8.5 Crown of gloria

Few places have made such a rich contribution to Christian history in terms of the flourishing of eminent saints and blesseds as Siena during the Middle Ages. After the year 1000, the city found itself along the Via Francigena, not only a commercial route, but also—and above all—a cultural and spiritual one, which led to Siena’s extraordinary development and made it a stop-off point for pilgrims from all over Europe. It was in those centuries that the profound sense of religion that permeated every stratum of the population, aided by the impetus that the new mendicant orders provided, created fertile ground for the extraordinary experiences of faith of so many religious figures who even today, centuries later, continue to impress with the strength of their message. In order to understand the reasons for this, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that from the 12^th century onwards, Siena was a city that fully embraced devotion to the Virgin Mary, to such a degree that it made her the very symbol of the city’s new Municipality and minted coins bearing the inscription Sena vetus civitas Virginis (Ancient Siena, City of the Virgin).

Moreover, the beginnings of the Christian faith in Siena are extremely old, linked to the figure of the first evangelist of the city, who later became one of its patrons: Saint Ansanus the Martyr. Born in Rome in 284, he converted to Christianity at a young age thanks to his mother Massima (who was also a martyr and later became a saint). Ansanus came to Siena, which was a Roman colony at the time, to escape Diocletian’s persecutions, and immediately began to spread the Gospel and baptise the population. Thwarted once again by the Roman authorities, he was captured and imprisoned in the tower next to the church in Via San Quirico, known as the Carceri di Sant’Ansano, in what was the oldest part of the city. From the window of his prison, he would continue to baptise those who flocked there eager to embrace the Christian faith, until the proconsul Lysias condemned him to death by submitting him to immersion in a cauldron of boiling pitch in the area now known as the Fosso di Sant’Ansano, behind the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala. Having emerged miraculously unscathed from his torture, he was taken outside the city, to the village of Dòfana, then part of the diocese of Arezzo, and beheaded on 1 December 304 (or 303 according to some historians), in the place where a chapel dedicated to him now stands. Many centuries later, in 1107, the Bishop of Siena, urged on by the pressure of the population who acclaimed Ansanus as their saint, succeeded in having his body exhumed and brought back to Siena— while his head was taken to Arezzo—and given a proper burial in the Cathedral, in a marble altar that was, however, seriously damaged in the fire that broke out in 1359. Since then, only the arms of the precious relic have remained in the diocese of Siena: the left arm is kept in a 14^th-century reliquary now in the Palazzo Arcivescovile (Episcopal Palace) in Siena, while the right arm is in the cathedral, in an urn on the altar that was rebuilt with new and more imposing forms in 1583, in response to the renewed religious fervour generated by the Council of Trent. A few years later, in 1596, again in keeping with the taste of the time, the same altar was adorned with Francesco Vanni’s painting of Sant’Ansano che Battezza i Senesi (Saint Ansanus Baptising the Sienese), which replaced the magnificent, celebrated altarpiece of the Annunciazione tra Sant’Ansano e Santa Massima (or Margherita) (Annunciation with Saint Ansanus and Saint Margaret), a masterpiece by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, which in the same year was moved to the Church of the Carceri di Sant’Ansano, where it remained until 1798, when it was finally moved to the Uffizi.

On 1 December, the day of Ansano’s martyrdom, Siena solemnly honours its patron saint with a procession from Piazza del Campo to the Cathedral, where the Archbishop and the seventeen ‘correttori’ (priests) of the Contradas concelebrate Holy Mass, the symbol of an entire city that pays homage to its saint and, through worship, expresses its collective identity.

CANONISED SAINTS OF THE CHURCH OF SIENA

The universal Church owes Siena and its territory four extraordinarily great bearers of the faith—Saint Galgano, Saint Bernardo Tolomei, Saint Catherine, and Saint Bernardine—who have been recognised as saints through what is known as the process of canonisation, a process that can take many years, sometimes centuries, and which ends with a definitive declaration of holiness issued by the Pope.

