Every May 20, the Church celebrates San Bernardino of Siena, Franciscan minor friar and priest, distinguished preacher and great spreader of devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
The saint says in one of his sermons: “The Name of Jesus is the light of preachers, since it is his radiance that makes his word announced and heard.” For Bernardino, the name of Jesus alone is enough to evoke all good for the soul, because he is the only one capable of penetrating the depths of the heart and ruling true Love there. Therefore, he who announces Jesus must know and love the holy name of God.
Receive the main news from ACI Prensa by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channels today:
On the other hand, the holy friar of Siena contributed in an exemplary way to the promotion and strengthening of the Franciscan order, thanks to both his intellectual capacity and his spiritual depth, gifts that he put at the service of the children of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Passion for preaching
Saint Bernardino Albizzeschi was born in Massa Marittima, Italy, in 1380; He was orphaned by his father and mother, and was raised by an aunt. As a child he liked to play at building altars and imitate the priests when they preached.
As a teenager he would not stop feeding his pious heart, so he began to exercise himself in guarding his senses and attending the sacraments. This helped him maintain a life of grace, embodied in prayer and study. These spiritual practices strengthened his virtue, especially the virtue of purity, which he understood as the care of those who love the work of God and love themselves rightly.
Franciscan
When he was 20 years old, a great plague hit Tuscany, the region where he lived. So, he and his friends decided to volunteer as helpers at the city hospital to help the sick. At the risk of his life, the group of brothers worked at the facility for several years, until the epidemic disappeared.
Later, Bernardino would knock on the doors of the convent and be accepted into the Order of the Friars Minor of Saint Francis of Assisi, in which he was ordained a priest. As a priest he dedicated himself in a particular way to preaching, to the point that he would be recognized for the care he put into the preparation of his sermons.
Missionary
It was Saint Vincent Ferrer who would ask Fray Bernardino, in the year 1406, to dedicate himself to the evangelization of the Italian peninsula, a task he carried out for twelve years. During this period Bernardino probably lived in the Franciscan monastery on the mountain of Capriola, near Siena. That would be his “operations headquarters.”
In Capriola he remained dedicated to prayer and planning his apostolic trips, which he would carry out systematically, managing to cover the territory of present-day Italy almost completely.
Many miracles and portents were wrought through his intercession, among them the expulsion of a demon that had possessed a prostitute from his native Siena.
In the name of Jesus
As an active propagator of devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus and the Eucharist, the saint used to carry a tablet, sometimes held on his chest, which showed the figure of a consecrated host from which rays of light came out, and on whose center the monogram could be seen IHSwhich the saint helped popularize as a symbol of the Eucharist.
The saint went through hard times. Victim of a series of confusing comments and rumors, San Bernardino had to live a difficult test: he was suspended as a preacher by Pope Martin V. Providentially, the intervention of San Juan Capistrano, who knew of his virtue and self-sacrifice, helped him to fix this situation.
Saint Bernardino of Siena was also a great reformer of the Franciscan Order and an outstanding organizer. With ingenuity and trust in Divine Providence he founded more than 200 monasteries of the branch to which he belonged: the Franciscans of the Observance (Friars Minor of the Observance).
In adulthood, he was summoned to be bishop, but the Pope had to excuse him from such a position on three occasions, since Bernardino refused to accept such responsibility. He did not feel suitable for such a task. He begged again and again the Pontiff to leave him in the work he loved most: his service as a preacher.
Concern for the dramas of his time: ethics and economics
Influenced by many scholastic thinkers, San Bernardino dealt with issues of an evident social and economic nature from a theological and moral point of view.
These were times when the Church was striving to respond to the relatively new circumstances that were arising, such as the growth of trade and the accumulation of wealth – an example of this was, for example, the emerging economic abundance of northern Italy. ; or the appearance of figures such as the businessman or merchant. The formation of workers’ unions and the appearance of financial entities constituted real challenges for the teaching of the Church and San Bernardino wanted to contribute to the understanding of the new circumstances.
In a set of sermons entitled “About contracts and usury“, San Bernardino reflects and puts moral limits on certain economic practices that spread rapidly, the vast majority of the time, in open contradiction with evangelical values, such as the dignity of the person and fair treatment.
On the other hand, Saint Bernardino of Siena is recognized for having reviewed a long list of moral issues, including sodomy, quite widespread in some Italian towns. Such shamelessness led to the discrediting of an entire culture that claimed to be “Christian”, but which had dedicated itself to the cultivation of the pleasures of the body, forgetting about the soul.
The spirit of the holy friar’s preaching was always to invite or encourage the practice of good and thereby seek the salvation of souls – something that is consistent with attention to the most practical or “earthly” social problems. In that effort he was always aided by his direct and unambiguous style of preaching.
Reformer of the children of Francis of Assisi
Saint Bernardino of Siena was a promoter of the order to which he belonged, the Observant Franciscan Order (friars minor). In the field of spiritual renewal of the friars he was a tireless fighter. He was not the founder of the Franciscans, as some have mistakenly maintained, but rather their zealous promoter and reformer.
The fruit of the Franciscan’s efforts was the increase in the number of friars from his entry into the order – there were barely 130 – until the day of his death – when it had reached approximately four thousand.
The saint is responsible for the founding and reform of at least three hundred convents or monasteries. Furthermore, Fray Bernandino was one of the first Franciscan authorities to send missionaries to the East.
According to his biographers, presaging that the end of his life was approaching, the friar spent long hours in prayer. It is said that he witnessed an apparition of Saint Peter Celestine, who confirmed to him that he would soon be with God.
Our saint left for the Father’s House in 1444, and just six years later he was canonized by Pope Nicholas V, on May 25, 1450, in one of the shortest canonization processes in history.
…
If you want to know more about Saint Bernardino of Siena, we recommend this article from the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Bernardino_de_Siena.
More information:
Central Editorial
The Catholic Information Agency – ACI Prensa, is part of the news agencies of the ACI Group, one of the largest generators of Catholic news content in five languages and which has belonged since June 2014 to the EWTN Global Catholic Network family, the largest Catholic television network in the world, founded in 1981 by Mother Angelica in Irondale, Alabama (United States), and which reaches more than 85 million homes in 110 countries and 16 territories.