Saint Bonaventure

Italian philosopher

• Born: 1217 or 1221
• Birthplace: Bagnoregio, Papal States (now in Italy)
• Died: July 15, 1274
• Place of death: Lyon (now in France)

Saint Bonaventure combined an early commitment to the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi with great preaching and teaching abilities. Noted for his ability to reconcile differing groups and individuals, he proved to be a defender of both human and divine truth and an outstanding witness for mystic and Christian wisdom.

Early Life

Not much is known of the family of Saint Bonaventure (bahn-uh-VEHN-chur). His father was a medical doctor, Giovanni di Fidanza. (Fidanza was not a family name, but the name of a grandfather.) His mother was called Maria di Ritello, or simply Ritella. He was very ill as a boy and was said to have been saved from death by the intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi. Bonaventure recorded his cure in his life of Saint Francis. It is recorded that the young Bonaventure received his early schooling at the Franciscan friary in Bagnoregio. He showed scholastic ability and was sent to be a student at the University of Paris in 1235 or 1236.

It was in Paris that Bonaventure met many of the Franciscan friars and entered the Franciscan order (in either 1238 or 1243). Called Giovanni since birth, he received the name Bonaventure soon after entering the order. In accordance with the Franciscan regulations of the time, he was considered a member of the Roman province of his birth. After receiving a master of arts degree from the University of Paris in 1243, he studied theology at the Franciscan school in Paris for the next five years, under Alexander of Hales and John of La Rochelle, until their deaths in 1245. He probably continued with the masters Eudes Rigauld and William of Meliton; later, he was influenced by the Dominican Guerric of Saint-Quentin and the secular master Guiard of León.

During these years, Bonaventure began teaching the brothers in the local Franciscan friary. In 1248, he became a teacher of Scripture, lecturing on the Gospel of Luke and other portions of the Bible. From 1250/1251 to 1253, he lectured on the Sententiarum libri IV (1148-1151; The Books of Opinions of Peter Lombard, 1970; better known as Sentences) at the University of Paris. This work was a medieval theology textbook written by Peter Lombard, a twelfth century Italian theologian. Bonaventure's commentaries on Scripture and Sentences enabled him to receive the licentiate and doctorate from the chancellor of the University of Paris. The chancellor acted in the name of the Church; therefore, this licentiate allowed Bonaventure to teach anywhere in the Christian world at the end of the 1252-1253 academic year. He was placed in charge of the Franciscan school in Paris, where he taught until 1257.

Paris at that time was a hotbed for theological study. Thomas Aquinas had arrived to study in 1252; he and Bonaventure became good friends. Yet the secular masters opposed the Mendicants (Franciscans and Dominicans), and although Bonaventure presented at least three series of disputed questions in Paris between 1253 and 1257, some authors claim that he was not accepted into the guild, or corporation, of the masters of the university until October 23, 1257.

Life's Work

The years between 1248 and 1257 proved to be a productive time for Bonaventure. He produced many works: not only commentaries on the Bible (not all of which have survived) and on Sentences but also the Breviloquium (1257; English translation, 1946), which provided a summary of his theology, showing his deep understanding of Scripture, early church fathers (especially Saint Augustine), and philosophers (particularly Aristotle). He adapted the older Scholastic traditions, perfecting and organizing a fresh synthesis. Bonaventure urged that the theologian be allowed to draw on logic and all the profane sciences. He thought of truth as the way to the love of God. In 1256, he and the Dominican Thomas Aquinas defended the Mendicants from an attack by William of Saint-Amour, a university teacher who accused the Mendicants of defaming the Gospel by their practice of poverty and wished to prevent them from attaining any teaching positions.

The Franciscan order itself was experiencing an internal struggle, between those who wanted a more rigorous poverty and those who wanted to relax the strict views of poverty established by Saint Francis. Pope Alexander IV commanded the minister general of the Franciscans, John of Parma, to resign his office. A chapter gathering was called at Rome late in January, 1257. Because of his defense of the Franciscans and the fact that he was an exemplary person patterning himself after Saint Francis, Bonaventure was elected minister general on February 2, 1257. He was to hold that post for seventeen years.

