318 BuoniCattolici
with the bishop to some point outside the walls. There, after a prayer, the
deacon chanted from Matthew the Gospel of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem.
The bishop, with a solemn prayer and the chanting of the Sanctus, blessed
olive branches and flowers (palms being rare in north Italy). For this reason,
many people knew this feast as the Sunday of Olives. But it was the flowers
carried in procession that gave this day its most popular title:Pasqua Florita—
Flowery Sunday.^56
After the blessing, the people reassembled, the bishop taking the place of
Christ at the end of the procession. As the procession reached the closed city
gates, cantors within broke out in the chant ‘‘Gloria, Laus, et Honor.’’ The
procession took up this hymn as the gates opened, and then entered the city,
now symbolically Jerusalem. At the cathedral, the procession found the great
western doors closed. After the bishop struck the doors with his cross, the
choir intoned the responsory ‘‘Ingrediente,’’ and doorkeepers threw the
doors open. The procession entered the nave to the pealing of the great bells.
Mass proceeded as on other days, save for the chanting of the Passion in
dialogue form by three deacons.^57 The voice of Christ was sung in sonorous
baritone, while the shouts of the crowd and the words of Judas were in a
harsh tenor. The narrator pitched his reading in a middle register. This
dramatic reading deeply impressed itself on the consciousness of the hearers,
even if the Latin words were not wholly intelligible to Italian speakers. The
story was well known, and the melodious voice of Christ was both mournful
and reassuring. Whenever Saint Benvenuta Bojani heard the chanting of the
Palm Sunday Passion, she went into ecstasy and saw in vision the whole
story of the crucifixion of Christ. Each time, she saw herself kiss the dying
Jesus.^58
Bishop Sicardo lovingly recalled how the ceremonies of Palm Sunday at
Cremona reenacted events from the history of the people of Israel.^59 As his
city went out to the stational cross for the blessing of branches, they became
the children of the Hebrews coming from Jerusalem to greet Christ, the
Messiah. The procession’s entrance into Cremona brought to his mind the
image of the Israelites passing dry-shod over the Jordan and entering the
Promised Land. The procession itself symbolized Christ’s people’s going
forth to greet him at his return in glory on the last day. In the popular mind,
the ritual’s reminiscences of the past and the future were second to its present
sacred power. The olive branches spoke their own language. At Volterra and
other cities, unbroken tradition dictated that the people carry their olive
branches upright only when the bishop was present to represent Christ; if a
- Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms lxxxiv, fol. 105 v.
- See Pont. Rom. (xii), 29. 1 – 19 , pp. 210 – 14. For an example from a parish, see Volterra, Biblioteca
Comunale Guarnacci,ms 273, fols. 31 r– 36 v. - Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae Benevenutae, 8. 63 ,p. 167.
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 6. 10 , col. 293.