Rainerius
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Rainerius (''c''. 1115/1117 – 1160) is the
patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of Pisa and patron saint of travellers.
André Vauchez André Vauchez FBA (born 24 July 1938, Thionville) is a French medievalist specialising in the history of Christian spirituality. He has studied at the École normale supérieure and the École française de Rome. His thesis, defended in 1978, ...
(1993) ''The Laity in the Middle Ages: Religious Beliefs and Devotional Practices'', Daniel E. Bornstein, ed., and Margery J. Schneider, trans. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press), 55.
His feast day is June 17, his name may also be spelled Raynerius, Rainerius, Rainier, Raineri, Rainieri, Ranieri, Raniero, or Regnier.


Life

Rainerius was the son of Gandulfo Scacceri, a prosperous merchant and
shipowner A ship-owner is the owner of a merchant vessel (commercial ship) and is involved in the shipping industry. In the commercial sense of the term, a shipowner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, usually for delivering cargo at a certain frei ...
of Pisa, and Mingarda Buzzaccherini. In his youth, he was a traveling musician. Later biographies stress his worldliness at this stage. He met, through his travels, a holy man, Alberto, a nobleman from Corsica "who wore a cloak of animal hair, like a goat", and had entered the monastery of Saint Vitus (San Vito) in Pisa and become renowned for his work for the poor.Vauchez (1993), 58–60. Rainerius was so impressed that he became a devout Christian. In 1146, Rainerius set himself up as a merchant in order to pay for his fare to the Holy Land. The business took him to many ports, and he became wealthy through trade with the sailors. His travels took him to the Holy Land, where, it is said, he had a vision by which he understood that his wealth was hindering him from devoting himself to God."St. Rainerius", ''FaithND'',, University of Notre Dame
/ref> He resolved to give up his wealth and live in complete poverty. He remained in the Holy Land for seven years, living as a beggar and visited the holy shrines (the Holy Sepulchre,
Mount Tabor Mount Tabor ( he, הר תבור) (Har Tavor) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee. In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabo ...
,
Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after Eas ...
,
Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...
). His austerity was so excessive, his later biographer noted, that God had to tell him to eat. In 1153 Rainerius returned to Pisa and entered the monastery of Saint Andrew (Sant'Andrea) and subsequently that of Saint Vitus. There he achieved fame and became a
preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...
, being treated like a saint even in his lifetime, reputedly expelling demons and performing miracles. His body was carried in a triumph through the city to its resting place in the Duomo of Pisa upon his death.Vauchez (1993), 67–69.


Veneration

His life was the subject of a cycle of frescos by Antonio Veneziano in the Campo Santo. According to later stories, he was canonised by Pope Alexander III. In 1161 or 1162 a Pisan
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...
named Benincasa wrote a long and invaluable ''vita'' of the saint. He says Rainerius resembled the son of God through his life of strict ''imitatio Christi'' (imitation of Christ).Vauchez (1993), 62–63. Benincasa also goes so far as to claim "a royal priesthood in Christ" of which Rainerius and all the baptised were a part. With the growth of Pisan influence, Rainerius's cult spread throughout the Mediterranean. In 1632 the
Archbishop of Pisa The Archdiocese of Pisa ( la, Archidioecesis Pisana) is a metropolitan see of the Catholic Church in Pisa, Italy.708, Pisan); on 30–31 July 1716
translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
to the altar of the Duomo. He is generally portrayed as a bearded hermit in a hairshirt holding a rosary; as a young pilgrim in a hairshirt carrying a banner with the Pisan cross; as being raised up by devils; or as dying in a hairshirt.


Notes


External links


Saints of June 17: Rainerius Scacceri of PisaSan Ranieri di Pisa


{{Authority control Italian saints Italian hermits People from the Province of Pisa 12th-century Christian saints Burials at Pisa Cathedral 1110s births 1160 deaths