By placating the Spirituals (who opted for a more rigorous poverty) and reproving the Relaxati, Bonaventure reformed the order in the spirit of Saint Francis. The restoration of peace and reconciliation of opponents, a special talent of Bonaventure, was accomplished through extensive visits to all the provinces of the order and through his own practice of the Franciscan way of life. It was during these travels, despite health problems, that his reputation as a preacher was earned. His election to office had ended his teaching career, but it created preaching opportunities. Throughout Europe, his eloquence, knowledge, and simplicity caught the attention of high dignitaries and the laity. He also administered the order, presiding over the general chapters and guiding the continued growth of the Franciscans.

Bonaventure's new tasks did not prevent him from continuing his writing. In his visits to the provinces in October, 1259, he stopped at La Verna. There he wrote Itinerarium mentis in Deum (1259; The Journey of the Soul to God, 1937; also known as The Journey of the Mind to God, 1993). At this time, without ceasing to be a Scholastic, Bonaventure became a mystic , aligning himself more clearly with the inner life of Saint Francis. He merged Augustine's intellectual contemplation of truth with the Dionysian notion of truth as the ecstatic knowledge of God. He used as his model Saint Francis, whose vision of the seraphim at La Verna had shown how the heights of contemplation could be reached. Bonaventure also had the example of Brother Giles of Assisi, although to a lesser degree than Saint Francis. He wrote other works in this period, including {I}De triplici via{/I} (1260; The Enkindling of Love, Also Called the Triple Way, 1956) and De perfectione vitae ad sorores (1260; Holiness of Life, 1923).

In 1260, Bonaventure was in France preparing for the Pentecost Chapter at Narbonne, which was to codify the Franciscan ordinances into a new set of constitutions. It was this chapter that charged him with writing a new biography of Saint Francis. To gather material, Bonaventure visited all the places that had been significant to Francis and interviewed those of the early friars who were still alive. While working on this project, he presented himself to the new pope, Urban IV , elected in August, 1261. Late in that year or in the following year, Bonaventure was forced to submit the previous minister general, John of Parma, to a trial because of John's continued adherence to Joachism. On April 8, 1263, Bonaventure was in Padua for the transferral of the relics of Saint Anthony, and on May 20 he was in Pisa for a general chapter in which some forty liturgical statutes and rubrics were introduced, ending about fifty years of work in the Franciscan order. Bonaventure gave each of the thirty-four provincials present a copy of his new Legenda maior (1263; The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi, 1868). That year he also wrote De sex alis seraphim (1263; The Virtues of a Religious Superior: Instructions by the Seraphic Doctor, 1920).

In 1264, he spent some time at the papal court, and in the spring he gave a sermon on the Body of Christ at a consistory of Urban IV. In March, 1265, he was at Perugia to present himself to the new pope, Clement IV . In November, the new pope nominated Bonaventure to be archbishop of York, but he refused the post. At the general chapter at Paris, May 16, 1266, Bonaventure continued to correct abuses in the order, especially those regarding matters of poverty. The chapter also ordered that all other biographies of Francis be destroyed because Bonaventure had provided a new one.

Until as late as mid-1268, Bonaventure lived at a small friary in Mantessur-Seine, France, where he continued his ascetical writings and preached at the university. His Lenten conferences of 1267 (on the Ten Commandments) and 1268 (on the gifts of the Holy Spirit) attacked current trends. On July 8, 1268, he was in Rome receiving the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalonieri into spiritual communion with the Franciscans, staying in Italy through the chapter of Assisi in May. When he returned to Paris, he found that Gerard of Abbeville, a teacher of theology, had renewed the charge of William of Saint-Amour against the Mendicants. Bonaventure responded by upholding the Christian faith while denouncing unorthodox views in a work that was not only a refutation of heretical opinions but also the presentation of a positive theology of religious life in imitation of Christ. It showed that Bonaventure was less interested in external regulations than building up an inner spirit of prayer and devotion and creating right attitudes using the examples of Christ and Francis. Here one can see Bonaventure's doctrine of illumination, discussed in The Journey of the Mind to God, in operation: the cooperation given the soul when it acts as the image of God.

