Bernardinian Trigram

The ancient tradition of Saint Leonard of Porto Maurizio, who had this symbol affixed, reminds us that the gift of the good we hope for is bestowed upon us all from on high.

Bernaridian: IHS – Iesus Hominum Salvator

The Bernardinian Trigram is a circular stone medallion with a frame of twelve flaming rays, containing the inscription “IHS” surmounted by a cross. The letters “IHS” denote the name of Christ as ‘lesus Hominum Salvator’, according to the meaning attributed to them in the 15th century by Saint Bernardino of Siena.

In the mid-18th century, four trigrams were erected to protect the town, at the four cardinal points of the town centre; they were erected following the preaching of Saint Leonard of Porto Maurizio, a Franciscan friar minor, the creator and populariser of the Way of the Cross,

Saint Leonard of Porto Maurizio began his itinerant preaching from 1709 to 1751, and following his death he was beatified on 19 March 1796, canonised on 29 June 1867 and declared the patron saint of missionaries in Catholic countries on 17 March 1923. Today, the saint’s body is preserved in a glass case, on public display, in the Basilica of St Maurice in Imperia.