Bonaventure: a Saint so dear to Benedict XVI

On the 15th July the Church remembers Bonaventure, a Saint from the Middle Ages.

A theologian, recently identified by the Abbot of Heiligenkreuz Maximilian Heim, as he addressed Benedict XVI on reception of the 'Ratzinger Prize 2011', in these terms: " ..the second great teacher who influenced you Holy Father, especially in your approach to theology , is Saint Bonaventure. His work presents us with a remarkable combination of scholarly method, spiritual ardour, a struggle for comprehension and pastoral zeal ...".

Bonaventure then, a figure who may be both familiar and dear to Benedict XVI and to theologians such as Abbot Heim , but perhaps not to all o f us .


In an effort to redress this trend Veronica Scarisbrick asks Father Rick Martignetti of the Order of Friars Minor, author of 'Bonaventure's Tree of Life', to introduce us to him : " For Bonaventure the way to wisdom is through holiness. Sometimes in our modern days we think we can do theology as only an intellectual exercise, that it can be something separate from our relationship with God. And for Bonaventure that would have been a completely foreign concept. You can't learn about God intellectually unless you experience God in your heart."

Listen to this programme which begins with a couple of unusual quotes from Joseph Ratzinger's early memoirs in which he writes : "..since I had done work on Augustine it seemed natural to me to work on Bonaventure...."


Listen: