HolyPersons andHolyPlaces 189
of Christ, which Ranieri of Pisa witnessed while on pilgrimage to Saint Pe-
ter’s, made him doubt they were worthy of the pope’s presence (and his
own). The voice of God came to him in prayer: ‘‘Follow your thoughts, my
ways are your ways, I, the Lord, am speaking.’’^55 He promptly left Rome
and went home to Pisa.
The laity recognized a good death as the surest sign of holiness, the ulti-
mate ‘‘conversion.’’ Michele Delceti was a convicted criminal. At his execu-
tion in 1225 , he made a very good death, repenting of his sins, calling for a
priest to hear his confession, taking Communion with devotion, and invoking
the help of God and the saints, and the Bolognese honored him with a cult.^56
The clerics had to work hard to suppress it—which they finally did. One
Pisan preacher of the late 1200 s spoke to popular belief. He recounted the
story of a rather ordinary lustful man who depended on the Blessed Virgin
to avoid his sin. But smitten with a beautiful woman, he managed to get her
to bed. Eventually he got around to asking her name and found out that it
was Maria. His contrition and remorse were such that he died on the spot,
leaving the woman stuck with his body. Miraculously, the bells of the city
churches began to ring. Summoned by the sound, the bishop, clergy and
‘‘whole people’’ (totus populus) arrived at the cathedral. The woman joined
them and recounted her sad story. Touched by pity, the clergy agreed to
bury the body. Arriving at the woman’s house, they found the body strewn
with flowers and surrounded by candles, each inscribed with the words ‘‘Ave
Maria.’’ After the man’s burial in the duomo, candles miraculously lighted
themselves around his tomb. Healings multiplied. The city had found an
unexpected saint in its midst.^57 If the Pisan preacher recounting this story
knew the town where this cult flourished, he failed, unfortunately, to men-
tion it.
Prophetic gifts might reveal the vocation to sanctity, although they were
not at all essential to it. Ranieri of Pisa was famous for his visions and proph-
ecies. God appeared to him in the church of the Holy Sepulcher and told
him to take up a life of penance to expiate the immoral life of his hometown
clergy. ‘‘I have given the priests over to the hands of Satan,’’ God declared.
The pious layman made atonement for them.^58 People consulted themantel-
lataMita of Siena on the eternal condition of the Servite Francesco Patrizzi.
He was in heaven, crowned by the Virgin, she informed the inquirers.^59 His
neighbors knew Gerardo of Cagnoli best for his prophecies and healings.^60
- Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 4. 56 ,p. 357 : ‘‘Factae sunt cogitationes tuae, viae meae,
viae tuae, aio ego Dominus.’’
56 .CCB:Vill. ( 1225 ), 90. - Pisa, Biblioteca Cateriniana del Seminario Arcivescovile,ms 139, ‘‘Miracula de Beata Virgine,’’
fol. 149 r. - On this rather anticlerical story, see Morris, ‘‘San Ranieri of Pisa,’’ 594.
- Cristoforo of Parma,Legenda Beati Francisci de Senis Ordinis Servorum B. M. V.,ed. Peregrine Soulier,
36 ,Analecta Bollandiana 14 ( 1895 ): 189. - Bartolomeo Albizzi,Legenda Sancti Gerardi,pp. 384 – 88.