The Apostolic Labors of St. Bernardine in Reviving and Purifying Christian Faith

THE APOSTOLIC LABORS OF ST. BERNARDINE IN REVIVING AND PURIFYING CHRISTIAN FAITH BECAUSE the lifelong efforts of St. Bernardine of Siena were signalized by a charity and zeal for souls that were truly apostolic in every respect, we shall in the course of this paper treat of one phase of his fruitful labors which certainly ranks him among the great successors of the original Twelve. St. Bernardine, in purifying and confirming Christian faith, was an apostle who sought nothing else but the glory of the Name of God and the salvation of souls, to be effected by sound dogmatic and moral instructions. For an appreciation of the apostolic labors of this renowned Franciscan Saint, we turn to the words written of him by the author of La Franceschtna: Our Lord Jesus Christ, magnificent King, does not cease to shower continually upon an ungrateful world His most bountiful graces, just as it pleased Him through His solicitous mercy to bestow, in recent years, that sincere and luminous lamp of Italy, St. Bernardine, through whose light and doctrine, not only Italy, but also a great part of Christendom, has received enlightenment along the path to salvation . . . through his holy life and praiseworthy conduct.1 Indeed, the bountiful graces of Christ were sorely needed in St. Bernardine ’s time, and it pleased God to raise up a saint who would champion the cause of true faith and of good morals. The faith had to be purified, had to be revived, had to be controlled and directed into the proper channel; and St. Bernardine had the lively will and word to perform this great work. He was truly sent by God to become the ardent preacher of the divine Word, the loving educator of youth, and the apostolic teacher of all. Moreover, the moral conditions of his day were anything but good. Because faith, the foundation of all morality, was not lively and operative, the passions, fo­ mented by bad example, constituted a grave danger to unwary souls. These passions obscured faith — in fact they turned faith itself for many people into a sort of abnormal assent, so that the truths of faith were not properly appreciated and followed. As a result, the good conduct and right living that derive from true faith were, in general, woefully lacking. M oral Conditions o f th e T im es Let us review briefly the conditions of the times, as we know them from the sermons of St. Bernardine himself. Thus we shall have a fair idea of what he had to contend with in expending all the energy of his body and soul to bring about religious and social reform.2 The moral condition of the Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century world, we do not hesitate to assert, was not what certain hostile historians would have 1. Giacomo Oddi di Perugia [Olschki, Firènze, 1931), I, 359. 2. Cf. Dionisio Pacetti, O. F. M., San Bernardino da Siena, Le Prediche Volgari, Campo di Siena, 1427 (Cantagalli, Siena, 1935) ; Ciro Cannarozzi, O. F. M., Le Predi­ che Volgari (Tip. Alberto Pacinotti, Pistoia, 1934), I-II; Agostino Gemelli, O. F. M., The Pranciscan Menage to thè World, trans, by Henry Louis Hughes, (Burns, Oates and Washbourne, Ltd., London, 1934); Vittorino Facchinetti, O. F. M., S. Bernardino da Siena, Mistico Sole del Secolo XV (Casa Editrice, S. Lega Eucaristica, Milano, 1933). 359 360 FRANCISCAN STUDIES us believe. It was not an era of total darkness, of complete ignorance, of absolute coarseness and incivility, of religious fanaticism. (Modern times, incidentally, are by no means glorified in a comparison.) It was, however, a tumultuous age indeed. It was an agitated sea of ideas and activity, for there were divisions among the people, wars, and particularly two political factions — the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.3 The adherents of these factions effectu­ ally separated all Italy into two rival camps and made it the theater of in­ numerable bloody discords. Cities fought against cities; families contended with other families; and often in the same family the difference of political thought was the cause of violent dissensions that degenerated into armed quarrels between the members, and mortal hatreds of brother for brother. Schisms and...