Seraphic means ‘Angelic,’ and St. Bonaventure received his charism as the Seraphic Doctor because he was a profound mystic and saw into the mysteries of the Catholic Faith in a way that a doctrinal theologian never could. He was known to tell his followers that an old woman could love God much more than a master in theology. It was his own mystical experience of God which gave him this understanding. And in his day, many disagreed with him, feeling that learning had more to do with love of God than the experience of God.
St. Bonaventure Born Giovanni di Fidanza
Born in Bagnorea, Italy, legend says that it was St. Francis of Assisi who gave him the name of Bonaventure after curing him of a serious and life-threatening childhood disease. In 1238, he became a Franciscan and devoted himself to teaching theology and scripture in Paris.
Mendicant Orders of the Time Attacked by Seculars
St. Bonaventure continued this great work until a secular movement interrupted and tried to remove the monks and priests from the universities. A certain William of Saint Armour wrote a book entitled The Perils of the Last Times which St. Bonaventure refuted in a work entitled Concerning the Poverty of Christ. The pope had to intervene – Pope Alexander IV – and denounce William of Saint Armour to restore the position of the mendicant orders to their teaching roles.
St. Bonaventure was a Mystic
Offered the position of Archbishop of York, he refused, but was later made into a cardinal bishop in Albano. But he spent much of his time seeking the mystical life and one of his best known works today The Journey of the Soul to God is still used to teach mystical theology at universities.
His death occurred in 1274 and he was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1588.
St. Bonaventure’s Written Works
Life of St. Francis, Commentary on the Sentences, The Art of Preaching by the Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, in which the keys of the Scriptures are given for the task of making sermons, Holiness of Life, De Perfectione Vitae ad Sorores, The Triple Way, Breviloquium, Soliloquium, The Journey of the Soul to God, Concerning the Six Wings of the Seraph, Perfection of Life for Sisters, The Wood of Life, Virtues of a Religious Superior, Three Principal Questions, Memorabilia, De Modo Vivendi, Itinerarium, Discourses on the Hexaemeron
The Twenty Second Doctor of the Catholic Church
The Twenty Fourth Doctor of the Catholic Church
Sources: The 33 Doctors of the Church – By Fr. Christopher Rengers, A Catholic Dictionary – By William Addis, The Writings of the Early Church Fathers (Thirty Eight Volumes): Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post Nicene – Hendrickson Publishers, Dictionary of Saints – By John J. Delaney, Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics – By Chas S. Clifton, A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham – Edited by Eugene R. Fairweather, A Short History of Christian Doctrine: From the First Century to the Present – By Bernhard Lohse
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