(This article courtesy of the St. Augustine Catholic.)
Even before Timothy J. Johnson began studying theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he had discovered the writings of a superb theologian, the medieval mystic St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan friar who was elected, at age 36, to be the Minister General of the 30,000-member Franciscan order.
Johnson’s study of St. Bonaventure left him with the feeling that Bonaventure’s writings on prayer had not been sufficiently recognized. Bonaventure had often written about prayer, but had never brought all that he had written about prayer into one volume.
So Johnson dedicated his doctoral dissertation to what he called “an exploration and elaboration of St. Bonaventure’s theology of prayer.”
That dissertation emerged as The Soul in Ascent: Bonaventure on Poverty, Prayer, and Union With God published in 2000 by the Franciscan Press, Quincy University.
Bonaventure’s birth name was Giovanni de Fidanza, but when, according to legend, he had the good fortune (O Buona ventura!) to be cured of a serious illness by prayers to St. Francis of Assisi, he found a new name.
Educated, perhaps, by the Franciscans in Bagnoregio, in 1235, Bonaventure was sent to the University of Paris where he entered the Franciscan order. He continued his studies but the secular professors at the university refused to grant the “mendicant friars” or religious who had begging privileges — Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas — their doctorates in theology. Bonaventure defended the mendicant idea, writing Concerning the Poverty of Christ, but it took Pope Alexander IV to see that Bonaventure was finally accepted as Master of Theology in the School of the Friars Minor at the University of Paris.
And after spending 22 years studying and teaching at the University of Paris, in 1257 Bonaventure was elected minister general of the Order of Friars Minor. As minister general, Bonaventure traveled extensively through Europe. “His itinerary,” Johnson says, “must have been as exhausting as it was exhaustive.” Johnson adds, “It would have taken him roughly two months to journey from Paris to his home in Bagnoregio.”
Bonaventure needed to travel to reduce the dissension among the Franciscans. One group, later called the Spirituals, wanted a return to the simplicity of the early order. The other group, later known as the Conventuals, saw the need to provide the order with books and buildings. During his lifetime, Bonaventure was able to bring peace to the order. For that, as well as for the changes he made, Bonaventure has been called by some “the second founder” of the Franciscans.
In truth, Bonaventure did behave like a simple friar. According to one story, Johnson says, when Bonaventure was made a cardinal and Bishop of Albano (against his will) the pope’s representatives brought him his cardinal’s hat. But Bonaventure was washing dishes and told them to hang the hat on a nearby tree until he finished and could dry his hands.
And even though he frequently met with princes and kings, Bonaventure was open to everyone who wished to speak to him, even a simple lay brother, explaining, “I am at the same time both prelate and master, that poor brother is both my brother and my master.”
He made little of his intellectual accomplishments, saying, “For in truth, a poor and unlearned woman can love God better than a doctor of theology.”
Bonaventure’s disciple, Timothy Johnson was raised in Minnetonka, Minnesota. He graduated from St. Louis University. He completed his graduate studies in Rome and Gregorian University. He continued to travel and study. Also, before becoming a professor at Flagler College, he taught in the summer graduate program and offered workshops on St. Bonaventure at Saint Bonaventure University in St. Bonaventure, New York. On some occasions, his students go with him to experience what he teaches. On one trip students visited the hill-top city of Bagnoregio, Italy where Bonaventure was born in 1217.
Bonaventure and Johnson, though separated by eight centuries, have a lot in common. Johnson says that he finds parallels in his own life. St. Bonaventure, as master of the Franciscan School in Paris and minister general of the Franciscan Order was clearly an able administrator — but that didn’t stop him from writing. Johnson says that Bonaventure is a tremendous example of how to combine roles in life. “He never gave up teaching — even though he was working with kings and princes.” And the pope.
Johnson shares Bonaventure’s admiration for the Franciscan tradition. “It’s where men and women are passionately interested in the experience of Jesus Christ and what that meant to the world. They had a worldview of service to the poor.”
During St. Bonaventure’s term as minister general, Johnson says, “He kept the charism of St. Francis alive. He took Church teaching and tied it into the living experience of Christ.”
Bonaventure was canonized in 1482. His feast day is today, July 15.