It is a commonly held view among scholars that the first process of canonisation of which the acts have come down to us is that of St Galgano, which took place in 1185, only four years after the Saint’s death. His human and spiritual life took place in a peripheral territory of the diocese, in Chiusdino, a village of ancient origins situated between the Val di Merse and the Colline Metallifere, but it also had important implications for the city of Siena. Born into a noble family around 1150, Galgano became a knight and spent his youth in a dissolute manner, until St Michael the Archangel appeared to him in a dream and urged him to build a small community following the example of the first disciples of Christ. He decided to withdraw to the Colle di Montesiepi (Hill of Montesiepi), where he drove his sword into a stone as a sign of renouncing his deceitful life and founded a small hermit monastery with a Cistercian rule, where he lived a life of prayer and penance. By the time of his death, Galgano’s fame had spread and his spiritual legacy became the patrimony of the Cistercian Order, which built the great abbey around 1220, today known for its magnificent ruins. In a short time, the institution became very rich and powerful, so much so that the Municipality of Siena itself began to regularly choose its treasurers—called ‘camerlénghi’ at the time—from among the monks of San Galgano, due to the reputation they enjoyed at a European level as very capable administrators. In 1474, the monks sought to acquire for themselves a town residence and thus, in the vicinity of Porta Romana, had a beautiful Renaissance palace (known as San Galgano) built, with a smooth ashlar sandstone façade. Near the palace, now a university, stands another site linked to the figure of Galgano: The Church of the Santuccio, once part of the former Augustinian convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli. In addition to housing a cycle of six frescoes dedicated to the Saint, the work of Ventura Salimbeni, the building also housed for a long time—from 1549 to 1925—the precious relic of his head, contained in an extraordinary silver reliquary with embossed stories from the life of Galgano, a masterpiece of the goldsmithery that the monks, further confirming the close relationship with the city, commissioned in the second half of the 13^th century from the Sienese goldsmith Pace di Valentino. The nuns of the Santuccio, for their part, continued and increased the cult by giving locks of hair and bands of cloth with the words Sancte Galgane ora pro nobis (Saint Galgano prays for us) written on them, which, once placed in contact with the relic, were believed to have thaumaturgic properties. Moreover, even before being permanently placed in the Santuccio, at least twice a year the sacred head was brought to Siena from the abbey, on the Feasts of Pentecost and the Assumption, and carried in procession through the streets of the city, together with the right arm of St Ansanus and the head of St Catherine. In 1977, after repeated requests from the population, the relic returned to Chiusdino, where it remains today in a modern case by the sculptor Bino Bini, while the 13^th-century reliquary is on display in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Siena.

In the period between the 13^th and 15^th centuries, considered to be the city’s golden age, the Sienese Church experienced an unprecedented spiritual fervour due to the rise of the new mendicant orders, largely fuelled by the charism of its three most venerated saints. The experience of life and faith that goes back the furthest in time is that of St Bernard Tolomei (1272–1348), creator of the new Ordine Benedettino degli Olivetani (Benedictine Order of the Olivetans), which to this day has communities scattered all over the world headed by the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, founded by Bernard himself; his canonisation was a very long process and suffered many setbacks, ending only relatively recently, in 2009, when Benedict XVI proclaimed him a saint. The canonisation of Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), canonised in 1461 by the Sienese Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini, was much faster. The scope of Catherine’s spiritual message and the importance of her role in the history of the universal Church meant that in 1939 she was proclaimed patron saint of Italy—together with St Francis of Assisi—by Pope Pius XII, then Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI and finally co-patron saint of Europe in 1999 by Pope John Paul II. Born in the same year as Catherine, as if to signify a sort of passing of the baton from one to the other, Bernardine of Siena (1380–1444) was declared a saint by Pope Nicholas V in 1450, even before the St Catherine, after a process that lasted only six years. As the pinnacle of the Franciscan movement, he gave impetus to the so-called ‘Observant’ movement, promoting a return to the Primitive Rule of St Francis as a response to the decline that the Order was experiencing at the time.

For a more detailed treatment of the events of the three saints and their testaments of faith, see the volumes dedicated to them in this series.

BLESSED OF THE CHURCH OF SIENA

An obligatory stage in the process of canonisation, beatification authorises worship within a local Church, rather than within the universal Church as is the case with saints; however, like saints, it sanctions the presence of the blessed in Heaven, enabling the beatified to intercede with God for those who pray to them. Sienese mysticism includes a considerable number of beatified persons who were outstanding examples of evangelical life and have served as important points of reference for the faithful through the centuries, up to and including today.

Blessed Pietro da Campi, Known as Pier Pettinaio

Born in 1180 in Campi, a small village in the Chianti region of Siena, Pietro was sent to Siena as a boy to work as an apprentice in a workshop in the heart of the city, in the alleyway between Banchi di Sopra and Via dei Termini, which was named after him towards the end of the 19^th century. In that workshop, which appears to have become his own, loom combs and wool carding combs were made and soldhence the nickname Pettinaio (Comber)—an activity to which he devoted his entire life and in which he distinguished himself for his extraordinary integrity and generosity. It is said that on market days, in order to avoid harming those selling the same goods, he would arrive late, after Vespers, or that he would buy low-quality material and then dispose of it so that no one could sell it, thereby cheating the buyers. Married but without children, his exposure to the Franciscan spirituality that was spreading at the time led him to live a life as a lay saint, devoted to prayer, helping the needy and caring for the sick at the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala. Given his renown and honesty, the Municipality itself entrusted him with various tasks, such as choosing the prisoners to whom to grant amnesty or identifying the poor to whom to distribute public alms. As a widower, he donated all his possessions and became a Franciscan tertiary, that is, a member of the Terzo Ordine di San Francesco (Third Order of St Francis), which welcomed lay men and women who wished to live in the world according to the model of the saint from Assisi. After becoming seriously ill, Pier Pettinaio retired to the convent of the Friars Minor, where he instructed the novices and spent the last period of his life in contemplation and prayer. He died in 1289 at the age of one hundred and nine and was buried in the same Basilica of San Francesco where, a few days later, the Consiglio Generale decided that an altar with a ciborium should be built in his honour. There are no sources as to where this was located, and it unfortunately disappeared forever in 1655 when a fire ravaged the Basilica. A century after his death, the city named him as its protector and a solemn feast day was established on 4 December. Even Dante, in the 13^th Canto of Purgatory, extolled the efficacy of his prayers, attributing the salvation of the soul of the noblewoman Sapìa Salvani to his ‘holy orations’. His reputation for sanctity was confirmed in 1802, when Pope Pius VII proclaimed him blessed, officially recognising his cult in the Sienese church. In 2000, the Contrada Priora della Civetta, where Pier Pettinaio had his workshop, set up a Compagnia (Society) in his memory, committed to charitable works.

Convinced of the value of actions rather than words, Pier Pettinaio did not leave behind any writings; rather, his silences are famous, to the extent that he is also known as Tecelano (Saint of Silence) and his iconography often depicts him with a finger over his lips. This is how he appears in a panel on the door of the Arliquiera, the reliquary cabinet in the old sacristy of the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala, made between 1445 and 1449 by Lorenzo di Pietro, known as il Vecchietta. The same gesture indicating silence is also featured in a recent painting by Giovanni Gasparro, commissioned in 2019 for the Collegiate Church of Provenzano, in which the Blessed clutches a blank sheet of paper in his hand, with the words erased: these are the sins that he used to list before confession, erased during the night by an angel sent by the Lord. There is also a work of art in the Duomo that depicts him and refers to a precise vision of the Blessed in which, inside the Duomo, angels first appeared to him, scattering ashes along the nave, then Christ walked down the nave, leaving footprints in his wake, and went to sit on a throne above the high altar, where the Virgin Mary was waiting for him. Then St Francis entered, perfectly following in the tracks left by Jesus until he reached the high altar and was welcomed by Christ and the Virgin Mary. The painting, located near the Porta del Perdono (Door of Forgiveness), was made around 1635 by Raffaello Vanni, while another version of the same subject, painted by Father Francis, is now in the headquarters of the Misericordia di Siena.

Blessed Andrea Gallerani

Andrea Gallerani was born in Siena in the early 13^th century into a noble family and in his youth was convicted of a crime that he was forced to pay for by being exiled. On his return to the city, in order to expiate his guilt, he began to devote himself entirely to works of charity, gathering around him a group of fellow citizens who, like him, wished to lead a humble existence in the service of their neighbours. He used his wealth to set up a public hospital, called the Casa della Misericordia, which was built near the Church of San Pellegrino alla Sapienza and in part of the premises of the present-day Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati. When Gallerani died in 1251, his followers, improperly called ‘Frati della Misericordia’ (Friars of Mercy) because they did not belong to a religious order but to a charitable association, gradually became more numerous, attracted by the example of the founder, and began to wear a robe with the letter M. In 1408, however, due to poor administration, the hospital was suppressed and the building was converted by the Municipality into the Casa della Sapienza, intended to house poor students attending the University of Siena. The Confraternita di Misericordia (Brotherhood of Mercy) came back to life much later, in 1835, owing to the fundamental contribution of the Compagnia di Sant’Antonio Abate (Company of Saint Anthony the Abbot); it was given the title of Archconfraternity in 1852.

