Bona of Pisa

Bona of Pisa (c. 1156–1207) was a member of the Third order of the Augustinian nuns who helped lead travellers on pilgrimages. In 1962, she was canonized a saint in the Catholic Church by Pope John XXIII. She is considered the patron saint of travellers, and specifically couriers, guides, pilgrims, flight attendants, and the city of Pisa.

Biography A native of Pisa, she was born in the parish of San Martino in Guazzolongo. Her mother, Berta, was Corsican; her father, named Bernardo, was a Pisan merchant. When she was three years old, her father left and never returned, leaving his family in difficult straits.

By the age of ten, she had dedicated herself as an Augustinian tertiary. Four years later, she made the first of her many journeys, going to see her father who was a Crusader near Jerusalem. On her trip home with some of her traveling companions, she was captured by Muslim pirates on the Mediterranean Sea, wounded, and subsequently imprisoned. She also made pilgrimages to Rome and to the shrine of the Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano.

Despite being ill at the time, she attempted a tenth trip, but returned home to Pisa, dying shortly thereafter in the room she kept near the Church of San Martino, where her body has been preserved to the present day.

Veneration Roman Martyrology: "In Pisa, Saint Bona, virgin, who made frequent pilgrimages with devotion to the Holy Land, to Rome and to Compostela."

Her cult was local, limited to the diocese of Pisa. She is depicted as a nun with a cross or a pilgrim's staff. Her feast day is celebrated on 29 May. In 1962, Pope John XXIII named her the patron saint of Italian tour guides, guides and flight attendants.

She is also regarded as a patron saint of the city of Pisa.