Bonaventure or Bonaventura, Saint (bŏn'əvĕn`chər, bō'nävānt

`rä), 1221–74, Italian scholastic theologian, cardinal, Doctor of the Church, called the Seraphic Doctor, b. near Viterbo, Italy. His original name was Giovanni di Fidanza. He entered (1238 or 1243) the Franciscan order, studied at the Univ. of Paris under Alexander of Hales, and then taught there with St. Thomas Aquinas until 1255. He was made (1257) general of his order and (1273) cardinal bishop of Albano. He died while attending the Second Council of Lyons, at which he was a papal legate. Among his philosophic and theological works are commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard and the "three little works"—Breviloquium (tr. 1947), Itinerarium mentis in Deum (tr. The Mind's Road to God, 1953), and De reductione artium ad theologiam (tr. 1939). He succeeded in reconciling Aristotle's learning to orthodox Augustinianism, and he was a proponent of moderate realism (see realism realism, in philosophy.

1 In medieval philosophy realism represented a position taken on the problem of universals . There were two schools of realism.
..... Click the link for more information. , in philosophy, (1)). His later mystical works bring the teachings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Hugh of Saint Victor to full flower. He emphasized the total dependence of all things upon God, and he wrote guides to mystic contemplation. He also wrote the official and much-translated life of St. Francis. Feast: July 14.

Bibliography

See J. G. Bougerol, Introduction to the Works of Bonaventure (Am. ed. 1964); E. Gilson, The Philosophy of St. Bonaventure (new ed. 1965).

Bonaventure, Saint

(born 1217, Bagnoregio, Papal States—died July 15, 1274, Lyon; canonized April 14, 1482; feast day July 15) Italian medieval theologian, cardinal, and minister general of the Franciscans. The son of a physician from near Viterbo, he recovered from a near-fatal childhood illness through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi. After study at the University of Paris, he entered the Franciscan order in 1244. In 1254 he assumed control of the Franciscan school in Paris. He defended the mendicants against the charge that they defamed the Gospels by begging for alms. Elected Franciscan minister-general in 1257, he healed an incipient rift between those who favoured a rigorous approach to poverty and those favouring a looser regimen, and he wrote a new life of St. Francis. His theological works include a commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard and Journey of the Mind to God (1259). Pope Gregory X appointed him cardinal of Albano (Italy) in 1273, and at the Second Council of Lyon he reconciled parish clergy with the mendicant orders.