Saint Bonaventure
Cardinal-Bishop, Doctor of the Church
(† 1274)
Saint Bonaventure
Born
in Tuscany in 1225, this frail child was given the name of John at his
baptism. He soon fell so ill that his cure was despaired of, and his
sorrowing mother had recourse to Saint Francis, recognized everywhere in
Italy as a Saint. She promised God she would endeavor to have the child
take the habit of the Franciscan Order, if he were cured. Her prayer
was granted, the child was cured, and Saint Francis himself gave him his
new name. In reference to the miraculous cure, he prophetically
exclaimed of the infant, O buona ventura!— O good fortune! Saint Francis
died a few months later, not without foreseeing the future of this
little one, destined to be a seraph of love like himself. Saint
Bonaventure is titled the Seraphic Doctor, from the fervor of divine
love which breathes in his writings.
Sanctity
and learning raised Bonaventure to the Church's highest honors, yet at
heart he was ever the poor Franciscan friar, who practiced and taught
humility and mortification. He was the friend of Saint Thomas Aquinas;
they received the Doctor's cap together in Paris. Saint Thomas asked him
one day from what source he drew his great learning; he replied by
pointing to his crucifix. Another time Saint Thomas found him in ecstasy
while writing the life of Saint Francis. The Angelic Doctor said, while
retiring quietly, Let us leave a Saint in peace, to write of a Saint!
At
the age of thirty-six Saint Bonaventure was made General of his Order.
In 1265 he only escaped another dignity, the Archbishopric of York, by
dint of tears and entreaties to the Holy Father Clement IV. When he
learned of Pope Gregory X's resolve to create him a Cardinal, he quietly
made his escape from Italy, and in France began to compose a book. But
Gregory sent him a summons to return to Rome. On his way, he stopped to
rest at a convent of his Order near Florence; and there two Papal
messengers, sent to meet him with the Cardinal's hat, found him washing
the dishes. The Saint asked them to hang the hat on a nearby bush, and
take a walk in the garden until he had finished what he had begun. Then
taking up the hat with unfeigned sorrow, he joined the messengers, and
paid them the respect due to their character.
He
was the guest and adviser of Saint Louis, and the director of Saint
Isabella, the king's sister. He sat at the right hand of Pope Gregory X
and presided all sessions at the Council of Lyons, assembled to provide
for the reform of morals and the needs of the Holy Land, and to cement
the union of the Greeks with the Roman Church. The piety and eloquence
of Saint Bonaventure won over the Greeks to Catholic union, but his
strength failed suddenly, the day after its closure. He died on the 15th of
July, 1274, and was buried by the assembly of the Council members,
still in Lyons; he was mourned by the entire Christian world.