Considered a saint while he was still alive, Andrea Gallerani was buried in the Basilica of San Domenico and his tomb was such a frequent destination for the faithful that, in 1274, Bishop Bandini granted a special indulgence to those who visited it on Holy Monday. The cult of Andrea, always deeply rooted in the city, was confirmed in 1798 with his beatification by Pope Pius VI. His feast day is celebrated in Siena on 20 June.

Credit Sailko

The oldest work dedicated to Andrea Gallerani is a tabernacle with two doors, painted on both sides, in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena (National Picture Gallery of Siena), dated no later than the last decade of the 13^th century; The outer doors are attributed to Dietisalvi di Speme, while the inner ones are by Guido da Siena and represent an extraordinary example of pre-Duccio painting. In one of Guido’s scenes, the Blessed is holding a copper pot with food to distribute to the poor, which would become his traditional iconographic attribute, together with bread. This is how he is portrayed, for example, in the bust at the top of the ghimberga (pointed tympanum) above the right side portal of the façade of the Duomo, a 17^th-century work by Tommaso Redi. The Pinacoteca di Siena also houses a magnificent panel dating back to the first half of the 14^th century, the work of Simone Martini’s workshop, in which the monogram of the Misericordia appears on the Blessed’s habit, clear evidence of the link that had already been established between him and that institution in the first half of the 14^th century.

Blessed Ambrogio Sansedoni

Ambrogio Sansedoni was born in 1220 in the family palazzo overlooking Piazza del Campo, one of the most beautiful and majestic buildings in the city. It is said that, due to some deformities of the limbs, he was quickly entrusted to the care of a nurse and was then miraculously healed when she placed him before an altar. Attracted by the new spirituality of the Dominicans, who had already begun to build their basilica in Siena at the time, he entered the Order at the age of seventeen, completing his novitiate in the city and then going on to complete his studies in Paris and Cologne, where he was taught by the future Saint Albert the Great and had Saint Thomas Aquinas as a companion. He moved back to Paris, this time as a professor, and became known for the effectiveness of his preaching, which, together with his teaching, was the very charism of the Dominicans and the means by which they pursued their goal: the salvation of souls. A very clever persuader, in 1245 he prevented a schism in Germany arising from the conflict between the Council of Lyons and Emperor Frederick II. When Emperor Frederick II died, his son Manfred attempted to recover the imperial territories in southern Italy and, as Siena had sided with him, Pope Clement IV punished the city by banning the celebration of sacred rites. Ambrogio then hastened to the pope, who was in Orvieto, and defended his city with such vigour that he convinced the pontiff to remove the ban. The fame of his extraordinary diplomatic skills had great resonance and led to requests for him to intervene on several occasions, on which he quelled conflicts and brought peace with his words alone. Returning to Siena after many travels, he was Prior of the Dominican Convent and began an intense preaching activity in the city. He was buried in the Basilica of San Domenico, and the devotion of the people was immediate, as were the prodigious healings around his tomb. In 1443, his cult as a blessed was granted by Pope Eugene IV to the city, which celebrates his feast day on 20 March.

Sienese art has glorified Ambrogio Sansedoni for centuries, depicting him in Dominican habit, mainly with two iconographic attributes: the model of the city of Siena, which he holds in his hand to emphasise his role as protector, and/or a white dove whispering in his ear, the symbol of the Holy Spirit who guided him in his preaching and peacemaking activities. This is how he was painted by Sano di Pietro in the 15^th-century fresco in the Sala delle Lupe in the Palazzo Pubblico and sculpted by Tommaso Redi two centuries later in the bust placed at the top of the pediment of the central portal of the Duomo.

