Saint Bonaventure
July 15
Lives of the Saints
by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. edition
[1894]
—ST. BONAVENTURE.
SANCTITY and learning raised Bonaventure to the Church’s highest honors, and from a child he was the companion of Saints. Yet at heart he was ever the poor Franciscan friar, and practiced and taught humility and mortification.
St. Francis gave him his name; for, having miraculously cured him of a mortal sickness, he prophetically exclaimed of the child, “O bona ventura!”—good luck.
He is known also as the “Seraphic Doctor,” from the fervor of divine love which breathes in his writings.
He was the friend of St. Thomas Aquinas, who asked him one day whence he drew his great learning. He replied by pointing to his crucifix.
At another time St. Thomas found him in ecstasy while writing the life of St. Francis, and exclaimed, “Let us leave a Saint to write of a Saint.” They received the Doctor’s cap together.
He was the guest and adviser of St. Louis, and the director of St. Isabella, the king’s sister.
At the age of thirty-five he was made general of his Order; and only escaped another dignity, the Archbishopric of York, by dint of tears and entreaties.
Gregory X. appointed him Cardinal Bishop of Albano. When the Saint heard of the Pope’s resolve to create him a Cardinal, he quietly made his escape from Italy. But Gregory sent him a summons to return to Rome. On his way, he stopped to rest himself 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 desired them to hang the hat on a bush that was near, and take a walk in the garden until he had finished what he was about. Then taking up the hat with unfeigned sorrow, he joined the messengers, and paid them the respect due to their character. He sat at the Pontiff’s right hand, and spoke first at the Council of Lyons. His piety and eloquence won over the Greeks to Catholic union, and then his strength failed.
He died while the Council was sitting, and was buried by the assembled bishops, A. D. 1274.
Reflection.—”The fear of God,” says St. Bonaventure, “forbids a man to give his heart to transitory things, which are the true seeds of sin.”
Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Memorial Gn 49:29-32; 50:15-26a/Mt 10:24-33 (388).
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/bonaventure-503
CATHOLICISM SAINTS ST. BONAVENTURE
*Saint Bonaventure – Crivelli.
A portrait of St. Bonaventure, thirteenth-century friar, bishop-cardinal, and Seraphic Doctor of the Church. Artwork by Crivelli.
**Bonaventure (/ˈbɒnəˌvɛntʃər, ˌbɒnəˈvɛn-/ BON-ə-ven-chər, –VEN-; Italian: Bonaventura [ˌbɔnavenˈtuːra]; Latin: Bonaventura de Balneoregio; 1221 – 15 July 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian Catholic Franciscan, bishop, cardinal, scholastic theologian and philosopher.
The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he also served for a time as Bishop of Albano. He was canonised on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1588 by Pope Sixtus V. He is known as the “Seraphic Doctor” (Latin: Doctor Seraphicus). His feast day is 15 July. Many writings believed in the Middle Ages to be his are now collected under the name Pseudo-Bonaventure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure
“In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord – “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
HOSEA 2:21–23