Bernardino of Siena
| Bernardino of Siena, O.F.M. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Confessor | |
| Born |
8 September 1380 Massa Marittima, Italy |
| Died | 20 May 1444 (aged 63) Aquila, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Canonized | 24 May 1450, Rome, Papal States by Pope Nicholas V |
| Feast | 20 May |
| Attributes | Tablet with IHS; three mitres representing the bishoprics which he refused |
| Patronage | Advertisers; advertising; Aquila, Italy; chest problems; Italy; Diocese of San Bernardino, California; gambling addicts; public relations personnel; public relations work; Bernalda, Italy |
Bernardino of Siena, (also known as Bernardine; 8 September 1380 – 20 May 1444) was an Italian priest and Franciscan missionary. He was a systematizer of Scholastic economics. His popular preaching made him famous during his own lifetime, although it was frequently directed against sorcery, gambling, infanticide, witchcraft, sodomy (homosexuality) and usury (as commonly practiced by Jews). Bernardino was later canonised by the Catholic Church as a saint - where is also referred to as “the Apostle of Italy” for his efforts to revive the country's Catholic faith during the 15th century.
Two hagiographical lives of Bernardino of Siena were written by two of his friends; the one the same year in which he died, by Barnaby of Sienna; the other by Maffei Veggio, soon after his death.
Bernardino was born in 1380 to the noble Albizeschi family in Massa Marittima (Tuscany), a Sienese town of which his father, Albertollo degli Albizeschi, was then governor. Left orphaned at six, he was raised by a pious aunt. In 1397, after a course of civil and canon law, he joined the Confraternity of Our Lady attached to the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala church. Three years later, when the plague visited Siena, he ministered to the plague-stricken, and, assisted by ten companions, took upon himself for four months entire charge of this hospital. He escaped the plague but was so exhausted that a fever confined him for several months. In 1403 he joined the Observant branch of the Order of Friars Minor (the Franciscan Order), with a strict observance of St. Francis' Rule. Bernardino was ordained a priest in 1404 and was commissioned as a preacher the next year. About 1406 St. Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican friar and missionary, while preaching at Alessandria in the Piedmont region of Italy, allegedly foretold that his mantle should descend upon one who was then listening to him, and said that he would return to France and Spain, leaving to Bernardino the task of evangelizing the remaining peoples of Italy.
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