Today May 20

Today, were it not the 7th Sunday of Easter, would be the feast of San Bernardino and because I've been there, it's hard to get the image of the town and the Valley out of my head today. Let's call him "St. Bernardine of Siena," the Anglicized form of his name instead. St. Bernardine was in many ways Italian to the core: passionate, expressive, lively: I'll bet he even talked with his hands. A Franciscan priest, he would preach for hours; he toured Lombardy, Rome, Tuscany and the Marches of Ancona and in 1425 preached every day for 7 weeks. Although he is the patron saint of advertisers (for promoting the sign "IHS"), I think he should be the patron saint of preachers! He got folks so riled up after a homily, they'd throw their playing cards and jewelry on what were tellingly called "bonfires of the vanities" (make a good title for a book, don't you think?). He was against gambling, usury and superstition. I think it would be cool if present-day preachers gave us practical advice and criticism like that, instead of just a palatable rehashing of the Gospel like we get Sunday after Sunday.

He was a strict guy -- he even beat up a woman who accosted him -- but he still was hauled before the Inquisition -- well, before the pope, anyway -- for superstition himself. The real story is that a Dominican -- supposedly a man of God himself, Manfred of Vercelli, was jealous of him and accused him of violating the First Commandment by kissing the picture of the Holy Name (IHS, for the first three letters of Jesus' name in Greek: Jesous) and offering it up for others to venerate. Bernardine was totally exonerated, of course. In fact, it caught on so well that a playing-card manufacturer who complained to St. Bernardine that he'd lost his livelihood was told by him to make IHS signs instead, which the guy did, and made even more money than he had before! I think Bernardine could be the patron of Catholic gift stores as well!