May 20: Saint Bernardino of Siena
The Apostle of the Name of Jesus
He traveled throughout Italy in his time, preaching and calling for conversion, pacification and a return to God. He promoted the devotion to the Name of Jesus, which he coined in the trigram “IHS”, inserted inside the form of a sun with twelve rays. He is Bernardino of Siena, a Friar Minor of the Observance, who tried to bring back, first his fellow citizens, to a personal friendship with God and, then, throughout the Italian peninsula to the multitudes who came far and wide to listen to his sermons.
Born on September 8, 1380 in Massa Marittima in Tuscany into the noble Albizzeschi family, he was orphaned at an early age. Two aunts took care of him and brought him to live in the city of Siena. Dedicated to the study of philosophy and law, he felt attracted to the things of God and entered the Confraternity of the Disciplinati of Santa Maria della Scala, a company of young flagellants. During the plague of 1400 that struck Siena , he distinguished himself for the care he provided to the sick, to the point that he was entrusted with the management of the hospital of La Scala. The experience of the epidemic and its disastrous consequences brought about his full conversion. Having entered the Franciscan Order in 1402, he asked to complete his novitiate in the convent of Colombaio in the territory of Seggiano on Mount Amiata, where the community lived in absolute poverty and austerity in strict observance to the Rule and Testament of Saint Francis.
In September 1403, he made his profession and received priestly ordination the following year. He was one of the main promoters of the reform of the Observants, which thanks to him achieved extraordinary popularity. In 1404 he was ordained a priest and was entrusted with the task of preacher which earned him the patronage of publicists. He called the population to penance, denouncing gambling, luxury, usury, witchcraft, superstition and tense divisions. But he also insisted on condemning blasphemy, sin in general and urged people to observe the holy feast days. He managed to quell fights, settle enmities, obtain restitutions and eliminate gaming.
When preaching, Bernardino combined words and gestures. He had chosen what we now call a “logo”: a tablet on which he had engraved the trigram “IHS”, that is, “Jesus Savior of men”, surrounded by a sun. The aim was to make people understand that, with his death on the cross, Jesus is the Savior of men and is therefore the sun of the soul. In one of his sermons, Bernardino explained the meaning of this devotion: “We must know this Name, so that it shines and we do not keep silent”. The trigram was placed in all public and private places, replacing the coats of arms of families and various corporations that were at war with each other.
In 1411, he fell ill with the plague, which forced him to interrupt his preaching for several years. In 1416 he resumed preaching, managing to have over thirty thousand faithful listen to him in the main squares of Italian cities. On July 22, 1438, he was elected vicar general of the Friars Minor of the Observance and chose Saint John of Capestrano as his assistant. During his tenure, the convents of the Observants increased from 20 to 200. He refused the episcopate three times: for Siena, Ferrara and Urbino.
He died on May 20, 1444, in L'Aquila, where he is buried in the convent of San Francesco. He asked to be laid to rest in the bare earth, like the “little poor man”, St. Francis. Dozens of miracles occurred around his body. He was canonized only six years later, on May 24, 1450, by Pope Nicholas V.