Abstract
This chapter argues that during the thirteenth century, and contemporaneous with the rise of the Franciscan Order in communal Italy, the path to sanctity that remained a true lay option began to veer in a new direction. In Raimondo of Piacenza's vita, the lay saint's charity work became the work of social justice. This new paradigm of an ideal lay life, which can be called the communal lay saint, came to its fullest expression once civic authorities became the primary patrons of contemporary lay saints' cults. As merchants and artisans came to dominate civic governments, the pious layman's commitment to serving his civic lay population through works of charity found a receptive audience. In these cults, the penitential commitment of an extraordinary layman was once again presented as transforming him into a living miracle worker. But this time, the lay saint's charisma was not focused on healing a broken church but rather on identifying, soothing, and sometimes fixing the economic and social inequalities of a commune.