Works Of St Bonaventure V1

Editors Are Philotheus Boehner And Frances Laughlin.

Franciscan Studies is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal published by the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University. It deals with Franciscan matters: history, philosophy, theology, and art. Contributors will include Hal Friday, Paul Rorem, Dominic Whitehouse, Holly J. Grieco, Dominique Poirel, Boyd Taylor Coolman, Dale M. Coulter, David Burr, Isabelle Heullant-Donat and Bert Roest.

This series provides annotated translations from the Latin originals of the works of St. Bonaventure for students and seekers who wish to steep themselves in the rich theological vision of this medieval giant. Begun in 1996 and now totaling 15 volumes with several volumes in development, this is the definitive series for the best and most current English-language translations of Bonaventure's work.

SAINT BONAVENTURE COLLECTION [6 BOOKS] — Quality Formatting and Value — Active Index, Multiple Table of Contents for all Books — Multiple Illustrations Saint Bonaventure, born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian medieval Franciscan, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he was also a Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was canonised on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in the year 1588 by Pope Sixtus V. He is known as the "Seraphic Doctor". Many writings believed in the Middle Ages to be his are now collected under the name Pseudo-Bonaventura. He entered the Franciscan Order in 1243 and studied at the University of Paris, possibly under Alexander of Hales, and certainly under Alexander's successor, John of Rochelle. In 1253 he held the Franciscan chair at Paris. Unfortunately for Bonaventure, a dispute between seculars and mendicants delayed his reception as Master until 1257, where his degree was taken in company with Thomas Aquinas. Three years earlier his fame had earned him the position of lecturer on the The Four Books of Sentences—a book of theology written by Peter Lombard in the twelfth century—and in 1255 he received the degree of master, the medieval equivalent of doctor. —BOOKS— HOLINESS OF LIFE LIFE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST THE LIFE OF CHRIST THE LIFE OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY THE VIRTUES OF A RELIGIOUS SUPERIOR PUBLISHER: AETERNA PRESS

'But if you wish to know how these things come about ask grace not instruction, desire not understanding, the groaning of prayer not diligent reading, the Spouse not the teacher, God not man, darkness not clarity, not light but the fire that totally enflames and carries us into God by ecstatic unctions and burning affections. This fire is God and his furnace is in Jerusalem...' --Bonaventure, 1217-1274

This Doctor of the Church, in a lifetime crowded with absorbing activities—as ruler of his Order for almost twenty years, as Cardinal-Bishop, as director of the deliberations of an ecumenical council—yet became one of the Church’s supreme expositors of the theology of love. From the first he was known to be a giant, and succeeding centuries saw almost innumerable editions of his works. Archbishop Paschal Robinson has pointed out that no writer from the Middle Ages onward has been more widely read and copied. Yet comparatively little of this interest is reflected in publications in the English tongue. Of course, the Prince of Mystics (as Leo XIII called him) is not wholly unknown among us. So great is the power of his genius, so insistent his message to the heart and spirit, that these qualities have in some degree forced their way through whatever barriers exist. Translators of merit, both Franciscans and others, have brought over into English separate chosen opera; and these have conveyed enough of his greatness to establish it as a fact. But though he is an acknowledged master, he remains, by and large, to us a master still unread.

"Francis, go and build up My house, which thou seest, is falling into ruin." To fulfill this command of Our Lord, St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) began by restoring physical churches and continued by building up the spiritual Church in souls. Francis' humility, purity, and true joy inspired many to conversion and a deeper faith. Never ordained a priest, St. Francis nonetheless was a preacher and a miracle-worker of the first order - curing, prophesying, casting out devils, turning water into wine, and raising people frmo the dead. The Life of St Francis of Assisi by St Bonaventure conveys a picture of the Saint that renders an indelible impression of a man totally transformed by God.