In June, 1272, Bonaventure was in Lyon for the Pentecostal General Chapter. The following spring, 1273, he was in Paris for the last time; there, he began work on Collationes in Hexaemeron (1273; Collations on the Six Days; 1970), his theological testament to refute those who exaggerated the rationalism of Aristotle in opposition to the inspiration of the Scriptures. In this same year, Pope Gregory X named him the cardinal bishop of Albano, Italy. He was consecrated as bishop November 11 or 12, 1273, and proceeded with the pope to Lyon for the Second Council of Lyon. In the capacity of legate, Bonaventure helped the pope prepare for the Council of Lyon, which opened on May 7, 1274. To continue his work at the council, he resigned as minister general of the Franciscans. Bonaventure continued to lead in the reform of the church, reconciling the secular (parish) clergy with the Mendicants. He preached at least twice at the council and effected a brief reunion of the Greek church with Rome.

Bonaventure died unexpectedly on the night of July 15, 1274, leaving his last work unfinished. He was buried in the Franciscan church in Lyon, with the pope attending. At the fifth session of the council, July 16, all priests of the world were ordered to celebrate a mass for his soul.

The impression Bonaventure made on contemporaries is summarized in the notes of the Council of Lyon, which indicate sorrow at his death. He was canonized on April 14, 1482, by Pope Sixtus IV, who also enrolled him with the mass and office of a confessor bishop. On March 14, 1588, another Franciscan pope, Sixtus V, gave Bonaventure the designation doctor of the Church. In 1434, his body was transferred to the church dedicated to Saint Francis in Lyon, with an arm taken to his native Bagnoregio. During the Huguenot uprising in France, his body, except the head, was destroyed by fire. His head was destroyed by fire during the French Revolution.

Significance

Saint Bonaventure is properly considered the second father of the Franciscans and a prince of mystics. He personified the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi in teaching, in preaching, in writing, and in living his life. He had an immediate and a lasting influence on the Scholastics of the thirteenth century. He was an influential guide and teacher of spiritual life, particularly in Germany and the Netherlands. His influence has been maintained through the Roman College of Saint Bonaventure, founded by Pope Sixtus V in 1587. He was depicted in medieval art, and modern scholars consider him one of the foremost men of his age, a true contemporary of Thomas Aquinas.

Bibliography

Analecta Franciscans, sive chronica aliaque varia documents ad historium fratrum minorum spectantia. 10 vols. Florence: Quaracchi, 1885-1941. An excellent source for original documents on the Franciscans. For Bonaventure, see especially volume 3, pages 323-355, which contain a review of his early life and more details on the years 1257 to 1274. A knowledge of Latin is necessary, particularly where there are corrections of some errors in Luke Wadding’s scholarship.

Bonaventure, Saint. The Life of Saint Francis. Translated by E. Gurney Salter. London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1904. There are other translations of this work in numerous languages. It was this work that became the official biography in 1266. Not only does this work aid in an understanding of Francis, but it also contributes to a deeper understanding of Bonaventure.

Delio, Ilia. Simply Bonaventure: An Introduction to His Life, Thought, and Writings. Hyde Park, N.Y.: New City Press, 2001. A biography of the saint that covers his life, works, and theology. Index.

Hellmann, J. A. Wayne. Divine and Created Order in Bonaventure’s Theology. New York: Franciscan Institute, 2001. An examination of Saint Bonaventure’s theology. Bibliography and indexes.

Wadding, Luke, ed. Annales Minorum seu Trium Ordinum. 25 vols. Rome: St. Francisco Institutorum, 1731-1886. An indispensable reference for the history of the Franciscans, though later scholarship has pointed to some errors in Wadding, mostly concerning dates. A knowledge of Latin is necessary for an understanding of the annotations and general comments.