Tomb of Saint Bernardino Realino in Lecce. |
Saint Bernadino Realino lived between 1530 to 1616 and was in Italy to a noble family. He studied law and medicine and was successful in his career as an attorney and a judge and served as mayor for three cities. When he was 34 he attended a retreat with the Jesuit priests for eight days, where he discerned his vocation into the religious life. He was ordained as a priest in 1567, entering the Jesuit order. He preached, taught and visited the sick and poor in Naples and Lecce and was loved among the people he ministered to as he performed many miracles. He was thought to be a living saint. Public scandal and civil strife calmed due to his influence over it. On his death bed, the city leaders of Lecce came to request his approval to become the patron saint of their city once he entered heaven. After he died, vials of his blood were kept for veneration which liquefy and exhibit unusual phenomena even after more than a century.