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The Beata Giovanna da Signa
The Beata Giovanna, patron of Signa, was born in 1242 (or 1266).
We only have a little knowledge about her life, except the miracles that have been attributed to her, both when she was still living and after her death.
The main source is the code "Beatae Johannae life et miracula" (1383–1396), that has recently been transcribed and published by the Signa Archaeological Group in the volume titled Vita e miracoli della Beata Giovanna da Signa (Life and Miracles of theBeata Giovanna of Signa- Memories of a community).
In this manuscript we find some information about the twenty-seven miracles attributed to her: six of them while she was still living, and twenty-one after her death.
The only knowledge concerning her life is about the place of birth: The Beata and alma Virgin Giovanna was born in a castle situated near Florence.
This sentence, focusing on her place of birth, was the reason why Signa and the Community of San Martino to Gangalandi (Lastra a Signa) have been quarrelling: the last one is still demanding her remains.
However it is improbable that being native "of the other shore of the Arno" she had chosen Signa as the place for her hermitage: an expenditures book of the Capitani della Compagnia d’Orsammichele (Captains of the Company ofOrsanmichele), in Florence, is the only source going back to the period when Giovanna was still alive; in 1306 it registers a deposit of a sum of money for beggars alla ‘Giovanna romita di Signa’ (to the hermit Giovanna of Signa).
It is still going on the "quarrel" about the point of the Giovanna belonging to any Monastic Order (the most probable are the Vallombrosiano Orderand the Franciscan one), or the simple choice that she made to be a hermit and spend her life praying.
According to some sources her death is believed to have been on 9th November 1307, others date it from 1348; after her death, different ways of veneration started to develop around Tuscany.
The first data of documented celebrations goes back to 1383; while the Beata Giovanna Day, on Easter Monday, recalls the annual procession founded in 1385, for the occasion of the second transfer of the body.
In 1385 theOpera della Beata Giovanna was founded, it had been organising celebrations and administering assets for almost five centuries by purchasing works of art, reorganizing and broadening both the chapel containing the body of the Beata and the church of S.Giovanni including it.
In 1785 theOpera, and other religious companies, were suppressed by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, but the devotion to the Beata did not stop, continuing until today. The Beata Giovanna
is venerated, not only, by people from Signa, but also from Prato, Florence, Pistoia and the Mugello area, as the numerous gifts and bound were left for favours received testify. The Medici family was devoted to the Saint too; in 1439, they wanted to carry the body in the procession in Florence.
This devotion chapel and the Church of S. Giovanni be filled with votive offerings, it increased the works of art as well, like the two succession of frescoes beside the main altar, numerous panels, some of which have just been restored like the two works by Giovanni Gagliardi.