St Bernardino of Siena

St Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444)

So many saints have suffered throughout their lives, and many of them died as martyrs, but St Bernardino of Siena, though not an official martyr, he suffered a lot to convince the people to turn to God. Born in 1380, he traveled all over Italy, preaching and calming people from tensions that were prevalent in many villages and cities. He preached to as many as 30,000 people. The Pope compared him to Saint Paul, and even though he had a weak voice and was often hoarse, yet he had extraordinary energy to spread the message of Jesus. When he was only 20, the plague hit his city of Siena, and many people died, as many as 20 a day in local hospitals. Still, he was never afflicted, even though he suffered for a while from high fever, but recovered. At the age of 22, he entered with the Franciscans and was ordained 2 years later. He lived in solitude for 12 years, but his superiors recognized his gift of preaching and spent the rest of his life trekking throughout Italy preaching for up to an hour at every place – no wonder he was hoarse and often lost his voice – of course at a time when they had no microphones. St Bernardino developed a special devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus with the acronym IHS, the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek. He also encouraged young people to become priests, and at his time there were 300 students, and when he died there were 4,000 students. He died on May 20, 1444, during one of his many preaching journeys.