Who He Is
Bernard is the old man dressed with the glorious assembly, with a benign air fitting a tender father, whom Dante meets in the Empyrean in place of Beatrice. He says his name only in canto XXXI, when he presents himself as the faithful one of Mary, for whom he burns entirely with love. The pilgrim has just turned to ask Beatrice a question, sees the old man, and cries out where she is; Bernard answers that she moved him from his place to fulfill Dante's desire, and points her out on the throne. From then on he is the guide. He takes on, of his own free will, the office of teacher in canto XXXII and teaches how the rose is seated: Eve at the feet of Mary, the division between those who believed in Christ to come and those who saw him come, the children who are seated by the merit of others, the roots (Adam on the left and Peter on the right, in the common reading), the angel whom the common reading says is Gabriel, Anna, and Lucy. In XXXIII he opens the prayer to the Virgin with three paradoxes and asks that Dante receive the grace to lift his eyes higher. This is the Bernard of the Empyrean, whom tradition reads as Bernard of Clairvaux, and not the Bernard of canto XI, the Franciscan Bernard of Quintavalle, who goes barefoot behind Francis. He is the guide who does not explain, only teaches how to pray: the last step is not earned, it is asked for.
Trajectory
In canto XXXI he answers the question with which Dante greets him:
E «Ov’ è ella?», sùbito diss’ io. / Ond’ elli: «A terminar lo tuo disiro / mosse Beatrice me del loco mio; / e se riguardi sù nel terzo giro / dal sommo grado, tu la rivedrai / nel trono che suoi merti le sortiro», and "Where is she?" I said at once. Whereupon he: "To fulfill your desire, Beatrice moved me from my place; and if you look up to the third circle from the highest rank, you will see her again on the throne that her merits assigned her."
He sends the pilgrim to climb with his eyes through the circles to the queen, and when he sees him looking at her, he turns his own eyes to her with such affection that Dante's are kindled even more. The beauty that Dante sees laughing is not described by its features; it is measured by its effect on others:
Vidi a lor giochi quivi e a lor canti / ridere una bellezza, che letizia / era ne li occhi a tutti li altri santi; / e s’io avessi in dir tanta divizia / quanta ad imaginar, non ardirei / lo minimo tentar di sua delizia, I saw there, at their games and songs, a beauty laughing, which was joy in the eyes of all the other saints; and if I had in speech as much richness as in imagining, I would not dare attempt the least of her delight.
In canto XXXII he begins with the wound:
«La piaga che Maria richiuse e unse, / quella ch’è tanto bella da’ suoi piedi / è colei che l’aperse e che la punse, the wound that Mary closed and anointed, the one so beautiful at her feet, is she who opened it and pricked it.
He explains the children seated by the merit of others:
E sappi che dal grado in giù che fiede / a mezzo il tratto le due discrezioni, / per nullo proprio merito si siede, / ma per l’altrui, con certe condizioni: / ché tutti questi son spiriti ascolti / prima ch’avesser vere elezïoni, and know that from the rank downward that strikes at the midpoint the line of the two discernments, one sits by no merit of one's own, but by another's, with certain conditions: for all these are spirits released before they had true choices.
And he answers Dante's doubt by denying chance:
Dentro a l’ampiezza di questo reame / casüal punto non puote aver sito, / se non come tristizia o sete o fame: / ché per etterna legge è stabilito / quantunque vedi, sì che giustamente / ci si risponde da l’anello al dito, within the vastness of this kingdom, a chance point cannot have a place, except as sadness or thirst or hunger: for by eternal law is established all that you see, so that one justly answers there from the ring to the finger.
Before the prayer, the warning that the last step is not gained by beating wings:
Veramente, ne forse tu t’arretri / movendo l’ali tue, credendo oltrarti, / orando grazia conven che s’impetri / grazia da quella che puote aiutarti; / e tu mi seguirai con l’affezione, / sì che dal dicer mio lo cor non parti», truly, lest you draw back, moving your wings, thinking you advance, it is fitting to obtain by prayer grace from her who can help you; and you will follow me with affection, so that your heart does not depart from what I say.
In canto XXXIII he opens the prayer:
Saint Bernard's prayer to the Virgin (canto XXXIII).Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio, / umile e alta più che creatura, / termine fisso d’etterno consiglio,Virgin Mother, daughter of her own son, humble and higher than any creature, fixed term of the eternal counsel. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux asks Mary for the grace that Beatrice can no longer attain alone: the last step is not won, it is asked for.
And he turns it into argument:
Donna, se’ tanto grande e tanto vali, / che qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre, / sua disïanza vuol volar sanz’ ali, lady, you are so great and so worthy that whoever wants grace and does not run to you wants his desire to fly without wings.
Mary answers with her eyes, and Bernard smiles and beckons Dante to look up:
Li occhi da Dio diletti e venerati, / fissi ne l’orator, ne dimostraro / quanto i devoti prieghi le son grati; / indi a l’etterno lume s’addrizzaro, / nel qual non si dee creder che s’invii / per creatura l’occhio tanto chiaro, the eyes beloved and revered by God, fixed on the one who prayed, showed us how pleasing devout prayers are to her; then they turned toward the eternal light, in which one must not believe that a creature's eye travels so clearly.
Themes Embodied
Bernard embodies Faith as prayer and mediation as the structure of the ascent: whoever seeks grace and does not run to Mary wants desire to fly without wings. He also embodies Love that asks nothing for itself, the love of one who burns to see another's vision more than his own.
The text sustains two readings of the change of guide. In the first, it is continuity: Beatrice moved him from his place, and Bernard merely fulfills her request. In the second, it is a rupture: he is a different kind of guide, that of contemplation and prayer, and the woman who taught by principle yields to one who teaches how to ask. The lesson is one of method (the old man does not explain the system, he points to the seat), and the two guides complete each other without replacing each other.
Relationships
- Beatrice: the one who moved him from his place and points him out on the throne.
- The Virgin Mary: the queen whose faithful servant he is and to whom he directs the prayer.
- Dante: the disciple he leads to the last step.
- Adam: the root of the rose that he shows.
- Saint Peter: the other root of the rose.