Of the characteristics attributed to saints, the one which is most closely connected to their non-self-inflicted bodily suffering is patientia, patience. It means the saint's acceptance of various earthly tribulations and is closely linked to their imitatio Christi, often also to their raptures and other spiritual experiences. Patientia is among the key features in the articuli of the canonization hearings. Depending on the process in question, the aspects of the saints’ patience that were accentuated and the importance physical suffering had in them varied. It is often quite difficult to deduce the origin of the dissimilarities between various processes or between individual witness accounts, that is, whether they were the choice of the procurators or commissioners or a result of the communal negotiations regarding their holiness and therefore inherent in the saint's fama. Since the two factors constantly interacted, both had an influence on how much weight was given to the saint's infirmity and how it was reconstructed in the hearing. As will be shown in the discussion below, it is evident, however, that the saint's social status, the events of their life, their gender, and their geographic origin all played an important role in the emphases the commissioners and the witnesses gave to bodily infirmity.