medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
One of the new breed of Italian lay saints prominent in his century, Ranieri of Pisa (d. 1160; also Raniero; in Latin, Raynerius and Rainerius) was a merchant, pilgrim, hermit, and thaumaturge. He eventually became Pisa's patron saint. According to his lengthy and engaging twelfth-century Vita by his contemporary Benincasa (BHL 7084) he was the initially frivolous son of a wealthy Pisan merchant. After encountering an hermit he turned to a life of serious mercantile labor and of self-denial, ultimately earning the funds necessary to undertake a pilgrimage to Palestine. Once there he visited the major holy sites, walking barefoot, wearing a hair shirt, and overcoming perils (e.g. encounters with demons; the two fierce hyenas that he tamed when he was journeying to Mount Tabor). At Tabor he stayed at a monastery, occasionally visiting the mountain itself and there experiencing visions (one being that of the Transfiguration). After that he went to Jerusalem where he lived very humbly and spent much time praying in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Returning to Pisa, Ranieri spent his last years at the monasteries of Sant'Andrea in Chinzica and San Vito, engaged in lay preaching, founded and worked in a hospital, and became famous for miracles. After his death on this day people of Pisa brought his body to the cathedral, where it still remains. Here's a view of his effigy reliquary there:
http://tinyurl.com/jumxfa3
Ranieri is the principal patron saint of the city of Pisa and of the diocese of Pisa. Today is his feast day there and his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Ranieri of Pisa:
a) as portrayed in relief (at right, operating a water miracle), probably by Guglielmo of Pisa, on a later twelfth-century holy water font (ca. 1160-1165, if authentic) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/471922
http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/cl/original/DP167915.jpg
b) as four times portrayed in relief in a set of early fourteenth-century sculptures, attributed to Tino da Camaino, for his early fourteenth-century tomb-altar (ca. 1305-1306) in Pisa's cathedral, now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo there:
1) at far left left (in a hair shirt) in the central panel of the upper portion:
http://tinyurl.com/hfk7cq2
2) in the three scenes of the lower portion:
http://tinyurl.com/hm8997r
http://tinyurl.com/jd3hbw4
http://tinyurl.com/jskfham
The sculpture as a whole:
http://tinyurl.com/hv9fkdq
c) as depicted by Cecco di Pietro in a later fourteenth- or very early fifteenth-century panel painting (betw. ca. 1370 and 1402) in private ownership:
http://tinyurl.com/gnpgrae
d) as depicted (upper register; in the Holy Land) by Andrea da Firenze (Andrea di Bonaiuto) in his later fourteenth-century frescoes of scenes of Ranieri in the Camposanto in Pisa (ca. 1377-1379; badly damaged in World War II, since somewhat restored and recently re-hung):
http://tinyurl.com/gl584cy
Detail view (arriving by ship):
http://www.wga.hu/art/a/andrea/firenze/various/x_rainer.jpg
Detail view (on board the ship):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ramas2k/6468455703/
e) as depicted (lower register; returning to Pisa) by Antonio Veneziano in his later fourteenth-century frescoes of scenes of Ranieri in the Camposanto in Pisa (ca. 1384-1387; badly damaged in World War II, since somewhat restored and recently re-hung):
http://tinyurl.com/h9gmumf
Detail view (on the ship):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ramas2k/6468425401/
f) as depicted by Antonio di Francesco on a late fourteenth-century processional banner (ca. 1384-1387) in the Museo nazionale di San Matteo in Pisa:
http://tinyurl.com/j83okz7
A closer view:
http://tinyurl.com/zlsv2yu
g) as depicted (at upper left, flanking the Madonna and Christ Child; at upper right, St. Torpes) by Turino Vanni in a late fourteenth-century panel painting (1397) in Pisa's church of San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno in Pisa:
http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/foto/40000/23600/23562.jpg [grayscale]
Detail view (upper portion; in color):
http://tinyurl.com/hfzrq9j
Detail view (Ranieri; in color):
http://tinyurl.com/h7c6hrd
Best,
John Dillon
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