Page:Withgodbookofpra00las.djvu/582

 evotion to  the  Holy  Name  of  Jesus, the  feast  of which  very  fittingly  occurs  in  the  first  month  of  the year, is  a  truly  Franciscan  devotion. So great  was  the reverence of  our  Seraphic  Father  for  the  holy  name  that  he could  not  bear  to  see  it  exposed  even  to  the  slightest  material profanation. "Wheresoever," he  says  in  his  "Instructions to  All  Clerics,"  "the  names  and  written  words of  the  Lord  may  be  found  in  unseemly  places  they  ought  to be  collected  and  put  away  in  a  becoming  place." And Thomas of  Celano  writes:  "  Those  who  lived  with  him  will remember  how  the  name  of  Jesus  was  the  daily,  nay  the continual,  theme  of  his  discourses."

The worship  of  this  adorable  name  was  still  more  widely extended and  popularized  by  the  preaching  of  the  disciples of St. Francis. One of  the  foremost  of  them,  St.  Bernardine of Siena,  was  not  satisfied  with  preaching  the  holy  name  of Jesus  in  the  cities  and  towns  of  Italy,  he  had  the  monogram of Our  Lord,  surrounded  with  rays,  painted  on  httle  tablets and advised  all  his  hearers  to  procure  one  of  these  tablets for their  homes. He himself  always  wore  one,  and  he  would show it  to  the  people  at  the  end  of  his  sermon,  inviting  the congregation to  bend  the  knee  before  the  holy  picture  in honor  of  Jesus. This devotion  had  a  great  effect  in  producing reverence,  love,  and  fear  for  the  Saviour  of  mankind. When, in  1427,  Bernardine  was  denounced  to  Pope  Martin V for  having  introduced  "a  profane  and  idolatrous  new devotion  by  exposing  the  people  to  the  danger  of  adoring the  letters  of  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  not  the Saviour  Himself,"  the  saint,  accompanied  by  St.  John Capistran and  Blessed  Matthew  of  Girgenti,  pleaded  the cause of  the  Holy  Name  so  well  that  the  Pope  exhorted  him to pursue  his  fruitful  apostolate,  to  teach  the  people  reverence and  love  for  the  Holy  Name  of  Jesus,  and,  moreover, told him  that  he  might  present  without  fear  to  the  veneration  of  the  faithful  the  representation  of  this  blessed  name. Then he  ordered  a  general  procession  in  Rome  in  honor  of