Saint Bonaventure
Saint Bonaventure (1221–1274), known as the “Seraphic Doctor,” was the Minister General of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor. His many writings and treatises include Breviloquium (“Summary” of his theology), The Journey of the Mind to God, The Tree of Life, and The Life of Saint Francis. He was a renowned philosopher and theologian. He was known as the “prince of mystics.”
Bonaventure was an embodiment of the ascended master Lanello.
Early life
In The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principle Saints, Reverend Alban Butler writes of Bonaventure’s early life:
He was born at Bagnarea in Tuscany, in the year 1221, of pious parents, named John of Fidenza and Mary Ritelli. He was christened by the name of John, but afterward received that of Bonaventure on the following occasion: in the fourth year of his age he fell so dangerously sick that his life was despaired of by the physicians. The mother, in excessive grief, had recourse to the Almighty Physician by earnest prayer, and going to Umbria cast herself at the feet of Saint Francis of Assisium with many tears, begging his intercession with God for the life of her son....
Saint Francis was moved to compassion by the tears of the mother, and at his prayer, the child recovered so perfect a state of health that he was never known to be sick from that time until the illness of which he died.
The glorious saint at whose petition God granted this favor, saw himself at the end of his mortal course, and foretelling the graces which the Divine Goodness prepared for this child, cried out in prophetic rapture. “O buono ventura.” that is, in Italian, Good luck. Whence the name of Bonaventura was given our saint. The devout mother, in gratitude, consecrated her son to God by a vow, and was careful to inspire into him from the cradle the most ardent sentiments of piety, and to inure him betimes to assiduous practices self-denial, humility, obedience and gratitude. Bonaventure from his infancy entered upon a religious course and appeared inflamed with the love of God as soon as he was capable of knowing him.
His progress and his studies surprised his masters, but that which he made in the science of the saints and in the practice of every virtue, was far more extraordinary. It was his highest pleasure and joy to hear by how many titles he belonged to God, and he made it his most earnest study and endeavour to devote his heart with his whole strength to the divine service.
In 1243, being twenty-two years of age, he entered into the Order of Saint Francis and received the habit in the province of Rome from the hands of Haymo, an Englishman, at that time, general of the Order. Saint Bonaventure mentions in his prologue to the life of Saint Francis, that he entered this state, and made his vows with extraordinary sentiments of gratitude for the preservation of his life through the intercession of Saint Francis, resolving with the greatest ardor to serve God with his whole heart.
Shortly after, he was sent to Paris to complete his studies under the celebrated Alexander of Hales, surnamed the Irrefragable Doctor. After his death in 1245, Saint Bonaventure continued his course under his successor, John of Rochelle. His penetrating genius was poised by the most exquisite judgment, by which, he easily dived to the bottom of every subtle inquiry, he cut off whatever was superfluous, dwelling only on that knowledge which is useful and solid, or at least was then necessary to unravel the false principles and artful sophistry of the adversaries of truth. Thus he became a masterly proficient in the scholastic philosophy and in the most sublime parts of theology....
He seemed never to turn his attention from God, and by the earnest invocation of the divine light in the beginning of every action, and holy aspirations with which he accompanied all of his studies, he may be said to have made them a continued prayer. When he turned his eyes to his book, they were swimming with tears of love and devotion, excited by his assiduous meditation on the wounds of Christ, and his heart still continued to inflame its affections from that its beloved object, which he seemed to read in every line.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, coming one day to pay a visit to our saint, asked him in what books he had learned his sacred science. Saint Bonaventure, pointing to his crucifix before him, said, “This is the source of all my knowledge. I study only Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”...
An eminent spirit of penance was the principle guardian of this grace of innocence. The austerities of Saint Bonaventure were excessive, yet amidst his penitential tears, a remarkable cheerfulness appeared always in his countenance, which resulted from the inward peace of his soul. Himself lays down this maxim. “A spiritual joy is the greatest sign of the divine grace growing in a soul.”[1]
His magnanimity
Bonaventure was magnanimous. At the very early age of 35, he was chosen as general of the Franciscan Order. Soon after, he was called to be a peacemaker there, for it was divided between those who were in favor of an inflexible severity and those who wanted to mitigate some of the rules. Butler writes:
Bonaventure no sooner appeared among them, but by the force of his exhortations which he tempered with mildness and charity, he restored a perfect calm. And all the brethren marched under this new Joshua with one heart, in the same spirit and in the same path.
For Bonaventure, his superior position only gave him the opportunity to be more magnanimous—more generous. On one occasion, while returning to Paris, he visited several convents. Butler says:
He showed everywhere that he had become superior only to be the most humble, the most charitable, the most compassionate of all his brethren, and the servant of his whole Order.
He was truly what we call today a “servant leader.”
Bonaventure taught that true magnanimity comes in the execution of small, daily duties. Butler writes:
Saint Bonaventure places not the perfection of Christian virtue so much in the more heroic exercises of a religious state as in the performing well our ordinary actions.
Bonaventure says:
The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue.[2]
Legacy
Bonaventure’s doctrine greatly influenced the Western Church. He was canonized by Pope Sixtus IV in 1482 and made Doctor of the Church in 1588 by Sixtus V, who testified that Bonaventure “whilst enlightening his readers ... also moved their hearts, penetrating to the inmost recesses of their souls.” The momentum of his service to Jesus Christ and his knowledge of the Lord’s Divine Doctrine may be accessed from his causal body through his keynote, which is “Greensleeves.”
For more information
Lecture by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, June 14, 1981, “Incarnations of the Magnanimous Heart of Lanello--Saint Bonaventure: Seraphic Doctor of the Church.” Available from AscendedMasterLibrary.org
Sources
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, July 12, 1977.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, “The Magnanimous Lives of Mark L. Prophet,” Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 40, no. 14, April 6, 1997.
Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 29, no. 14, April 6, 1986. endnotes.