Bonaventure

Who they were

Giovanni Fidanza, a doctor's son, was born at Bagnoregio near Viterbo. A legend says that St Francis cured him of a grave illness as a child, signing his forehead with the cross and exclaiming 'O bona ventura!' At eighteen he went to Paris to study, joined the Friars Minor and in 1253 became a master in theology, in the years when the secular masters were fighting to keep the mendicant friars out of the university.

He became Minister General of the Franciscans, then cardinal and bishop of Albano. Drawing on St Augustine, he taught that the world is a book in which the Trinity can be read: God is present as a trace in every creature, as an image in rational beings, and as a likeness in the holy, who live by faith, hope and charity.

The miracles

In 1588 Pope Sixtus V declared him a Doctor of the Church, the 'Seraphic Doctor'.

Why that counted as sanctity

Bonaventure held that the soul hates falsehood because it loves the truth for which it was made. He led his order in Francis' spirit and taught that all knowledge is meant to end in the contemplation and love of God.

Connected on this site

• Walter of Bruges Blessed Pupil