Eugenius (who consecrated the new S. Marco in 1442 and occupied Cosimo de’ Medici’s cell on his visit) had offered it; but the painter declined and put forward Antonio in his stead.  Antonio Pierozzi, whose destiny it was to occupy this high post, to be a confidant of Cosimo de’ Medici, and ultimately, in 1523, to be enrolled among the saints, was born at Florence in 1389.  According to Butler, from the cradle “Antonino” or “Little Antony,” as the Florentines affectionately called him, had “no inclination but to piety,” and was an enemy even as an infant “both to sloth and to the amusements of children”.  As a schoolboy his only pleasure was to read the lives of the saints, converse with pious persons or to pray.  When not at home or at school he was in church, either kneeling or lying prostrate before a crucifix, “with a perseverance that astonished everybody”.  S. Dominic himself, preaching at Fiesole, made him a Dominican, his answers to an examination of the whole decree of Gratian being the deciding cause, although Little Antony was then but sixteen.  As a priest he was “never seen at the altar but bathed in tears”.  After being prior of a number of convents and a counsellor of much weight in convocation, he was made Archbishop of Florence:  but was so anxious to avoid the honour and responsibility that he hid in the island of Sardinia.  On being discovered he wrote a letter praying to be excused and watered it with his tears; but at last he consented and was consecrated in 1446.

As archbishop his life was a model of simplicity and solicitude.  He thought only of his duties and the well-being of the poor.  His purse was open to all in need, and he “often sold” his single mule in order to relieve some necessitous person.  He gave up his garden to the growth of vegetables for the poor, and kept an ungrateful leper whose sores he dressed with his own hands.  He died in 1459 and was canonized in 1523.  His body was still free from corruption in 1559, when it was translated to the chapel in S. Marco prepared for it by the Salviati.

But perhaps the good Antonino’s finest work was the foundation of a philanthropic society of Florentines which still carries on its good work.  Antonino’s sympathy lay in particular with the reduced families of Florence, and it was to bring help secretly to them—­too proud to beg—­that he called for volunteers.  The society was known in the city as the Buonuomini (good men) of S. Martino, the little church close to Dante’s house, behind the Badia:  S. Martin being famous among saints for his impulsive yet wise generosity with his cloak.