Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

St Bernardino, born in the year of St Catherine’s death, began his preaching life at the chill monastic church of San Francesco , crossways the city to the east. Alongside the church is the Oratorio di San Bernardino (mid-March to Oct regular 10.30am-1.30pm & 3-5.30pm; L4000/2.06; www.operaduomo.it ), with a beautifully wood-panelled upper chapel frescoed by Sodoma and Beccafumi. In the lower chapel are seventeenth-century scenes from the saint’s life, which was taken up by incessant travel throughout Italy, preaching against usury and denouncing political strife; his sermons in the Campo, it is said, frequently went on for the best part of a day. He was canonized in 1444, and - because of his dictum on rhetoric, “make it clear, short and to the point” - was prefabricated patron fear of advertising in the 1980s. The attached Museo Diocesano di Arte Sacra (same hours and ticket) contains an array of devotional art from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

Tags: chill, mid march, monastic church, oratorio, san bernardino, san francesco, st catherine