Preaching the word of God: Saint Bernardine of Siena - Mary Manning

Bernardine was born in 1380 at Massa di Carrara, Italy, famous for its marble quarries where Michelangelao sourced his marble, and died in 1444 at Aquila. His feast day is 20 May..

MM: One strong influence on your life was the plague that befell Siena in 1400. Would you tell us about that.

B: When I was seventeen, I enrolled in the Confraternity of Our Lady in the hospital of Scala to serve the sick. For four years bubonic plague besieged Siena. As many as twenty people died every day in the hospital. I persuaded twelve young men to help me comfort the patients and to organise and clean the hospital. I escaped the plague myself but was confined by a fever for several months. Then for a year I cared for a beloved aunt whose parents had died when I was a child. When she died I began to fast and pray to know God’s will for me.

MM: What was the answer to your prayers? Were you to go back to caring for the sick?

B: You might expect that, but God works in unexpected ways. I had come to Siena to study and after much praying and fasting I joined the Franciscans in 1403 and in 1404 was ordained a priest.
The Franciscans were missionary preachers, but I did very little preaching because my voice was weak and hoarse. So for twelve years I remained in the background putting my energies into my own spiritual conversion and preparation.

Then I went to Milan on a mission. When I got up to preach my voice was strong and the crowd seemed to find my words so convincing that they would not let me leave unless I promised to come back. I became famous for my powerful preaching. So God did answer me in his own way.

MM: What were you trying to convince your listeners of?

B: You must understand that these were turbulent times when opposing political factions divided Italy and Germany and plunged Italy into war for several years. I needed to persuade people of the damage that the main factions, the Guelphs and Ghibellines, were causing and the atrocities that were perpetrated under their names. It wasn’t until the great French king Charles V came to Italy in 1529 that this period of great trouble to the church closed.

MM: How did you attempt to counter a social environment as entrenched as this?

B: As well as preaching against these evil influences I made use of a powerful new 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 superstitious symbols of the day, including the insignia of the factions. The devotion spread, and the symbol began to appear in churches, homes and public buildings. As expected, there was opposition from those who thought it a dangerous innovation. However, attempts to have the pope take action against me were unsuccessful.

Maybe the pope left me alone because I tried to be a peacemaker like St Francis. I attempted to counter the feuding clans with peaceful rituals rather than more feuds. On preaching journeys I invited people to participate in rituals such as collective weeping, bonfires of vanities, and exorcisms. We often concluded with mass reconciliations where the bacio di pace, the kiss of peace, was exchanged.

MM: You have a reputation for humility. How was it possible to remain humble when you were constantly applauded and honoured?

B: No matter how great the applause or honour, I tried not to take personal credit for any talents God had given me. Once a brother of my order asked me how he might arrive at perfection more speedily. Instead of answering, I threw myself at his feet in order that my actions might teach him humility.

MM: You are also known for your great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

B: I was born on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin so I felt strongly connected with her. I chose the same date for the principal actions of my life: taking the religious habit, making my vows, saying my first Mass and preaching my first sermon. I remained fervently attached to the blessed Virgin for the whole of my life.

MM: Could you tell us about places in Siena that were important to you.

B: Siena still carries many signs of my time there. The emblem I designed with the name of Jesus Christ can be seen on the façade of important buildings such as the town hall and the cathedral and on the most humble private houses.

Numerous things of mine are kept in the Basilica dell'Osservanza which was constructed during the last years of the 15th century on the site of an old hermitage that had been given to me in 1404 as a gift. These include my coat which is preserved in a reliquary of gilded silver with enamel-paintings made by the famous Sienese goldsmith Franco d'Antonio during the years 1454 to 1461.

Then there is the 13th century seat of the Confraternity of Our Lady which is located under the vaults of the Hospital. This is the company I entered as a young man and it is believed that here, in front of a 14th century wooden cross, is where I received the call to embrace a monastic life.

MM: You are patron of a great variety of things including public relations and advertising, and problems with the voice, chest and lungs. Can you tell us how some of these came about?

B: My patronage of conditions connected with the voice and lungs probably arose from the problems I myself had. And once I became a preacher I was able to influence people as your modern advertising people do. Perhaps my IHS insignia was seen as a successful logo.

MM: You were known as the greatest preacher of your time, journeying across Italy, and some say Spain. We will conclude with an extract from one of the sermons for which you were famous.

When a fire is lit to clear a field, it burns off all the dry and useless weeds and thorns. When the sun rises and darkness is dispelled, robbers, night-prowlers and burglars hide away. So when Paul's voice was raised to preach the Gospel to the nations, like a great clap of thunder in the sky, his preaching was a blazing fire carrying all before it. It was the sun rising in full glory. Infidelity was consumed by it, false beliefs fled away, and the truth appeared like a great candle lighting the whole world with its brilliant flame.

By word of mouth, by letters, by miracles, and by the example of his own life, Saint Paul bore the name of Jesus wherever he went. He praised the name of Jesus at all times, but never more than when bearing witness to his faith.

Moreover, the Apostle did indeed carry this name ‘before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel’ as a light to enlighten all nations. And this was his cry wherever he journeyed: ‘The night is passing away, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves honorably as in the day’. Paul himself showed forth the burning and shining light set upon a candlestick, everywhere proclaiming Jesus, and him crucified.

From a sermon by Saint Bernardine of Siena