Saint Bernardine of Siena
Priest
- Feast Day
- May 20
- Life
- 1380–1444
- Canonized
- 1450
- Order
- Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans, OFM Observants)
- Born
- Massa Marittima, Republic of Siena
Saint Bernardine was born at Massa Marittima in Tuscany on September 8, 1380, of the noble Albizzeschi family of Siena. Orphaned young, he was raised by aunts in Siena. As a young man during the plague of 1400 he led a group of companions to nurse the sick at Siena's Scala hospital. He entered the Franciscan Order in 1402 and was ordained priest in 1404.
From about 1417 he was the leading itinerant preacher of fifteenth-century Italy, drawing immense crowds in the open piazzas of Siena, Florence, Milan, Rome, and many other cities. He was a principal force in the Franciscan Observant reform, serving as Vicar General of the Observants from 1438 to 1442. He declined three appointments to bishoprics (Siena 1427, Ferrara 1431, Urbino 1435).
Bernardine is most associated with the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, which he promoted by displaying a tablet bearing the IHS monogram surrounded by twelve rays of the sun, the trigram he made the emblem of his preaching. He died at L'Aquila on May 20, 1444, while traveling to preach. Pope Nicholas V canonized him on May 24, 1450, only six years after his death.
The IHS monogram of Bernardine, later adopted by Saint Ignatius of Loyola for the Society of Jesus, is a visual catechesis of Philippians 2:10, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend. His preaching was directed against usury, faction, and superstition, and toward repentance, restitution, and devotion to the saving Name.
Patronages
preachers · advertisers · wool weavers
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Bernardine of Siena
9 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Bernardine of Siena's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. Bernardine of Siena — Skead, ON
- St Bernardine of Siena — Buckingham, ENG
- Saint Bernardine Catholic Church — San Bernardino, CA
- St. Bernardine of Siena Parish
- St. Bernardine Church (St. Luke and St. Bernardine Parish) — Forest Park, IL
- St. Bernardine of Siena — Woodland Hills, CA
- Saint Bernardine Catholic Church — Baltimore, MD
- Saint Bernardine of Siena Catholic Church — Suitland, MD
- Saint Bernardine's Church — Forest Park, IL
Sources