406 BuoniCattolici
completed by the morning hours of Matins and Lauds.^166 This Office was
said in a simple and somber form beginning with the antiphon ‘‘Placebo
Domino,’’ by which it was often called. The vigil ended without a formal
conclusion or dismissal, something that suggested the eternity of heaven to
Bishop Sicardo.^167 Sienese commentators admitted that the chanting of this
long Office produced some tedium, but one never knew if the deceased was
dead or merely unconscious. The length provided a little more time for the
‘‘dead’’ to wake up.^168 A poor woman of Monte Pessulano once invoked the
intercession of Saint Peter Martyr during the vigil for her son. To the surprise
and shock of all, the boy woke up.^169 Clerics chanted the psalms; family and
friends crowded around the body. In the church, the women resumed the
cries of the pianto, competing with the clerical chants; some threw them-
selves on the corpse. If the person who had died possessed some reputation
for sanctity, Vigils and Mass provided the last close contact with the remains.
While Bishop Lanfranco of Pavia lay on his bier in the cathedral choir, a
pious old woman hobbled in through the screen, took his hand, and blessed
herself. His relics healed her of a two-year paralysis of her feet.^170 In 1240 ,
Ranieri Rusticuzzi of Santo Stefano at Orvieto, who had hurt his arm throw-
ing rocks, managed to get close to the catafalque of Fra Ambrogio of Massa.
He rubbed the Franciscan’s hand on his strained arm and promised to say
twenty-five Pater Nosters yearly on the anniversary, if he got a cure. He
did.^171 There was nothing restrained or reserved about funerals, even during
the chanting of the solemn Offices.
Requiem Mass followed Vigils.^172 For the most part, the ceremonies of
this Mass differed little from those of any other. As a sign of collective mourn-
ing, the priest wore black vestments, dropped most of the blessings, and
omitted the circulation of the Pax.^173 People could make slight adaptions in
the readings or chants to fit particular circumstances. At the funeral of Ser
Guido of Bianello of Parma, they replaced the usual reading from 2 Macc.
12 : 43 – 46 (on praying for the dead) with Jer. 18 : 21 – 22 , because it so beauti-
fully evoked the tragedy of his murder.^174 The themes of judgment and the
166 .Rituale di Hugo [di Volterra], 305 – 12 ; ‘‘Instrumentum Litis,’’ 3. 28 ,p. 173.
167. Sicardo,Mitrale, 9. 50 , col. 246.
168 .Ordo Senensis, 2. 94 – 95 , pp. 944 – 501.
169 .Vita S[ancti] Petri Martyris Ordinis Praedicatorum, 10. 75 ,p. 716.
170. Bernardo Balbi,Vita [S. Lanfranci], 3. 22 ,p. 537.
171 .Processus Canonizationis B. Ambrosii Massani, 69 , pp. 600 – 601. Bol. Pop. Stat., 2 (Fabbri, 1252 , cc.
55 – 56 ), 238 , required that the women following the corpse return home before the services in the church,
which were for the men only.
172. The celebration of separate vigils for Benvenuta Bonjani (Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae
Benevenutae, 12. 94 ,p. 175 ) seems to have satisfied a desire to have one Office at the nun’s convent and
another at the church of the friars.
173. See, e.g.,Rituale di Hugo [di Volterra], 312 – 13. Eulogies seem to have been absent from most
funerals; at least one city forbade them: Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 4. 91 , 1 : 247. On the cross-cultural prefer-
ence for black (along with white and red) as a mourning color, see Metcalf and Huntington,Celebrations
of Death, 63.
174. Salimbene,Cronica( 1286 ), 897 , Baird trans., 622 ; the Milanese rites also included special forms
of the service, e.g., for children:Manuale Ambrosianum, 1 : 102 – 4.