Blessed Gioacchino of Siena

Born into a noble family in Siena in 1258 and baptised with the name of Chiaramonte, he manifested from an early age a profound veneration for the Mother of God that led him to join the mendicant Ordine dei Servi di Maria (Order of the Servants of Mary), founded in Florence around 1233 by a group of seven laymen. Desirous of dedicating themselves to a life of poverty, penance, and prayer, the Servites began to attract an ever-growing number of people and to establish new communities outside the Florentine territory. When they arrived in Siena in 1250, the Servites immediately found favour with the population on account of the Marian cult they had in common with the city, and began to build a church with an adjoining convent. Here, Chiaramonte was welcomed by St Philip Benizi, at that time Prior General of the Order, and because of the love that bound him to the Virgin Mary, he chose the name Gioacchino (Joachim), the father of the Virgin, to be even more intimately united with her. Apart from a year spent in Arezzo, he spent all his life in the Sienese convent, dedicating himself to the suffering and carrying out the humblest and most difficult tasks. It is said that, when he found himself close to a patient with epilepsy, wishing to share his pain, he offered himself to God, asking Him to cure the patient and to have the illness transferred to him. The Lord heeded his request, and the illness accompanied him throughout his life, never causing him to lose the desire and strength to put himself at the service of others. When he was struck by another disease that caused ulcerative sores, he hid it from his brothers and did not wish to pray for deliverance. Gioacchino died on Good Friday in 1305 and was buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria dei Servi, where his remains can still be seen today, transferred to a reliquary-arche commissioned in 1686. He was declared blessed by Pope Pius V in 1609, and his feast day is celebrated in Siena on the Monday after Easter.

Rutilio Manetti’s beautiful painting of the Miracolo del Cero (Miracle of the Candle) (1635), housed in the Basilica dei Servi, is dedicated to an episode in the life of the Blessed. The scene depicts the moment during Mass when Gioacchino, suffering from an epileptic seizure, lets go of the candle he was holding and it miraculously remains suspended in the air, as if held by an angel of the Lord.

Blessed Giovanni Colombini

Coming from a wealthy Sienese family, where he was born in 1304, Giovanni was a refined young man who loved the comforts of high society life. He became a skilful merchant of fine fabrics and devoted himself for a long time to business between Siena and Perugia, where he owned another workshop. Thanks to his success, he was also called upon to hold important public offices such as that of Prior of the Consiglio del Popolo (Council of the People) during the Governo dei Nove (Government of the Nine), which led him to hold not only economic but also political power. He married Biagia Cerretani, who bore him two children, and at the age of fifty, according to some sources, underwent a sudden conversion after reading the story of Saint Mary of Egypt, the prostitute who had become a penitent. From that moment on, he decided to lead a life of prayer, poverty, and imitation of Christ.

Credit Yair Haklai

After a spiritual journey at the Certosa di Maggiano (Carthusian Monastery of Maggiano) and the Monastery of Santa Bonda, both on the outskirts of the city, he convinced his wife to follow the path of proclaiming the Gospel through solemn acts. Having donated all their possessions to the needy, they went as scullions to the same building where Giovanni had been prior, where they subjected themselves to public humiliation, mocked and derided by all. Barefoot and wearing a battered tunic, the Blessed went into the squares to preach poverty and joy as prerequisites for obtaining divine grace, attracting more and more followers and imitators who were called Gesuati (Jesuates) because of their habit of frequently repeating the name of Gesù (Jesus). Giovanni Colombini officially founded the Congregazione dei Gesuati (Congregation of the Jesuates) in 1360, whose members began to roam the cities and countryside of Tuscany, assisting the needy, singing lauds, and reciting prayers in the style of the jesters of the time, which earned them the nickname ‘God’s fools’. Considered dangerous by the civil authorities, who feared that their renunciation of wealth would become contagious, Giovanni and his followers were banned from the city, but they used their exile to spread the call to evangelical radicalism even more vigorously. Accused of heresy, they went to Viterbo in 1367 to meet Pope Urban V on his return from Avignon; the pope ascertained their genuine and sincere faith and approved the Congregation, stating that from then on they would be called the Poveri di Cristo (Poor of Christ) and would wear a white habit. Giovanni died a few months later, at peace with the Church, at the monastery of San Salvatore on Mount Amiata, but his body was transferred to Siena and today lies at the altar of the Madonna in the present-day Church of the Alberino. He was proclaimed blessed about two centuries later by Pope Gregory XIII and is celebrated in Siena on 31 July. The Congregation, after many ups and downs, was suppressed by Pope Clement IX in 1668.

An image of Blessed Colombini in his classic iconography can be found in the Santuario di Santa Caterina (Shrine of Saint Catherine), in the so-called Oratorio della Cucina (Oratory of the Kitchen), where Alessandro Casolani painted a canvas showing him wearing a white habit tied at the waist by a belt, a grey cloak, and clogs on his feet. His gaze is turned toward heaven where, among the clouds, the crucified Jesus appears, the Jesus he had so ardently tried to imitate.