One of sev­en child­ren, Savonarola showed pi­e­ty at a young age. Trou­bled by the sin and in­jus­tice he saw all around him, he of­ten spent long hours in pray­er and con­tem­pla­tion. After re­ceiv­ing a vi­sion of hea­ven and the fu­ture ca­lam­i­ties of the church, he be­gan to preach re­pent­ance to the mul­ti­tudes. He con­tin­ued to a fer­vent pray­er life; his bi­og­ra­phies re­port that on Christ­mas Eve, 1486, he was in a trance­like state in the pul­pit for al­most five hours.

His de­nun­ci­a­tion of wide­spread cor­rupt­ion even­tu­al­ly drew the ire of the Church, and Pope Alex­ander VI or­dered that Savonarola be hanged and burned in the pub­lic square in Flor­ence, along with two of his fel­low monks, Do­men­i­co da Pes­cia and Sil­ves­tro Ma­ruf­fi.

Sources

Hymns

1. Giesù sommo conforto
   • Jesus, Refuge of the Weary