BERNARDINO of Feltre, Blessed. – Franciscan friar, born Martino Tomitani, preacher, born in Feltre in 1439, died in Pavia on 28 September 1494. His mother was a cousin of the celebrated Vittorino. He was a pupil of Guarino Veronese or one of his disciples; while studying letters, logic, and law at Padua, in 1456 he was drawn by the eloquence of St. James of the Marches to enter the Order of Friars Minor. Ordained priest in 1463 and a lector, he began his religious and social apostolate in Mantua in 1469.
Like his namesake and patron saint of Siena, he continually traversed on foot the regions of northern and central Italy as far as L’Aquila, wherever he was greatly desired, and, like him, he dared to address topics of current interest, even if delicate or dangerous. Indeed, the relentless campaign he launched in Trent in 1476 against usurers, especially Jews, and his firmness in denouncing injustices and abuses, even those of rulers, earned him the enmity of some and even attempts on his life by private individuals who felt their interests or licentiousness threatened. Typical is the banishment he suffered from Florence one night during Lent in 1488.
He carried out delicate papal missions and wielded great influence in promoting peace among factions in many cities, even at the risk of placing himself unarmed between hostile armed factions, as in Perugia in 1486. His readiness to put himself in harm’s way is a notable trait of his character; thus, during the War of Ferrara, in his capacity as provincial vicar of the Observance, he incurred the wrath of the Venetian government by complying with the interdict of 1484. During the plague of 1478 in Padua, he did not hesitate to take charge of the sick, even contracting the contagion himself.
He promoted associations for worship and charity, especially for the “shamefaced poor”; but the work most closely associated with his name is the establishment of Monti di Pietà (q.v.), the first of which, in Mantua, he founded in 1484, characterized by the charging of interest on loans, a practice advocated by few of his confreres, overcoming the tenacious opposition of other religious who did not wish to admit the liceity of such loans, though necessary for the prosperity of the Monti. The recent discovery of two collections of his sermons has finally made it possible to know his original thought on this matter, whereas previously it had to be sought in the Defensorium of Bernardino de’ Bustis, inspired by Bernardino of Feltre. From the pulpit he also thundered against feminine vanity and ostentation, considering them an offense to the poor. Among the topics he favored were also the cult of the Eucharist, the defense of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, then publicly disputed, and the promotion of the Third Order of St. Francis.
It is not easy to form an exact literary judgment of his eloquence, since both the Lenten Cycle of Pavia of 1493 and the Advent Cycle of Brescia of the same year bear too much the stamp of the hand of the compiler, Fra Bernardino Bulgarino, who partly preserved the Italian form, partly translated it into poor Latin, interspersing it with Venetian expressions. Nevertheless, these sermons and the few previously known ones convey the liveliness of tone spoken of by his first biographers, his anecdotal facility, and do not conceal his good culture, preparation, and the seriousness of the orator.
Venerated as a blessed by the Friars Minor, his cult was confirmed in 1654. Feast day: 28 September.
Iconography. – In the canonization processes, mention is made of abundant iconographic material dating before the 17th century, especially preserved in Feltre and Pavia. Notable in the former city are the portrait executed by Luzi (the “Dead Man of Feltre”) for the church of S. Maria degli Angeli, and the paintings in the churches of S. Lorenzo and dello Spirito Santo; in the latter: the Sacred Conversations in S. Chiara (assigned to c. 1493), in S. Maria delle Virtù, in S. Francesco, in the church and in the Chancellery of the Hospital; an ancient bust in the building of the Monte di Pietà at Porta Marica, as well as a Sacred Conversation in the monastery of S. Agata, by the hand of Rosso, a contemporary of B., and, by the same artist, a fresco based on the death mask, on the door of the chapel of the blessed in S. Giacomo. He is also depicted in Verona in the Sala del Morone near S. Bernardino and in a panel by Cavazzola in the museum of Castelvecchio.
Attributes and emblems: a short face with somewhat prominent eyes; emblem of piety or of the Monti; sometimes scrolls with one of the mottos: “Attende tibi – Habe illius curam – Nolite diligere mundum.”