Bernardo Tolomei
Italian saint
Feast: 20 August (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Bernardo Tolomei was born in Siena on 10 May 1272, baptised Giovanni, and educated by the Dominicans. Withdrawing to the wilderness of Accona, he founded there on 1 April 1319 the monastery of Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, named after the Mount of Olives.
As abbot of the Olivetan Benedictines he cared for monastic discipline. When plague swept Italy he nursed his fellow citizens and the stricken monks of Siena, and died of it himself with 82 monks, by tradition on 20 August 1348.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A monastic founder who died nursing the victims of the plague.
Connected on this site
- Nera Tolomei Blessed Brother or sister
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Bernardo Tolomei
- Wikidata Q731956 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Bernardo Tolomei (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.