GoodCatholics atPrayer 357
meditate on the mysteries they were celebrating. He singled out the feasts
of four general Communions—Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pente-
cost—as suitable occasions.^89 Zucchero Bencivenni had in mind what later
ages would call ‘‘mental prayer’’—a silent spiritual exercise rather than reci-
tation of words. During the canonization process of Giovanni of Foligno,
one witness reported that Giovanni ‘‘occupied himself in vocal prayer, saying
the Lord’s Prayer with the Ave Maria many times, and genuflecting so many
times that his mother often found him with bloody knees, because he did not
yet have the use of mental prayer.’’^90 Giovanni eventually did become a
Franciscan and learned the spiritual discipline of mental prayer. One cannot
rule out such practices by the laity, but hagiographic descriptions of mystical
experience—usually those of female penitents or nuns—suggest a very verbal
world. The visions of Oringa Cristiana, which her confessor kept secret until
after her death, were not exalted experiences of the infinite. Rather, they
were familiar chats with Jesus, Mary, apostles, martyrs, and founders of reli-
gious orders. For her confessor’s benefit, she even listed the names of the
saints she had met. Oringa’s vocal prayer slipped easily into a conversation
with heavenly personages.^91 There was a homeliness about the whole affair,
recalling her affection for pet snakes. Oringa was not unique. Umilta`of
Faenza, in a sermon to her nuns, recounted how she once had a chat with
Saint John the Evangelist. He introduced her to her two guardian angels:
one was an ordinary angel named Sapiel, the other a cherub named Em-
manuel. Both angels were very beautiful, Umilta`remarked.^92 Mental prayer
of this sort was very much like a chat with your neighbors of the contrada.
When Jesus appeared, it was usually to have a little conversation. One day
Margherita of Cortona was praying before the cross in a church, doubtless
repeating her Paters and Aves. Suddenly the image of Christ addressed her.
‘‘ ‘What do you want, little lady?’ Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, she imme-
diately responded, ‘My Jesus, I seek nothing, I want nothing, except you, my
Lord.’ ’’^93
Books ofDevotion
Peter the Chanter assumed that only the clergy could pray effectively, be-
cause only they could read the prayers of the liturgy and the sacred texts of
the Bible. If prayer required reading a text with understanding, then only
those who frequented the schools could pray.^94 That Peter’s Italian contem-
- Zucchero Bencivenni,Sposizione, 83 – 84.
90 .Acta [B. Joannis Firmani sive Alvernae], 1. 4 ,p. 460 : ‘‘Quia adhuc non habebat usum orationis men-
talis, occupabat se ipsum in oratione vocali, dicendo toties orationem Dominicam cum Ave Maria, et
toties in die flectendo genua, quod frequenter fuit inventus a matre cum genubus sanguine rubicatis.’’
91 .Legenda Beatae Christianae, 69 , pp. 248 – 50. - Umilta`of Faenza, ‘‘Sermo 4 ’’ (De Angelis Sanctis), 40 – 41.
- Giunta Bevegnati,Legenda... Margaritae de Cortona, 1. 1 a, p. 181 : ‘‘ ‘Quid vis paupercula?’ Sancto
illustrata Spiritu statim respondens ait: ‘Non quaero nec volo aliud nisi vos, Domine mi, Iesu.’ ’’ - Trexler,Christian at Prayer, 25 – 27.