Bernard Tolomei

The major work of Bernard Tolomei is the foundation of the Benedictine Congregation of Saint Mary of Monte Oliveto, the Olivetans. The community formed at Accona received a canonical basis on March 26, 1319, when the Bishop of Arezzo, Guido Tarlati, issued the "Charta fundationis" establishing the monastery of Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto under the Rule of Saint Benedict. The monks adopted a white habit in honor of the Virgin Mary, a distinctive sign of the new monastic family. Bernard, long reluctant to exercise authority, was elected abbot and, according to Olivetan sources, re-elected each year until his death. Anxious to ensure the future of his work, he obtained from Pope Clement VI, on January 21, 1344, the papal approval of the new Benedictine congregation known as "of Saint Mary of Monte Oliveto." During his lifetime, the congregation experienced rapid expansion and founded several monasteries in Italy. The Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, which has remained the heart of the order, still perpetuates this spiritual tradition today, marked by contemplation, manual labor, and communal life.

The reputation for holiness of Bernard Tolomei rested upon an existence of profound humility, penance, and prayer. Renouncing the glory of public office and legal renown, he chose solitude and service. At his canonization, Pope Benedict XVI highlighted in him "the love of prayer and manual labor," a "rare spirit of humility and fraternal welcome," and described his life as "a Eucharistic life, entirely devoted to contemplation, expressed in the humble service of neighbor." This spirituality, rooted in the Benedictine Rule—ora et labora—culminated in the ordeal of the plague of 1348: rather than remaining in safety in the solitude of Monte Oliveto, Bernard went down to his monks struck by the epidemic to assist and comfort them. This ultimate testimony of charity, which cost him his life, was very early regarded as the seal of a holy life. The Olivetan tradition held him to be blessed from the moment of his death, and he was celebrated as a "hero of penance and martyr of charity."

Venerated from the time of his death by the Olivetan congregation, Bernard Tolomei saw his cult confirmed on November 24, 1644, by Pope Innocent X, equivalent to a beatification. The canonization process concluded more than three and a half centuries later: on April 26, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed him a saint during a solemn mass celebrated in Saint Peter's Square, where, among others, Arcangelo Tadini, Nuno de Santa Maria Álvares Pereira, Gertrude Comensoli, and Catherine Volpicelli were canonized on the same day. In his homily, the Sovereign Pontiff recalled that Bernard had obtained papal approval for his congregation in 1344, and that "during the Black Death epidemic of 1348, he left the solitude of Monte Oliveto for the monastery of Saint Benedict at the Porta Tufi in Siena, in order to assist his monks stricken by the plague, and died himself as a victim, an authentic martyr of charity." His liturgical feast is celebrated on August 20, the anniversary of his death; the Benedictine calendar places it on August 19.

The legacy of Bernard Tolomei is perpetuated first through the Benedictine Congregation of Saint Mary of Monte Oliveto, the Olivetans, of whom he remains the founder and patron saint. The heart of this monastic family remains the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, in the Crete Senesi south of Siena, which preserves the memory of its founder and celebrates the long continuity of Olivetan life; its monks maintain there the Benedictine spirituality of liturgical prayer, lectio divina, and work. The figure of Bernard, a jurist who became a hermit and then a servant to his brothers until the sacrifice of his life during the plague, has inspired an iconography representing him in the white habit of an Olivetan abbot. His canonization in 2009 renewed attention to his message: the primacy of contemplation, humility, and active charity in the service of one's neighbor, especially in times of trial. Venerated mainly in Tuscany and within the Olivetan Order spread throughout Italy and beyond, he is honored as a witness to monastic fidelity within the medieval Church.