Resurrection andRenewal 319
mere priest had to substitute, they carried them inverted.^60 People brought
branches home; these extended the power of the feast to their families and
to the sick. Priests brought the branches to those, such as anchoresses, who
could not attend the procession in person. When a blind woman came to
the cell of Saint Verdiana, the holy woman touched her eyes with the olive
branch her confessor had brought from the procession in Florence. The
woman was immediately healed.^61
Each city added embellishments reflecting its own sacred history. In the
late 1100 s, at Bergamo, preparations began the Saturday before, when the
bishop dispatched bundles of unblessed branches to the collegiate church of
Sant’Alessandro and to the abbess of the nunnery of Santa Grata outside the
walls. The blessings occurred at Sant’Alessandro, where the procession from
the duomo of San Vincenzo arrived to the pealing of church bells.^62 The
bishop deferred to the archpriest of the duomo and the prior of Sant’Alessan-
dro for the blessing. This was a special privilege of the two chapters, as
Canon Lanfranco Mazzocchi of San Vincenzo carefully pointed out.^63 The
procession then left the city and returned by the gate near the nunnery of
Santa Grata. The bishop stopped outside the walls, and the prioress show-
ered him with flowers from her station above the city gate. The bishop
preached a sermon, and the procession entered the city. Canon Arderico di
Boffalmacco of Sant’Alessandro explained the origins of these rituals. When
a procession had brought Saint Grata’s relics to Bergamo, they suddenly
became too heavy to carry at that very spot, showing that the saint wished
to reside in the nunnery there and give it her name.^64 After the entrance, the
procession passed through the city, pausing to venerate relics displayed be-
fore the major churches. Finally it arrived at the cathedral, San Vincenzo,
for the solemn Mass and chanting of the Passion. The bishop’s obligation to
send branches to the canons and use their church for the blessing proved the
privileged position of Sant’Alessandro as second church of the city, Don
Margatto, the church’s custodian, proudly recalled. He could not resist add-
ing that the bishop only sent branches to the nuns as a courtesy.^65
Cities adapted the ceremonies to their particular geography and holy
places. At Siena, the blessing was conducted at the church of San Martino.
After a simple morning Mass, the procession left the duomo to arrive at San
Martino in time for Terce. The city clergy joined the canons of San Martino
in chanting the Office. A lector then proclaimed the reading from Exodus in
the piazza before the church, facing the rising sun in the east. A deacon,
facing north, chanted the Gospel of Christ’s entry, his words symbolically
60 .Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 97 – 98 (Volterrams 222, fols. 34 v– 35 v).
61 .Vita Sancte Viridiane, 13.
62. ‘‘Instrumentum Litis,’’ 4 ,p. 186.
63. Ibid. (September 1187 ), 1. 1 ,p. 129.
64. Ibid., 4 ,p. 189 ; on this miracle, see ibid., p. 98 , citingBiblioteca Sanctorum 7 ( 1966 ): 152 – 55.
65. ‘‘Instrumentum Litis,’’ 6 ,p. 226.