Bl. Bernardine of Feltre

Italian Franciscan missionary, died 1494. Of little note as an author. Best remembered for his monti di pieta, a type of charitable lender similar to pawnbrokers

Friar Minor

and missionary, b. at Feltre,

Italy

, in 1439 and d. at

Pavia

, 28 September, 1494. He belonged to the noble

family

of Tomitano and was the eldest of nine children. In 1456

St. James of the Marches

preached the

Lenten

course at

Padua

, and inspired to enter the

Franciscan

order, Bernardine was clothed with the habit of the

Friars Minor

in May of the same year. He completed successfully his studies at

Mantua

and was

ordained

priest

in 1463. Cured

miraculously

of an impediment in his speech, Bernardine began the long and fruitful apostolate which has

caused

him to be ranked as one of the greatest

Franciscan

missionaries of the fifteenth century. Every city of note and every province from

Lombardy

in the north to

Sardinia

and the provinces of the south became successively the scene of his missionary labours; and the fruits of his apostolate were both marvellous and enduring. Bernardine, however, will be best remembered in connexion with the

monti di pietà

of which he was the reorganizer and, in a certain sense, the founder. The word

mons

which literally means an accumulation of wealth or money, now called capital, seems to have been a generic term used in the fifteenth century to signify lending-houses in general; and hence the

montes pietatis

or

monti di pietà

were a species of charitable lending-establishments not, perhaps, unlike our modern pawnbrokers' establishments, but possessing, of course, none of the

sinister

features of the latter. As originally instituted the

monti di pietà

were intended as a timely and effectual remedy for the evils occasioned by the

usury

then practiced by the

Jews

upon the people of

Christian

Italy

; and Blessed Bernardine's places where they had not previously existed afford an explanation of the fact that he is generally represented carrying in his hand a

monte di pietà

, 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

. As an author Bernardine has left us little if anything of importance, but it is interesting to note that the authorship of the well-known

Anima Christi

has as often as not been ascribed to Blessed Bernardine of Feltre. The fact, however, that the

Anima Christi

was composed sometime before the birth of Blessed Bernardine disproves any claim that he might have of being its author. As in the case of St. Ignatius, Bernardine also made frequent use of it and recommended it to his brethren. The feast of Blessed Bernardino is kept in the

Order of Friars Minor

on the 28th of September. (See MONTI DI PIETÀ).

Sources

Leo, Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Three Orders of St. Francis (Taunton, 1886), III, 243-265; Wadding, Annales Minorum, VI, 142, XII, 442, passim; Acta SS., September, VII, 814-914; Zanettini, Compendio della vita del Beato Feltrese, Bernardino Tomitano (Milan); Flornoy, Le Bienheureux Bernardin de Feltre (Paris, 1898); Ludovice de Besse, Le Bienheureux Bernardin de Feltre et son oeuvre (Tours, 1902).