By Leon Bent –
Saint Bonaventure, born Giovanni di Fidanza in 1217, was an Italian medieval Franciscan, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he was also Cardinal of Albano.
He wrote several works on the spiritual life and re-codified the Constitution of his order (1260). He fell ill when still a boy and, according to his own words, was saved from death by the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi. He entered the University of Paris in 1235; he received the Master of Arts degree in 1243, and then joined the Franciscan order, which named him Bonaventure in 1244. He studied theology in the Franciscan school at Paris from 1243 to 1248. His masters, especially Alexander of Hales, recognized in him a student with a keen memory and unusual intelligence.
By turning the pursuit of truth into a form of divine worship, he integrated his study of theology with the Franciscan mode of the mendicant life. In 1248, he began to teach the Bible; from 1251 to 1253 he lectured on the Sentences, a medieval theology textbook by Peter Lombard, an Italian theologian of the 12th century, and became a Master of Theology in 1254, when he assumed control of the Franciscan school in Paris. He taught there until 1257, producing many works, notably commentaries on the Bible and “The Sentences” and the Breviloquium (“Summary”), which presented a summary of his theology. These works showed his deep understanding of Scripture and the Fathers of the early church—principally St. Augustine—and a wide knowledge of the philosophers, particularly Aristotle.
Bonaventure was particularly noted in his day as a man with the rare ability to reconcile diverse traditions in theology and philosophy. He united different doctrines in a synthesis, containing his personal conception of truth, as a road to the love of God.
In 1256 he defended the Franciscan ideal of the Christian life against William of Saint-Amour, a university teacher who accused the mendicants (friars who wandered about and begged for a living) of defaming the Gospel by their practice of poverty and who wanted to prevent the Franciscans and their fellow mendicants, the Dominicans, from attaining teaching positions. Bonaventure’s defence of the Franciscans and his personal probity, as a member of his Religious Order, led to his election as Minister General of the Franciscans on Feb. 2, 1257.
Bonaventure’s wisdom and ability to reconcile opposing views moved Pope Gregory X to name him Cardinal of Albano, Italy, in May 1273, though Bonaventure had declined to accept appointment to the ‘see’ of York, England, from Pope Clement IV, in 1265.
Gregory consecrated him in November at Lyon, where he resigned as Minister General of the Franciscans in May 1274. At the second Council of Lyon he was the leading figure in the reform of the Church, reconciling the secular (parish) clergy with the mendicant orders. He also had a part in restoring the Greek Church to union with Rome.
His death, at the Council, was viewed as the loss of a wise and holy man, full of compassion and virtue, captivating with love all who knew him. He was buried the same day in a Franciscan Church, with the Pope, in attendance. The respect and love for Bonaventure is exemplified in the formal announcement of the Council: “At the funeral there was much sorrow and tears; for the Lord has given him this grace, that all who saw him were filled with an immense love for him.” His exemplary life as a Franciscan and the continual influence of his doctrine on the life and devotion of the Western Church, won for him a declaration of sanctity by Pope Sixtus IV; he was designated a doctor of the church by Sixtus V.
Modern scholars consider him to have been one of the foremost men of his age, an intrepid defender of human and divine truth, and an outstanding exponent of a mystical and Christian wisdom.
Of all the great Scholastics, Bonaventure is the one who offers the widest scope to the “beautiful” in his theology. “God is beauty”, says Bonaventure, “every creature is charged with his beauty”. Whichever facet of revelation he contemplates, he finds loveliness. The central ray in revelation’s glory: the beauty of the risen body of Jesus, the glory to which he will configure our lowly bodies at the end of time (cf. Phil. 3.21).
God-made-man’s amazing descent for us, into the inhuman pit of pain and death, seizes the whole being of Bonaventure, as it did St Francis of Assisi before him. Their monastic mission in the Church was to return, and help others to return Christ’s wonderful crucified love – to receive, and then to channel, the beautifying streams of the Spirit that, flow from the wounded heart.
The beauty of the resurrected body is a new luminosity, a light shining in and through the flesh. Now, the chief of these is clarity, the risen body’s brightness, radiance, splendour, and its matchless beauty. This lustre, this loveliness, was first indicated by the Lord, before the Passion, in his Transfiguration. Owing to its perfection of order, Bonaventure holds the Trinity to be a model of beauty consisting as it does, of plurality and equality. Here we find a unity of Essence with a Trinity of Persons.
St. Bonaventure, known as the Seraphic Doctor, teaches us about mystical or contemplative prayer in the Holy Spirit, who enkindles within us a raging fire and carries the soul to God, with intense fervour and glowing love. Jesus is both, the way and the door. He is the staircase and the vehicle, like the throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant, and the mystery hidden from the ages.
A man should turn his full attention to this throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on the Cross, full of faith, hope and charity, devoted, full of wonder and joy, marked by gratitude, and open to praise and jubilation. For St. Bonaventure “the entire world is drenched with the presence of divine mystery and divine love”.
As a theologian, Saint Bonaventure upheld the duty and value of using the human intellect to reflect on the mysteries of faith. But for him all human wisdom was folly, when compared to the mystical illumination given to the faithful Christian by God himself.
Shortly before he ended his service as General Minister, Pope Gregory X created him a Cardinal and appointed him Bishop of Albano. But, a little over a year later, while participating in the Second Council of Lyon, Saint Bonaventure suddenly died on July 15, 1274. There is a debatable theory that he was poisoned.
Now, this gold nugget! Perhaps not a household name for most people, Saint Bonaventure, nevertheless, played an important role in both the medieval Church and the history of the Franciscan Order. A senior faculty member at the University of Paris, Saint Bonaventure certainly captured the hearts of his students through his academic skills and insights. But, more importantly, he captured their hearts through his ‘Franciscan love’ for Jesus and the Church. Like his model, Saint Francis, Jesus was the centre of everything—his teaching, his administration, his writing, and his life. He offered the Friars an organized spirituality based on the vision and insights of Saint Francis of Assisi. Always a Franciscan at heart and a mystical writer, Bonaventure managed to unite the pastoral, practical aspects of life with the doctrines of the Church. Thus, there is a pronounced warmth to his teachings and writings that make him very appealing. The Franciscan Order has ever regarded Bonaventure as one of the greatest Doctors of the Church, and from the beginning, his teaching found many distinguished expositors within the order.
This is written in the stars! Saint Bonaventure left behind a structured and renewed Franciscan Order, and a body of work which glorifies his major love—Jesus.
And, this final flourish! Modern scholars consider him to have been one of the foremost men of his age, an intrepid defender of human and divine truth, and an outstanding exponent of a mystical and Christian wisdom. Bonaventure united in himself the two elements from which proceed whatever was noble and sublime, great and beautiful, in the Middle Ages, namely, tender piety and profound learning.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.
Leon Bent regularly writes for 9 Catholic Magazines, Journals and Web Portals, worldwide – occasionally, the reach is over 5 million readers.