Saint Bonaventure, whom we celebrate today, the day of his death in 1274 – a few months after his contemporary, Saint Thomas Aquinas. Both have been proclaimed Doctors of the Church – an elite company, with but 36 members – and both wrote ‘Summas’, or compendia, of theology, even if, for various reasons, it was Thomas’ – the Common Doctor – that the Church officially adopted in her teaching. But Bonaventure, the ‘Seraphic Doctor’, has much to teach us also, in his doctrine on God, His providence, the salvific purpose of all history and creation.
Bonaventure also wrote the first definitive
