HolyPersons andHolyPlaces 215
the part of the body healed or even the whole body. We find records of such
‘‘ex-voto’’ wax images in the twelfth century at Cremona, where Bishop
Sicardo witnessed a document promising one to the shrine of Saint Rai-
mondo at Piacenza in return for a cure from jaundice.^247 The practice is
certainly much older, possibly in continuity with similar practices at the heal-
ing shrines of antiquity.^248 But the practice seems a revival of pagan practice
without having any direct link thereto. When a woman brought a wax ex-
voto of her once deformed hand to the shrine of Saint Galgano in 1185 ,
Bishop Ugo of Volterra, who was also visiting the tomb, asked her what she
meant by the offering. Perhaps he was merely curious, but he seems not to
have been acquainted with the practice.^249 By the 1200 s, wax ex-votos were
ubiquitous.^250 At the tomb of Saint Umiliana in Santa Croce at Florence,
one man not only left an ex-voto, he had the notary trace in the shrine
record the size and shape of the bone in his throat that the saint had helped
him cough up.^251 Occasionally, records report other offerings, such as a silver
cord long enough to go around the tomb.^252 But the traditional offering
remained wax. Devotees of Saint Margherita of Cortona regularly vowed to
circle her shrine, not with silver, but with candles, often including in their
vows the monetary value of the wax promised.^253
A late medieval chronicle for Todi records that in 1313 , after a knight
of the podesta was saved from ambush through the intercession of Saint
Fortunatus, the man made a magnificent offering to that saint’s church. This
included twenty-nine pounds of silver and four hundred gold florins, enough
to build the saint a new chapel and furnish it.^254 Such a lavish offering was
truly exceptional in the communal period. Vows of money were rare and
usually for small amounts: 5 s. for a cure by Saint Simone of Collazone or
10 s. (with some lime) for a cure by Saint Ambrogio of Massa.^255 The candles
offered came mostly from local shops rather than the sacristy of the shrine.
Offerings for Masses, such as those supervised by the commune at the altar
of Saint Fina in San Gimignano, were a bit more profitable than candles,
- ‘‘Miraculorum S. Raymundi exms. Archivi Monialium Ejusdem Sancti Placentiae,’’AS 33 (Jul.
vi), 657 – 58 ; for more on Raimondo’s miracles, see Canetti,Gloriosa, 216 – 27. - See Klauck,Religious Context, 165.
249 .De Vita et Actibus Galgani, 18 – 19 , pp. 76 – 77. - A few of the many examples of the practice:Summarium Processus... B. Simonis, 2. 11 ,p. 25 ;
Processus Miraculorum B. Philippi [Benitii], 1. 32 , fol. 53 v; Bartolomeo Albizzi,Legenda Sancti Gerardi, 7. 144 ,p.
441 ; Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 16. 164 – 65 ,p. 376 – 77 ;Vita S[ancti] Petri Martyris Ordinis
Praedicatorum, 13. 99 ,p. 722 (Tommaso of Agni’s thirteenth-century vita); Recupero of Arezzo,Summarium
Virtutum, 9. 103 ,p. 223. - Hippolito of Florence.Miracula intra Triennium, 404.
252 .Miracula [B. Ambrosii],doc. 17 ,p. 205. - E.g., Giunta Bevegnati,Legenda... Margaritae de Cortona, 11. 1. 1 ,p. 454 ; 11. 2. 10 ,p. 456 ; 11. 9. 56 ,
p. 469. - Ioan Fabrizio degli Atti,Cronicha de la egregia citta`de Tode,ed. Franco Mancini,Le cronache di Todi
(secolixiii–xvi)(Florence: Nuova Italia, 1979 ), 163 – 64.
255 .Summarium Processus... B. Simonis, 2. 16 ,p. 127 ;Processus Canonizationis B. Ambrosii Massani,pp.
571 – 608.