344 BuoniCattolici
sermons at the cathedral, he never failed to attend them.^3 Offered in accord
with each one’s office and understanding, the web of prayer formed a seam-
less whole.
Words,Gestures,andPlaces
Never passive spectators, the laity engaged in the actions, the motions, of
worship. Consolations and special divine favors—‘‘mystical experiences’’—
occurred as often as not when the saint was at Office or Mass, rather than
at home. Benvenuta Bojani attended Mass and Compline daily, arriving
early enough for Vespers on feasts. Her favorite time for prayer was Com-
pline, the night Office—it was then, during the chanting of the Salve Regina
in honor of Mary, that she received the greatest spiritual gifts. Once, in 1290 ,
while Benvenuta was present for the Salve in the Dominican church at Forlı`,
she had a vision of Saint Dominic. The holy man replaced the absent prior,
Fra Girardo de’ Barbara, and embraced each friar after sprinkling him with
holy water.^4 The singing of the Salve in Dominican churches, which in-
cluded a procession to the people’s section, was a great favorite with the
laity.^5 The Salve Regina became so much a part of lay piety that it came to
rival the Ave Maria as the favorite way to greet the Blessed Virgin.^6 Even
when the clergy were not chanting the Office or Mass, the church building
remained a privileged place for lay prayer. When Pietro Pettinaio was not
selling combs at his bench in the Piazza del Campo of Siena, he spent time
in his favorite churches. Hearing his spoken prayers during a visit to San
Domenico for his usual devotions, a pious woman who had fallen down the
church steps, seemingly dead, was healed where she lay. On another occa-
sion, when a local boy had fallen out a window, the neighbors found the
pious combmaker praying in San Martino and brought him to pray and
make the sign of the cross over the boy. He too recovered. Pietro prayed
privately at home, but he preferred to pray in a church.^7
When Ambrogio Sansedoni’s Sienese wet nurse wanted to pray for a heal-
ing of his infantile deformities, she went to Santa Maria Magdalena near
Porta Romana to pray before the relics. She knew this was the place to pray,
because the baby would cry when she moved away from the shrine. It was
the right place; the future Dominican was healed.^8 Visiting a church was an
act of piety and devotion in itself. When the flagellant confraternity of Bolo-
- Pierdomenico of Baone,Vita B. Henrici, 1. 6 ,p. 366.
- Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae Benevenutae, 1. 10 ,p. 153 ; 3. 26 ,p. 156 ; 7. 59 ,p. 166.
- On this rite, seeVitae Fratrum Ordinis Praedicatorum, 1. 7 , pp. 58 – 60 , Conway trans., 44 – 49 , and
Jordan of Saxony,Libellus de Principiis Ordinis,ed. M.-H. Laurent (Rome: Institutum Historicum Fratrum
Praedicatorum, 1935 ), 120 , pp. 81 – 82. - As suggested by the introduction to one commentary on it: Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Cen-
trale,msPalat. 1 (xivcent.), fol. 12 r. - Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 5 ,p. 65 (on events at San Domenico), pp. 66 – 68
(at San Martin), and p. 69 (on prayer at home). - Gisberto of Alessandria et al.,Vita [B. Ambrosii], 1. 3 ,p. 182.