Bernardino of Siena, OFM (also Bernardine or Bernadine; born Bernardino degli Albizzeschi; 8 September 138020 May 1444), was an Italian Catholic priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in the Republic of Siena. He was a systematizer of scholastic economics.
His preaching and his "bonfires of the vanities" established his reputation in his own lifetime; they were frequently directed against gambling, infanticide, sorcery/witchcraft, sodomy, Jews, Gypsies, usury, and the like. Bernardino was canonized by Pope Nicholas V in 1450 and is called "the Apostle of Italy" for his efforts to revive Italian Catholicism in the 15th century."St. Bernardine of Siena,'Apostle of Italy'", Catholic News Agency
Sources Two hagiographies of Bernardino of Siena were written by two of his friends; the one the same year in which he died, by Barnaba of Siena; the other by the humanist Maffeo Vegio. Another important contemporary biographical source is that written by the Sienese diplomat Leonardo Benvoglienti, who was another personal acquaintance of Bernardino's. The historian Franco Mormando notes that "[t]he first works to be produced about Bernardine right after his death [in 1444] were biographical: by the year 1480, there were already over a dozen written accounts of the preacher's life".. See also Mormando (1999) note 90 on p. 250 for a list of critical studies of these early lives. In note 91 on the same page, Mormando says that Benvoglienti was a classmate of Bernardino's.
Life
Early life Bernardino was born in 1380 in the Republic of Siena, to the noble Albizzeschi family of Massa Marittima, Tuscany, a comun in the contado of Province of Grosseto, of which his father, Albertollo degli Albizzeschi, 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. 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 strict observance of Saint Francis's Rule. Bernardino was ordained a priest in 1404 and was commissioned as a preacher the next year. In about 1406 Saint 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.
Bernardino as preacher
Preaching style Before Bernardino, most preachers either read a prepared speech or recited a rhetorical oration. Instead of remaining cloistered and preaching only during the liturgy, Bernardino preached directly to the public. For more than 30 years, he preached all over Italy and played a great part in the religious revival of the early fifteenth century. Although he had a weak and hoarse voice, he is said to have been one of the greatest preachers of his time.Foley, O.F.M., Leonard, "St. Bernadine of Siena", Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons, and Feast, Franciscan Media His style was simple, populist, familiar, and abounding in imagery. Cynthia Polecritti, in her biography of Bernardino, notes that the texts of his sermons "are acknowledged masterpieces of colloquial Italian". He was an elegant and captivating preacher, and his use of popular imagery and creative language drew large crowds to hear his reflections. Invitations were often extended by the civil authorities rather than the ecclesiastical, as sometimes the towns would make money from the crowds that came to hear him.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bernardino chose his themes not from the daily liturgy, but from the ordinary lives of the people of Siena. He selected biblical themes to focus on the immediate interests of his audience. This proved effective in drawing their attention.Meussig, Carolyn. "Bernardino da Siena and Observant Preaching as a Vehicle for Religious Transformation", A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond, (James Mixson and Bert Roest, eds.) Brill, 2015 Women comprised the majority of listeners, and the size of the crowd varied according to the day, time, and topic of the sermon. Polecritti notes that the subject matter of his sermons reveals much about the contemporary context of 15th-century Italy.Horan OFM, Daniel, "The Complicated History of and the Popular Preaching of St. Bernardine of Siena", HNP Today Newsletter, Vol. 45, No. 10, May 18, 2011
Bernardino travelled from place to place, remaining nowhere more than a few weeks. These journeys were all made on foot. In the towns, the crowds assembled to hear him were at times so great that it became necessary to erect a pulpit on the marketplace.Thureau-Dangin, Paul, Saint Bernardine of Siena, J. M. Dent & Co., London, 1906 Like Vincent Ferrer, he usually preached at dawn. His hearers, so as to ensure themselves standing room, would arrive beforehand, many coming from far-distant villages. The sermons often lasted three or four hours. He was invited to Ferrara in 1424, where he preached against the excess of luxury and immodest apparel. In Bologna, he spoke out against gambling, much to the dissatisfaction of the card manufacturers and sellers. Returning to Siena in April 1425, he preached there for 50 consecutive days. His success was said to be remarkable. "Bonfires of the Vanities" were held at his sermon sites, where people threw mirrors, high-heeled shoes, perfumes, locks of false hair, cards, dice, chess pieces, and other frivolities to be burned. Bernardino enjoined his listeners to abstain from blasphemy, indecent conversation, and games of chance, and to observe feast days.
