Bernardine Of Feltre
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Bernardine of Feltre (sometimes Bernardinus of Feltre) was a Friar Minor and missionary, b. at
Feltre Feltre ( vec, Fèltre) is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Belluno in Veneto, northern Italy. A hill town in the southern reaches of the province, it is located on the Stizzon River, about from its junction with the Piave, and southwes ...
, Italy, in 1439 and d. at Pavia, 28 September 1494. He is remembered in connection with the
monti di pietà A mount of piety is an institutional pawnbroker run as a charity in Europe from Renaissance times until today. Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operation ...
of which he was the reorganizer and, in a certain sense, the founder, together with the
Michele Carcano Michele Carcano Order of Friars Minor, O.F.M. Obs. (Michael de Carcanis de Mediolano) (Lomazzo, 1427- 20 March 1484) was an Italian Franciscan preacher. He is known for his part in founding the montes pietatis banking system, with Bernardine of Fe ...
. The feast of Blessed Bernardino is kept in the Order of Friars Minor on 28 September.


Life

Born Martin Tomitani, he belonged to the noble family of Tomitano and was the eldest of nine children. In 1456, while a law student in Padua, he heard James of the Marches preach the
Lenten Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...
course and was inspired to enter the
Franciscan order , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...
, taking the name Bernardino, after Bernardino of Siena.Sabbatelli, Giacomo V., "Blessed Bernardino da Feltre", ''Santi e Beati'', February 2, 2001
/ref> In May that year he joined the "Observantine" Franciscans, an austere branch of the Franciscan friars. He completed successfully his studies at Mantua and was ordained priest in 1463.“Blessed Bernardine of Feltre”. ''New Catholic Dictionary''. CatholicSaints.Info. 16 August 2012
/ref> He was small, shy, and stammered but his superiors assigned him to preach home-missions. Cured of an impediment in his speech, Bernardine began his apostolate up and down the Italian peninsula. Every city of note and every province from
Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
in the north to Sardinia and the provinces of the south became successively the scene of his missionary labours.Donovan, Stephen. "Bl. Bernardine of Feltre." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 4 September 2017
He was an extremely popular preacher because he spoke simply and powerfully against the vanity, ambition and greed rife at the time. The crowds that flocked to hear him were too large for the local churches, so he addressed them in the city squares and the fields. Like many other missioners of his century, he had made a vast outdoor bonfire called "burning the Devil's stronghold". The crowds were asked to throw into the fire all objects of vanity and sin such as playing cards, dice, pornographic books and pictures, jewelry, wigs, superstitious charms, cosmetics, and so forth. Bernardine was able to reconcile warring communities. He also sought civic legislation to correct public injustices such as usury, the charging of excessive interest for loans, which was especially onerous on the poor. In 1484, Bernardine established the charitable credit organization,
mont-de-piétés A mount of piety is an institutional pawnbroker run as a charity in Europe from Renaissance times until today. Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operati ...
run by a joint committee of clergy and laymen. The institution was founded as an alternative to the high interest loans of the money lenders and Lombard traveling bankers of the Middle Ages. His fund raising drives were generally preceded with a procession featuring an image of either the Man of Sorrows or Pietà to encourage charitable donations. His insistence on charging a low interest to protect the institution's permanency raised a controversy among the theologians who thought it promoted the continuance of usury. (In 1515, Pope Leo X declared the institution meritorious and it spread rapidly throughout France, Italy, and Spain.) In 1491, Bernardine was expelled from Milan by
Ludovico Sforza Ludovico Maria Sforza (; 27 July 1452 – 27 May 1508), also known as Ludovico il Moro (; "the Moor"). "Arbiter of Italy", according to the expression used by Guicciardini,
for contesting with the Duke's astrologer.


Anti-Semitism

With the practical notion of establishing monts-de-piété, he called for the expulsion of Jews all over Italy and Tyrol. However, no secular or ecclesiastical authorities specifically took up Bernardine's call. This led Bernardine to accuse the nobility of having sold out to
Jehiel of Pisa Jehiel of Pisa (died February 10, 1492) was a philanthropist and scholar of Pisa. Biography The wealth he had acquired in the banking business he spent liberally for charitable purposes. Himself a scholar, he extended his protection to Jewish le ...
, one of the wealthiest Jews in Italy. However, one effect of his preaching against usury was the outbreak of
anti-semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
in Trent based around the blood libel conspiracy against Jewish residents after the death of Simon of Trent. This led to the torture and execution of seventeen Jews and the expulsion of the remainder from that city, with no return for the next 300 years.


Iconography

Bernardine is generally represented in
iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
as carrying in his hand a
monti di pietà A mount of piety is an institutional pawnbroker run as a charity in Europe from Renaissance times until today. Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operation ...
, that is, a little green hill composed of three mounds and on the top either a cross or a standard with the inscription ''Curam illius habe'' (a snippet from the Vulgate translation of the Gospel of Luke's Parable of the Good Samaritan).


Works

The authorship of the well-known
Anima Christi The "Anima Christi" (Latin for ‘Soul of Christ’) is a Catholic prayer to Jesus of medieval origin. History For many years the prayer was popularly believed to have been composed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, as he puts it at the beginning ...
has as often as not been ascribed to Bernardine of Feltre. The fact, however, that the Anima Christi was composed sometime before 1439 disproves any claim that he might have of being its author, though much like Ignatius of Loyola, Bernardine made frequent use of it and recommended it to his brethren.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernardine of Feltre Italian beatified people Italian Friars Minor Christian anti-Judaism in the Middle Ages Antisemitism in Italy 1439 births 1494 deaths Blood libel Economic history of the Holy See 15th-century venerated Christians Italian bankers 15th-century Italian businesspeople Beatifications by Pope Benedict XIII