Bernardino of Siena

Born Bernardino degli Albizzeschi on 8 September 1380 in the Republic of Siena, he joined the Franciscans and became a missionary preacher whose crowds often numbered in the tens of thousands. His sermons targeted gambling, infanticide, witchcraft, sodomy, Jews, Romani people, and usury, and he organized mass burnings of objects he deemed sinful. A systematizer of scholastic economics, he sought to revive Italian Catholicism during a period of spiritual decline. He died on 20 May 1444 and was canonized by Pope Nicholas V six years later, earning the title "Apostle of Italy" for his campaign to…