Plaque to Bernardino of Siena, Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy
Bernardino of Siena, OFM (8 September 1380 – 20 May 1444), also known as Bernardine, was an Italian priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in Italy. He was a systematizer of Scholastic economics. His preaching, his book burnings, and his “bonfires of the vanities” made him famous/infamous during his own lifetime because they were frequently directed against sorcery, gambling, infanticide, witchcraft, homosexuals, Jews, Romani “Gypsies”, usury, etc. Bernardino was later canonised by the Catholic Church as a saint – where he is also referred to as “the Apostle of Italy” – for his efforts to revive the country’s Catholicism during the 15th century.[1]