He had entered the community from the secular priesthood shortly after his ordination; he had made a brilliant course of studies at Rome, which was crowned by the doctorate of the Roman College.

He was physically a tall, powerful man, and of majestic bearing.

His features were full of intelligence, his glance penetrating, his voice clear, sympathetic, and vibrating, his gestures expressive.

If half that is handed down of Father Bernard be true, he was a wonderful preacher of penance and of hope, his high gifts of natural eloquence served by a perfect education and inspired by a most enthusiastic love of the people.
[* The reader is referred to his life by Canon Claessens (Catholic Publication Society Co.) It is all too brief, yet is a good summary of the career of the great Redemptorist missionary, one of St.
Alphonsus' noblest sons.] He was a popular preacher in the best sense of the term, calm in demeanor and simple in language as he opened, but when at the point of fervor pouring forth his soul in a fiery torrent of oratory, whose only restraint was the inability of the human voice to express all that the heart contained.

In style impassioned, he yet often chose language bordering on the familiar, but was not vulgar.