[Rank]
S. Bernardini Senensis Confessoris;;Semiduplex;;2.1;;vide C5

[Rule]
vide C5;
9 lectiones

[Oratio]
O Lord Jesus, Which didst give unto thy blessed Confessor Bernardine the grace to love thy Holy Name exceeding well, be entreated, we beseech thee, for his sake and by his prayers, and mercifully pour into our hearts also the Spirit of thy love.
$Qui vivis

[Lectio4]
This Bernardine was born of the noble family of the Albizeschi, in the Republic of Siena, (on the 8th of September, in the year 1380.) His saintliness began to manifest itself from his earliest years. He was well brought up by a godly father and mother, and even when he was being taught the first rudiments of worldly learning, he used to give up his play-time to occupy himself with devout works, being much drawn to fasting, prayer, and the devotion to the most Blessed Virgin. He abounded likewise in tenderness for the poor. As time went on, that he might the more entirely do these things, it was his will to enroll himself among those who work in the Hospital of Blessed Mary, called "of the Ladder," at Sienna. There, during the raging of an horrible distemper, he laboured with marvellous charity and great bodily suffering, in serving the sick. In bodily presence he was a very goodly person, but, with all his other virtues, he kept ever so holy a guard over his purity, that it soon came to pass that no one, however shameless, dared to say an unseemly word in his presence.

[Lectio5]
He suffered a severe sickness, and when, after bearing it with the utmost patience, he recovered his health, he began to think of embracing some institute of the religious life. To make his way sure, he built a little hut in the outskirts of the city, where he hid himself and led a life of hardships of all kinds, continuing instant in prayer to God that He would be pleased to make clear to him what path he should follow. And so it came to pass by God's will that he chose the Order of Blessed Francis. In that Order he shone a bright instance of lowliness, long-suffering, and every other grace of a religious man. When the superior of his convent saw this, and had already considered what his teaching and knowledge of sacred learning were, he laid on Bernardine the duty of preaching. This the Saint humbly accepted, and finding that his usefulness was much impaired by his having a shrill, harsh voice, he betook him to implore the help of God, Who was pleased, not without a miracle, to free him from this drawback.

[Lectio6]
Those were times fruitful in vices and crimes and the bloody civil wars which raged in Italy confounded all things Divine and human. Bernardine went through the cities and towns, and, in the Name of Jesus, that Name which he ever bore upon his lips and in his heart, he prevailed in great measure by his word and example, in setting up falling godliness and morality. Illustrious cities demanded him from the Pope as their Bishop, but this was an honour which his unconquerable humility caused him always steadily to refuse. At last the man of God, after untold labours, the working of many and great miracles, and the writing of godly and learned books, in the 67th year of his age, at Aquila in the Abruzzi, rested in a blessed death, (upon the 20th day of May 1444.) As the fame of new signs and wonders increased day by day, Pope Nicholas V., in the sixth year after his death, added his name to the roll of the Saints.

[Lectio94]
St. Bernardin Albizeschi was born of a noble family of Siena. Even in his first years in school, he turned away from children's games and applied himself to exercises of devotion, especially those honouring the Blessed Virgin. Outstanding for his charity and mercy to the poor, he gave himself over to serving them at the hospital Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. When he came to think of entering the religious life, divine Providence led him to choose, in preference to others, the Franciscan Order, where he excelled in humility, patience, and the other virtues of a religious. His superiors imposed on him the duty of preaching; and, although he knew that his voice was too weak and too hoarse for a preacher's, he accepted the charge and implored the help of God. As a result, he was marvellously freed of his handicap. Going about the towns and villages in the Name of Jesus, which was always carried on his lips and in his heart, he everywhere put an end to the dissensions of the citizens, and by his word and example did much to restore their piety and morality, which had fallen to a low level. He also wrote devout and learned books. At the age of sixty-six, rich in merit and famous for his miracles, he died a happy death at the town of L'Aquila in the Abruzzi.
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