13 Facts About Rainerius

Rainerius was the son of Gandulfo Scacceri, a prosperous merchant and shipowner of Pisa, and Mingarda Buzzaccherini.

Rainerius 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 in Pisa and become renowned for his work for the poor.

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.

Rainerius's 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.

Rainerius resolved to give up his wealth and live in complete poverty.

Rainerius remained in the Holy Land for seven years, living as a beggar and visited the holy shrines.

Rainerius's 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 and subsequently that of Saint Vitus.

Rainerius's body was carried in a triumph through the city to its resting place in the Duomo of Pisa upon his death.

Rainerius's life was the subject of a cycle of frescos by Antonio Veneziano in the Campo Santo.

Rainerius says Rainerius resembled the son of God through his life of strict imitatio Christi.

Rainerius 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.