At Siena in Tuscany, the passing of Blessed Bernard Tolomei, abbot, who, as founder of the Olivetan Congregation under the Rule of Saint Benedict, was greatly devoted to monastic discipline; and when a plague was raging throughout Italy, he died among the imperiled monks of Siena.
Lifespan: 1272–1348
Beatified: 24 November 1664 by Pope Alexander VII
Canonized: 26 April 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI, Rome
Memoria liturgica: 20 August
Hero of penance and martyr of charity, founder of a singular Benedictine monastic movement
Bernard Tolomei was born in Siena on 10 May 1272. He received the name Giovanni at baptism. He was educated by the Friars Preachers at the College of San Domenico di Camporeggio in Siena, and was invested as a knight (miles) by Emperor Rudolf I of Habsburg (†1291). He studied law in his native city, where he was also a member of the Confraternity of the Disciplinati of Santa Maria della Notte, who served the patients of the Ospedale della Scala. A progressive near-total loss of sight led him to abandon a public career.
In an age of conflict between the city’s factions, and in order to pursue his Christian and ascetic ideal more fully, in 1313, now in his forties, he withdrew from Siena together with two fellow citizens engaged in trade and commerce — Blessed Patrizio Patrizi (†1347) and Blessed Ambrogio Piccolomini (†1338), both Sienese nobles who also belonged to the aforementioned Confraternity — and retired to the solitude of Accona, some thirty kilometres south-east of the city. In that region, Giovanni (who had by then taken the name Bernard, in veneration of the holy Cistercian abbot) led an eremitic life with his companions in caves hewn out of the tufa rock. The penitential life of these lay hermits was marked by prayer, lectio divina, manual labour, and silence. Other companions from Siena, Florence, and the surrounding regions soon joined them; their model was the way of life of the Apostles and of the first monks of the Thebaid.
Towards the end of 1318 or at the beginning of 1319, while deep in prayer one day, he had a visual perception of a ladder upon which he saw monks dressed in white ascending, assisted by angels, and awaited by Jesus and Mary. This biblical reminiscence is a well-known theme in the monastic tradition, but the Olivetan chronicler Antonio da Barga (writing around 1450) attests that Bernard called the other brethren, and that they too saw the sign of God’s will for them in the vision of “Jacob’s ladder.” They were not priests; nevertheless, according to the testimony of Antonio da Barga, “they had the divine mysteries celebrated by devout presbyters known to them.”
Cardinal Bertrand du Pouget, legate of John XXII then residing at Avignon, came to inspect the group’s observance (between 1316 and 1319). In compliance with Constitution 13 of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), which forbade the founding of new religious orders not yet approved, and in order to consolidate the new group’s canonical standing, Bernard, together with Patrizio Patrizi, went to the Bishop of Arezzo, Guido Tarlati di Pietramala, in whose jurisdiction Accona then lay. From him he obtained a decree of erection for the future monastery of S. Maria di Monte Oliveto, to be established sub regula sancti Benedicti (26 March 1319), with certain privileges and exemptions; the bishop received their monastic profession through a legate (the presbyter Restauro, affiliated with the Confraternity of the Flagellants at the church of the Most Holy Trinity in Arezzo). In choosing the Rule of Saint Benedict, Bernard had to temper the original eremitic choice with the adoption of Benedictine cenobitism; out of a desire to honour the Madonna, the founders wore a white habit — this Marian devotion remained as a legacy to the spirituality of the Congregation.
