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Saint Bernardine of Siena
b. 1380 d. 1444
Feastday: May 20
In the year 1400, a young man came to the door of
the largest hospital in Siena. A plague was raging through the city
so horrible that as many as twenty people died each day just in
the hospital alone. And many of the people who died were those who
were needed to tend the ill. It was a desperate situation -- more
and more people were falling ill and fewer and fewer people were
there to help them.
The twenty-year-old man who stood there had not come
because he was ill but because he wanted to help. And he brought
not new patients but young men like himself willing to tend the
dying. For four months Bernardine and his companions worked day
and night not only to comfort the patients but to organize and clean
the hospital. Only at the end of the plague did Bernardine himself
fall ill -- of exhaustion.
But that was Bernardine's way -- whatever he did,
he put his whole self into it. Immediately after he recovered he
was back caring for the sick -- but this time, he was responsible
not for a whole hospital but one person -- an invalid aunt. Yet
for fourteen months she got his full attention. Throughout his life,
he put as much energy into caring for one person as for hundreds,
as much commitment into converting one citizen as to preaching to
a whole city.
After his aunt died, Bernardine started to think about
where his life should be going. The son of a noble family, he had
been orphaned at seven and raised by an aunt. We are told as a young
person that he hated indecent talk so much that he would blush when
he heard it. Even his schoolmates hesitated to make him so uncomfortable
but apparently one adult citizen thought it would be a great joke
to needle Bernardine. In a public marketplace he stopped Bernardine
and started to talk to him in a shameful way. But if he had thought
to get away with his cruel trick, he was surprised when Bernardine
slapped him in the face. The man slunk away, shamed in front of
the very crowd he'd been trying to impress.
Bernardine, who had come to Siena to study, threw
himself into prayer and fasting to discover what God wanted him
to do. One might have expected him to continue his work with the
sick but in 1403 he joined the Franciscans and in 1404 he was ordained
a priest.
The Franciscans were known as missionary preachers,
but Bernardine did very little preaching with because of a voice
that was weak and hoarse. For twelve years he remained in the background,
his energies going to prayer or to his own spiritual conversion
and preparation.
At the end of that time, he went to Milan on a mission.
When he got up to preach his voice was strong and commanding and
his words so convincing that the crowd would not let him leave unless
he promised to come back.
Thus began the missionary life of the one whom Pope
Pius II called a second Paul. As usual, Bernardine through his whole
self, body and soul, into his new career. He crisscrossed Italy
on foot, preaching for hours at a time, several times a day. We
are told he preached on punishment for sin as well as reward for
virtue but focusing in the end on the mercy of Jesus and the love
of Mary. His special devotion was to the Holy Name of Jesus.
Some who were jealous denounced him to the pope by
saying he preached superstition. Silenced for a short while, Bernardine
was soon cleared and back to preaching.
Bernardine refused several cities that wanted him
as bishop but he was unable to avoid being named vicar general of
his order. All his energy during that period went to renewing the
original spirit of the order.
Soon, however, Bernardine heard the call to go back
to preaching which consumed his last days. As a matter of fact,
even when it was clear he was dying, he preached fifty consecutive
days. He died in 1444 when he was almost 64 years old.
Prayer:
Saint Bernardine of Siena, words were very important to you. You
spent most of your life speaking the golden words of Jesus' mercy
and his Holy Name. And you abhorred words that were shameful. Pray
for us that we may always choose to speak Jesus' name with reverence
and choose words of love over words of shame. Amen
Copyright 1996 by Terry Matz. All Rights
Reserved.
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