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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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." 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. In one sermon Bernardino cautions women about marrying men who care more for their dowries than for them. 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. He presented Saint Joseph as an example for men, while emphasizing Mary's obedience to her husband.
Against sodomy and homosexuality '', 1603 painting by
El Greco, Museo del Prado, Madrid 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 :
Bernardino of Siena, 15th century,
National Museum of Serbia 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.
John of Capistrano was Bernardino's friend, and
James of the Marches was his disciple during these years. Cardinals urged both Pope Martin V and
Pope Eugene IV to condemn Bernardino, but both almost instantly acquitted him. A trial at the
Council of Florence also ended with an acquittal. The
Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund sought Bernardino's counsel and intercession and Bernardino accompanied him to Rome in 1433 for his coronation.
On Contracts and Usury Economic theory Bernardino was the first theologian after
Peter John Olivi to write an entire work systematically devoted to Scholastic economics. His greatest contribution to economics was a discussion and defence of the entrepreneur. His book,
On Contracts and Usury, written during the years 1431–1433, dealt with the justification of private property, the ethics of trade, the determination of value and price, and the usury question. He extended this to a theory of the "just wage", which would be determined by the demand for labour and the available supply. Wage inequality is a function of differences in skill, ability and training. Skilled workers are scarcer than unskilled so that the former will command a higher wage. Bernardino saw usury as concentrating all the money of the city into a few hands. However, he accepted the theory of
lucrum cessans, interest charged to compensate for profits foregone in lieu of capital investment. His audiences often used his words to reinforce actions against Jews, and his preaching left a legacy of resentment on the part of Jews.
Franciscan Vicar General Soon thereafter, he withdrew again to
Serracapriola to compose a further series of sermons. He resumed his missionary labours in 1436 but was forced to abandon them when he became vicar-general of the Observant branch of the Franciscans in Italy in 1438. Bernardino had worked to grow the Observants from the outset of his religious life: although he was not in fact its founder (the origins of the Observants, or
Zelanti, can be traced back to the middle of the fourteenth century). Nevertheless, Bernardino became to the Observants what
Saint Bernard had been to the
Cistercians, their principal support and indefatigable propagator. Instead of one hundred and thirty Friars constituting the Observance in Italy at Bernardino's reception into the order, it counted over four thousand shortly before his death. Bernardino also founded, or reformed, at least three hundred convents of Friars. He sent missionaries to different parts of Asia, and it was largely through his efforts that many ambassadors from different schismatical nations attended the
Council of Florence, where he addressed the assembled Fathers in Greek. Being Vicar General inevitably cut back his opportunities to preach, but he continued to speak to the public when he could. Having in 1442 persuaded the Pope to finally accept his resignation as Vicar-General so that he might give himself more undividedly to preaching, Bernardino again resumed his missionary work. Despite the
papal bull issued by
Pope Eugene IV in 1443,
Illius qui se pro divini, which charged Bernardino to preach the indulgence for the
Crusade against the Turks, there is no record of his having done so. In 1444, notwithstanding his increasing infirmities, Bernardino, desirous that there should be no part of Italy which had not heard his voice, set out to the
Kingdom of Naples. Bernardino died that year at
L'Aquila in
Abruzzo and is buried in the
Basilica of San Bernardino. According to tradition, his grave continued to leak blood until two factions of the city achieved reconciliation. ==Canonisation and iconography==