“non vi maravigliate se dico santo”: Fashioning Observant Saints and Blessed around 1500 in L’Aquila and the Abruzzo Region

Pavla Langer

As one of the crucial protagonists of the Franciscan reform movement and the first Observant friar to be canonized, Bernardino of Siena (†1444) was an ideal figurehead to promote this Franciscan branch’s legitimacy. His sudden death brought the Central Italian city of L’Aquila – at the time second most important center in the Kingdom of Naples – into the possession of his remains. Bernardino’s mortal remains were kept intact and undecayed, allowing for the whole body to be exposed on certain occasions. Along with the Sienese saint, there were other minor figures belonging to the local Observant movements around which similar devotional practices evolved, such as conserving dead bodies entirely and incorrupt or displaying the remains within their tomb monuments using specific devices. The project aims at shedding light on converging strategies in the cult of venerated Observants in the Abruzzo region, among them the Augustinian Hermits Andrea da Montereale and Antonio Turriani as well as Franciscans like Vincenzo dall’Aquila or Antonia da Firenze.
Starting from the protagonist Bernardino of Siena, a first part of search is dedicated to the Observant friars’ contribution to the pietas civica of L’Aquila with Bernardino’s cult as its focal point during the second half of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. The promotion and planning of the burial church and convent San Bernardino as well as the construction of a lavish tomb monument for the saint illustrate how mendicant convents became entwined with the city. We shall scrutinize some instances of the Observants’ participation in discourses on civic values related to the studia humanitatis. For example, the concept of magnificenza was introduced to foster the building initiative of San Bernardino, a complex that became pivotal for L’Aquila’s civic cultural identity as well as for the brethren’s attempt to fashion the city into a second center of Franciscanism beyond Assisi.