St. Bonaventure (Bishop and Doctor)

July 15, 2023

St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) was an excellent Franciscan bishop and theologian. He was born within the city of Bagnorea in central Italy, and as a youth was cured of a critical sickness by the prayers of St. Francis of Assisi. This, and the truth that certainly one of his academics on the University of Paris was a Franciscan, prompted Bonaventure to affix the Franciscan order.

He remained in Paris for a few years, preaching and educating theology and Scripture; in 1257 each he and St. Thomas Aquinas (the nice Dominican theologian) acquired the diploma of Doctor of Theology. Some opponents of the Franciscans attacked the approach to life of the monks; together with Aquinas, Bonaventure defended them, and in 1257 he was chosen basic minister, or head, of the order. Bonaventure applied many reforms throughout his seventeen years of management, and have become often known as the “second founder” of the order (after St. Francis himself).

In 1265 Bonaventure was nominated as bishop of York by the pope, however declined the place. Eight years later he was appointed cardinal of Albano; his humility is illustrated by the story that, when the pope’s messengers introduced the pink cardinal’s hat to him, he requested them to hold it on a close-by tree, as his arms have been nonetheless moist and greasy from doing the dishes. St. Bonaventure wrote many works of theology, philosophy, and mysticism, and died in 1274.

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