Bernardino was not universally popular. In L'Aquila, someone once sawed the legs of the pulpit, causing him to fall into the crowd.
In 1427, Bernardino was called to Siena to allay factional strife; however, he preferred preaching to being an arbitrator. When he spoke against factions and vendettas, he was uncharacteristically tactful. To Policretti, this suggests that the situation could have become violent at the smallest provocation.Polecritti, Cynthia L. Preaching Peace in Renaissance Italy. Bernardino of Siena & His Audience. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2000.
Both while he was alive and after his death (the first edition of his works, for the most part elaborate sermons, was printed at Lyon in 1501), the legacy of Bernardino was far from tame: of a strict, moral temper, he preached fiery sermons against many classes of people and these were riddled with denunciations. He characterized some women as "witches", and called for sodomites to be ostracized or otherwise removed from the human community. He thus was a champion of what historian Robert Moore called "the persecuting society" of late medieval Christian Europe.R. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987
On women The historian Franco Mormando notes that in the twenty large volumes of Bernardino's extant printed works, the saint has much to say about women and to women, "married, unmarried, widowed, and those enclosed in nunneries". However, at the end of his study, "Bernardino of Siena: 'Great Defender' or 'Merciless Betrayer' of Women?", Mormando concludes: "...despite his sincere moments of greater empathy with women, Bernardino proves to be very much in the mainstream of writings on women of the Trecento and Quattrocento ... Though, in his compassion for her, Bernardine would have the woman's domestic and social 'cage' be as comfortable and as humane as possible, it is there in the same traditional cage that Bernardino nonetheless wants her to remain, under the guard of father, brother, husband, or parish priest."Franco Mormando, "Bernardino of Siena: 'Great Defender' or 'Merciless Betrayer' of Women?," in Italica, vol. 75, no. 1, Spring 1998, pp. 22–40, here p. 34.
Bernardino presented the Virgin Mary as an example for women. He advised girls never to talk to a man unless one of their parents was present.Tinagli, Paola. Women in Italian Renaissance Art, Manchester University Press, 1997 In one sermon Bernardino cautions women about marrying men who care more for their dowries than for them."St. Bernardino of Siena: Two Sermons on Wives and Widows", Life in the Middle Ages, (C. G. Coulton, ed.), (New York: Macmillan, c. 1910), Vol. 1, 216–229 On one occasion he asked mothers to come to church with their daughters alone so that he speak to them frankly about sexual abuse in marriage. He also spoke against the confinement of unwilling girls to convents.Herlihy, David. Women, Family and Society in Medieval Europe, Berghahn Books, 1995 He presented Saint Joseph as an example for men, while emphasizing Mary's obedience to her husband.
Against sodomy and homosexuality
On sodomy (predominantly directed towards homosexual men), Bernardino keenly pointed out the reputation of the Italians beyond their own borders. In the same work is a detailed analysis of Bernardino's preaching against witchcraft and Jews. He particularly decried Florentine lenience towards men having sex with men; in Verona, he approvingly reminded listeners that a man was quartered and his limbs hung from the city gates for homosexual intercourse; in Genoa, men were regularly burned if found guilty of sodomy; and in Venice a sodomite had been tied to a column along with a barrel of pitch and brushwood and set on fire. He advised the people of Siena to do the same. In 1424 he dedicated three consecutive sermons in Florence to the subject, in the course of a Lenten sermon preached in Santa Croce, he admonished his hearers:
In Siena, Bernardino preached a full sermon against sodomy, including homosexuality, in 1425 and then 1427; linking it directly with fears about the depopulation as it did not lead to children and was therefore unproductive: "You don't understand that [sodomy] is the reason you have lost half your population over the last twenty-five years". Over time his teachings helped mould public sentiment and dispel indifference over controlling sodomy and homosexual conduct more vigorously. Everything unpredictable or calamitous in human experience he attributed to sodomy, including floods and the plague, as well as linking the practice to local population decline. After one of his sermons in Siena, four "irate sodomites" attempted to beat him with clubs.
Trial in Rome
Especially known for his devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, which was previously associated with John of Vercelli, Henry Suso, and the Dominican order, Bernardino used the symbol IHS—the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek—in Gothic letters on a blazing sun. This was to displace the insignia of factions (for example, Guelphs and Ghibellines). The devotion spread, and the symbol began to appear in churches, homes and public buildings. Opponents thought it a dangerous innovation.