – 90 , andOrdo Senensis, 89 ,p. 493 , neither of which mentions the
laity, implying that this is principally a clerical ceremony. But the goldsmith Saint Facio of Cremona
received both viaticum and anointing:Vita Beati Facii, 42. - Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 12 , col. 303. This is also reflected in Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms mcix
(latexiicent.), fols. 28 v– 55 r. - Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana,msA 189 Inf., fols. 73 v– 76 r.