One of the greatest fighters against the moral and religious decadence produced by the Renaissance was Saint Bernardino of Siena, who traveled on foot through Italy preaching.
Newsroom (Gaudium Press) Bernardino was born in 1380 in Massa, central western Italy. His father was governor of that city and belonged to one of the most illustrious families in Siena.
At the age of seven, having been orphaned by his father and mother, he was taken by a pious aunt to Siena, where he received lessons from the best teachers.
A great devotee of Our Lady, from his adolescence he fasted every Saturday in her honor and maintained this penance throughout his life.
Very well-groomed and with a beautiful face, he shone for his purity, which he maintained with firmness and combativeness.
One day, walking through a square in Siena, one of the city’s main inhabitants made him an indecent proposal. Bernardino punched him hard in the jaw, and the people present booed the man, who ran away.
On another occasion, a depraved man invited him to commit a heinous sin, and he was repulsed with horror. When this happened again, the saint asked fervent Catholics to use stones to drive out the deviant.
When he appeared again, the good guys attacked him and he began to run in terror. Screaming fiercely and throwing stones, they chased him through streets and squares, but he managed to escape.
“He will be an illustrious man throughout Italy”
He became a Franciscan and was ordained a priest. Shortly afterwards, he attended a conference by St. Vincent Ferrer, who at one point said:
“O my children, there is in this meeting a religious of the Order of Friars Minor, who will soon be an illustrious man throughout Italy; his word and his examples will bear great fruit among the Christian people.”[1]
Punishment of a young man who mocked the saint
He stayed in Siena for 14 years. He then traveled on foot throughout Italy, preaching. His words were like torches of fire that strengthened the fervent, converted the lukewarm and struck down those obstinate in evil.
Perugia – the capital of Umbria in central Italy – was troubled by armed conflicts between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Saint Bernardino went there and declared that God had sent him as his Angel.
He gave four speeches calling the people to concord. In the last of these, which took place in a square, he asked those who wanted peace to stand on his right and those who didn’t want it to stand on his left.
They all stood at his right hand, except for a young nobleman who stayed in his place and murmured against the saint.
He said: “From our Lord Jesus Christ, I beg you to forgive those who have offended you and to wish them peace. Otherwise, you will not enter your house alive.
Mocking the words of the man of God, the young man made his way back to his home and, stepping on the threshold of the door, fell down dead.
Overwhelming victory in front of the Pope
He was a great promoter of devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. In the towns where he preached, people removed the symbols of the Guelphs or Ghibellines from the front of their houses and replaced them with the word “Jesus”.
In 1427, some clerics spread the slander that he was opposed to Catholic doctrine because of his way of invoking the Name of Jesus. An Augustinian wrote a work accusing him of idolatry because he encouraged people to venerate letters more than Jesus himself… He was thus fomenting a new heresy.
When they asked the pope to condemn him, Martin V summoned him to Rome to explain himself before the papal court. He went there accompanied by St. John of Capistrano, who had been his disciple and had become a great preacher.
When a debate was organized between the Saint’s defenders and his opponents, the victory of the man of God was overwhelming.
Martin V asked him to preach in the Eternal City, ending with a solemn procession in honor of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. He wanted to appoint him Bishop of Siena, but he refused.
Later, the Church instituted the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, celebrated on January 3rd.
Threatened with death by the Duke of Milan
He resumed his travels and, in Milan, celebrated Mass in the cathedral, which was full to capacity, in the presence of Duke Philip-Maria Visconti, governor of the city.
Visconti had bad manners and threatened him with death if he continued to preach about impurity. But, fearing God and not men, he continued to speak out against vices and brought about a large number of conversions of sinners. And the duke, humiliated, did not carry out his criminal threat.
Elected Superior of the Order of Friars Minor in 1438, he promoted a reinvigoration of the Franciscans. Five years later, he asked to be relieved of his post in order to continue preaching. He carried out his apostolate in the northern regions of Italy with great fruit and refused all the offers of bishoprics made to him.
In 1444, despite being struck down by a strong fever, he continued his preaching. When he arrived at a convent in L’Aquila, southern Italy, sensing that death was approaching, he received the sacraments and had them placed in the ground.
As the friars sang the antiphon: “Father, I have made your name known to men, and now I come to you”, he gave his soul to God. It was May 20, 1444.
He preached very hard truths to the people
He wrote several works in which he dealt with the following subjects, among others: the Most Holy Name of Jesus, Our Lady Mediatrix of all graces, St. Joseph. And a short treatise in which he analyzes the rules for the discernment of spirits[2].
Describing a painting of Saint Bernardino, Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira commented:
On his face can be seen the seriousness “of the man who feels himself clothed with a divine mission, called to tell very hard truths to his contemporaries, and who has in fact said them. He is fulfilling his mission, and the embers will be heaped on the heads of those who don’t listen to him.
“It’s a soul filled with ideas, with convictions about the transcendence and infinite perfection of God, and the high eternal destiny. A look of fire. There’s no time to talk to him about trifles. What greatness and seriousness!”[3]
Let us ask St. Bernardine of Siena, whose memory is celebrated on May 20, for the grace to have an ardent love for the Church and to execrate the heinousness that is spreading today.
By Paulo Francisco Martos
Notions of Church History
[1] THUREAU-DANGIN, Paul. Saint Bernardine of Siena. A popular preacher in Renaissance Italy. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1937, p.37.
[Cf. ROHRBACHER, René-François. Lives of the Saints. São Paulo: Editora das Américas. 1959, v. IX. p. 85-102. VACANT, A; MANGENOT, E. Dictionnaire de théologie catholique. Paris: Letouzey et Ané. 1905, v. 2-I. columns 787-790.[3] CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. A look of fire, grandeur and seriousness. In Dr. Plinio. São Paulo. Ano XVII, n.194 (May 2014), p. 2.
Compiled by Dominic Joseph