San Ranieri Market Fair, 17th June | Pisa

Every year on June 17 the market fair of the patron saint San Ranieri takes place with stalls open from 8.00 to 20.00 between Piazza dei Cavalieri, Via Corsica, Via dei Mille and Piazza Cavallotti.

Who was San Ranieri ? Ranieri Scacceri (Pisa, 1118 – Pisa, June 17, 1161) was an hermit, venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and the patron saint of the city.
His life had a profound transformation in the years of his youth: born in 1118 to a wealthy merchant of Pisa, he spent his youth in frivolity until, at 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 stayed several years in penance.

He returned to Pisa in 1154 and retired to the monastery of San Vito where years before he had met the hermit. Already during his life had spread the news of miracles performed by him. He died in odor of sanctity in 1161, on June 17.

Legend has it that at his death the bells of Pisa rang by themselves, all together, without anyone touching them. Many are the legends that accompany the figure of Ranieri and still live in the collective imagination of the city, not only related to his deeds when he was alive. For example, since time immemorial, the inhabitants of Pisa have handed down the tradition about the storm of San Ranieri, according to which every year, in spite of the summer climate, the saint would test his fellow citizens by unleashing the rain on their heads.