St. Bonaventure. Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

  Today is the holiday of St. Bonaventure, who is the third largest of the Franciscan saints after St. Anton and St. Francis. Bonaventure was born around 1217 in Bagnoregio near Oviedo as the son of a doctor. From 1225 to 1235, he studied at the Franciscan monastery in Bagnoregio. At that time, St. Francis of Assisi healed from a serious illness. In 1235 he began his studies in Paris. After their completion, he studied theology, probably as a Franciscan novice, under Alexander Haleský and John of La Rochelle. In the years 1248-50, he writes commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, starting with the Gospel of St. Luke. After obtaining the title of Master of Theology, he receives a chair. In 1257 at the general chapter in Rome, he was elected general of the order. October He spends 1259 on Mount Alverna, where he writes a lot. In May 1260, the general chapter is held in Narbonne. In 1261 writes biographies of St. Francis. In 1263 the General Chapter in Pisa presented the written “Legends”. In 1265 Clement IV. appoints Archbishop of York, but Bonaventure does not accept the appointment. In 1266 the General Chapter in Paris issued an order to destroy all biographies of St. Francis in addition to the “legends” written by Bonaventure. Nevertheless, we have preserved beautiful legends from Thomas off Celan. 
    We can say about Bonaventure that he is a teacher of Franciscan mysticism and that he managed to express in writing the Franciscan experience with God. On his feast day, we read in the breviary from his work: “Wandering of the mind to God.” Let’s listen to his teaching: “Christ is the way and the gate. Christ is the ladder and the chariot as “the mercy seat placed on the ark of God” and “the secret hidden from the ages.” Whoever looks carefully at this mercy seat, that is, who with faith, hope and love, religiously, with admiration, praise and recognition, with praise and joyfully looks at the one who hangs on the cross, he performs the “passover” with him, i.e. the crossing, so that with the help of the staff of the cross he crossed the Red Sea, from Egypt he entered the desert, where he tasted the hidden manna, and with Christ he rested in the tomb as outwardly dead, but at the same time he hears how it is even possible on the road, what Christ said to the criminal when he was hanging next to him on the cross:
    When St. Thomas Aquinas asked Bonaventure where he gets his wisdom, pointed to the cross and remarked: “That’s my library”. This is the wisdom that St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians: “We proclaim the secret of the hidden wisdom of God, which God appointed for our glory before the ages.” The whole strength of Christians lies in their willingness to take up their cross, in their willingness to sacrifice themselves. The way to God is the way of sacrifice. One cannot come to God without sacrifice. To experience God, we must die to our selfishness. 
    Later, Bonaventure became the General Minister of the Order. Love and kindness characterized him even in this office. Pope Gregory X appointed him a cardinal. When the papal envoys arrived with a cardinal’s hat, they found him washing dishes in the kitchen. He welcomed them warmly, hung his hat on the rack and asked to be allowed to finish washing the dishes. When the brothers contradicted him that it was no longer suitable for him, he answered completely calmly: “Am I not the general minister, and therefore the servant of all of you?” He received episcopal ordinations from the hands of Gregory X himself in Lyon. From 1274 participates in the Council of Lyons. In the same year, at the request of Gregory X, a general chapter was convened, at which Hieronymus of Ascoli (later Pope Nicholas IV) became Bonaventure’s successor in the office of general. On August 15, 1274, he dies in the presence of Gregory X. in the Franciscan monastery of Lyons and on the same day he is buried in the sacristy of the old Franciscan church. In 1482 Sixtus IV. with the bull “Superna caelestis patria” he declared Bonaventure a saint and gave him the title of Doctor, marking the day 7/14 as his feast day. In 1587 Sixtus V founds the College of St. at the Franciscan monastery of the Twelve Apostles in Rome. Bonaventure.
    What can we learn from him? That the cross is a staff that we can happily cross the red sea of ​​this world, every other support will break, but the cross will stand firm. Where there is a cross, there is victory. Let’s stick to this truth. The cross frees us from the tyranny of our egoism and our passions. Do not be afraid of the cross. When we cling to the cross, the devil withdraws from us with his temptations and allurements. The devil wants to please at any cost. The cross stands in direct opposition to this purpose, with which the devil corrupts the world and enslaves human souls to lust. The cross is the hidden power and wisdom of God, and it is victory over the world; it is the way to spiritual freedom.
    St. Bonaventure is a great worshiper of the Virgin Mary. From him comes the hymn “We praise You, Mother of God”, which is composed according to the example of the Te Deum by St. Ambrose. St. Bonaventure assures us that whenever a man prays devoutly to God, he obtains goods that are of greater value than the whole world, and asserts that we often receive grace by a short supplication rather than by many other good works.