On 1 April 1319 the monastery of Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto Maggiore was accordingly founded, with the laying of the first stone of the church — an event recorded in a formal document drawn up by the Sienese notary Giovanni, son of the late Ventura. The desert of Accona had become “Monte Oliveto,” in memory of the Mount of Olives, where the Lord loved to withdraw with his disciples, where he prayed before his Passion, and which is the traditional site of the Ascension. The hermits became monks according to the spirit of the Rule of Saint Benedict, albeit with certain institutional modifications, at a time of relative decline in the monastic Order. The most characteristic element of this institutional evolution was the temporariness of the abbatial office: whereas the abbot had been understood to hold office permanently (semel abbas, semper abbas), the General Chapter decreed that the abbot’s term of governance should last only one year; furthermore, the elected abbot was required to be confirmed by the Bishop of Arezzo (bishop’s document, 28 March 1324). When it became necessary to elect an abbot, Bernard succeeded in deflecting the monks’ choice on account of his visual infirmity; Patrizio Patrizi was accordingly elected on 1 September 1319. On two further occasions an analogous choice was made: with the election of Ambrogio Piccolomini on 1 September 1320, and on 1 September 1321 with that of Simone di Tura of Siena (†1348). On 1 September 1322, Bernard could no longer resist the wishes of his brethren and became abbot of the monastery he had founded, a governing office he held until his death. A document of 24 December 1326 attests that Cardinal Giovanni Caetani Orsini (†1339), legate of the Apostolic See, granted a dispensation from the visual impediment to Abbot Bernard, who had been elected in 1322 to succeed Simone di Tura.
From Avignon, Clement VI approved the Congregation — then comprising ten monasteries — by means of two bulls (Vacantibus sub religionis: formal and canonical approval of the new Institute; Sollicitudinis pastoralis officium: faculty to erect new monasteries in Italy) dated 21 January 1344. For that purpose, Bernard had not gone to Avignon in person but had sent the monks Simone Tendi and Michele Tani. The pontifical directives issued in the bull Summi magistri (20 June 1336) by the Cistercian pope Benedict XII for the reform of Benedictine monasteries were fully received by the Olivetan General Chapters.
Striking testimony to Bernard’s exceptional spiritual character lies in the fact that the monks, even though they had resolved not to re-elect the abbot at the expiry of his annual mandate, set that provision aside and for twenty-seven consecutive years until his death kept him in the abbatial office, re-electing him at the close of each year. A supreme act of trust in his abbatial fatherhood came at the General Chapter of 4 May 1347, when the monks granted him full authority to dispose of all things without prior consultation with the Chapter and the brethren, trusting in his holiness to order everything in accordance with the will of God and for the salvation of all. The cenobium of S. Maria di Monte Oliveto had by then become the centre of a monastic Congregation governed by a single abbot, while the individual monasteries stood under the authority of a prior. Bernard attempted at least twice to relinquish the abbatial office, in 1326 and in 1342, declaring to the papal legate and to legal experts (Giovanni d’Andrea and Arnoldo da Siena, later Paolo de Hazariis, Andrea de Guarnariis, and the Archbishop of Pisa, Dino da Radicofani) that he was not a priest, having received only minor orders, and further citing the dispensation already granted — for the exercise of the abbatial function — on account of a persistent visual infirmity; but his governance was declared fully legitimate even according to the canonical norms of the time. His mysticism is recounted by the tradition of his colloquies with the Crucified Lord and by apparitions of saints (for example, Saint Michael).
During his abbacy many came from various cities to the new monastery. The growing number of monks made it possible to respond to the requests of bishops and laypeople who desired these white-habited monks in their cities and surrounding territories, and so Bernard was able to found a further ten monasteries, closely bound to the principal abbey, from which they took their name, each governed by a prior. To secure the future of his work, Bernard obtained from Pope Clement VI, on 21 January 1344, the pontifical approval of a new Benedictine Congregation, called “S. Maria di Monte Oliveto.” In this way Bernard became the founder of a Benedictine monastic movement.
Bernard left his monks an example of holy life, the practice of heroic virtue, and an existence devoted to the service of others and to contemplation. During the Great Plague of 1348, Bernard left the solitude of Monte Oliveto to go to the monastery of San Benedetto at Porta Tufi in Siena. There, nursing his fellow citizens and the monks struck down by the highly contagious infection, he himself died a victim of the plague, along with eighty-two monks, on a date that tradition has fixed as 20 August 1348.