264 BuoniCattolici
period, laypeople left benefactions to erect altars in honor of the Body of
Christ.^182
After the institution of the elevation, both men and women in communal
Italy cultivated a visual mysticism focused on the elevated Host.^183 The lay
practice of genuflecting instead of bowing at the elevation was partially moti-
vated by the desire to keep visual contact. Oringa Cristina had visions of
Christ before the altar at the time of the elevation, as did Giovanni Buono,
who often shed tears as he gazed at the Host.^184 Giovanni of Alverna saw
Christ become present at the altar during the Consecration or the Canon.^185
The elevation itself was a privileged time, a powerful time, for petition.
Donna Neze, the prioress of the Franciscan sisters at Empoli, prayed to Saint
Gerardo of Cagnoli for help in ending the factions that plagued her convent.
The saint spoke to her during the elevation and told her that the nuns should
kneel and say a Pater and an Ave, that the ‘‘King and Queen of heaven
might grant them peace.’’ They did as instructed, holding candles and wax
votive hearts. Peace was restored.^186 Not all encouraged visual contact.
When asked why his face was so radiant during the Canon, the Servite priest
Francesco Patrizzi chastised the inquirer. During the Consecration, the
priest was in Christ’s presence, as Moses was in God’s presence on Mount
Sinai. Moses had veiled his radiant face lest the Israelites see it, so the laity
should avert their eyes at the sacred moment and not look at the Host.^187
Francesco was in the minority.
Saint Francis of Assisi’s deathbed testament expressed the lay Eucharistic
piety of his age. He placed reverence for the Sacrament at the head of his
instructions to his followers: the Little Poor Man ordered them to provide
rich receptacles for the Blessed Sacrament. Francis returned time and again
to the Real Presence in his short letters and writings.^188 One senses in Francis
of Assisi’s typically lay concerns a rebuke of routinized clerical piety. The
visions and miracles of the communal saints reveal less veiled criticisms.
Jesus himself assured Margherita of Cortona, after one of her most fervent
Communions, that although her long thanksgivings after Mass might bother
the clerics, they delighted him.^189 Let Margherita express her feelings in her
own words, or rather in the words of Christ she recorded on another occa-
sion: ‘‘My daughter, I complain to you about the irreverence of priests who,
in such great number, handle me daily and yet neither love nor recognize
me. If they truly recognized me, they would know that nothing among all
- As at Bologna in San Giacomo Maggiore:Iscrizioni medievali bolognesi, 313 – 14 , nos. 14 – 15.
- Cf. Kieckhefer, ‘‘Holiness and the Culture,’’ 290.
184 .Legenda Beatae Christianae, 63 ,p. 238 ;Processus... B. Joannis Boni, 3. 9. 240 ,p. 832.
185 .Acta [B. Joannis Firmani sive Alvernae], 4. 36 ,p. 466 ;Acta Alia [B. Joannis Firmani], 3. 24 – 26 ,AS 36
(Aug.ii), 474. - Bartolomeo Albizzi,Legenda Sancti Gerardi, 7. 148 ,p. 443.
- Cristoforo of Parma,Legenda Beati Francisci, 9 ,p. 178.
- See citations in Maccarrone, ‘‘Cura animarum,’’ 157 – 59.
- Giunta Bevegnati,Legenda... Margaritae de Cortona, 2. 1 f, pp. 193 – 94.