Events

San Ranieri Celebrations | Pisa

14/06/2024 - 17/06/2024 ore: 8:00 - 20:00

Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa


Saturday 17 June : SOLEMNITY OF SAN RANIERI in the Cathedral
8 a.m. – 9.30 a.m. – 5 p.m. – Holy Masses
11 a.m. – Solemn Concelebration in Pontifical with priests celebrating their Priestly Jubilee
6.30 p.m. – Solemn Vespers in Pontifical

Who was St Ranieri: Ranieri Scacceri (Pisa, 1118 – Pisa, 17 June 1161) was an Italian hermit. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and is the patron saint of the city. His life underwent a profound transformation in the years of his youth: born in 1118 to a wealthy merchant from Pisa, he spent his youth in frivolities until, at the age of nineteen, he met Alberto, a hermit who had come to live in the city at the monastery of San Vito. Ranieri chose to abandon all his wealth to live in complete poverty. He then moved as a pilgrim to the Holy Land where he spent several years in penance.

He returned to Pisa in 1154 and retired to the monastery of San Vito where he had met the hermit years earlier. Already during his life, news had spread of miracles he had performed. He died in the odour of sanctity in 1161, on 17 June. Legend has it that when he died, the bells of Pisa rang on their own, all at once, without anyone touching them.

Many are the legends that accompany the figure of Ranieri and still live on in the city’s collective imagination, not only linked to his deeds while alive. For instance, from time immemorial, the Pisans have handed down the tradition of the storm of San Ranieri, according to which every year, despite the summer weather, the saint would test his fellow citizens by unleashing rain on their heads.

 

 

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