St Bonaventure’s Life of St Francis : Table of Contents

St Francis of Assisi by Philip Fruytiers (1610-66).
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. Public domain.

The following posts present The Life of St Francis (1181-1226) written by St Bonaventure (1221-1274) who joined the Franciscan Order in 1243. Confirmed as Minister General in 1257, he later wrote this life of St Francis (Legenda Major Sancti Francisci, c1260-63).

I offer this annotated presentation of St Bonaventure’s biography firstly as a small gift to our gentle Queen and Mother in gratitude for her many graces and favours, at the same time praying she will continue to provide help and protection for the author and his family; and secondly, to honour and thank St Francis whose name I received at my Confirmation in 1961 when I was seven years old.

This presentation of St Bonaventure’s Life of St Francis is based on E. Gurney Slater’s English translation published in 1904, to which I have added Scriptural excerpts and occasional comments in footnotes.

Table of Contents

Now the beginning of the life of Francis, its course and its consummation, are divided into fifteen chapters, as set down below, and thuswise described.

1. The first treateth of his manner of life in the secular state.

2. The second, of his perfect conversion unto God, and of the repairing of the three churches.

3. The third, of the founding of his Religious community and approval of the Rule.

4. The fourth, of the advancement of the Order under his hand, and of the confirmation of the Rule already sanctioned.

5. The fifth of the austerity of his life, and of how all created things afforded him comfort.

6. The sixth of his humility and obedience, and of the divine condescensions shewn unto him at will.

7. The seventh, of his love for Poverty, and of the wondrous supplying of his needs.

8. The eighth, of the kindly impulses of his piety, and of how the creatures lacking in reason seemed to be made subject unto him.

9. The ninth, of his ardent love and yearning for martyrdom.

10. The tenth, of his zeal and efficacy in prayer.

11. The eleventh, of his understanding of the Scriptures and of his spirit of prophecy.[1]

12. The twelfth, of the efficacy of his preaching, and of his gift of healing.

13. The thirteenth, of the sacred stigmata.

14. The fourteenth, of his sufferings and death.’

15. The fifteenth, of his canonisation, and the translation of his body.

Thereafter is added some account of the miracles shewn after his blessed departure.

Footnotes

[1] Cf. “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”: Apoc. xix, 10. These are the words of the Angel of whom St John says in the same verse: “And I fell down before his feet, to adore him. And he saith to me: See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren, who have the testimony of Jesus. Adore God.” This may link to what St Bonaventure wrote in his Prologue (see 1:7-8 above): “He is thought to be not unmeetly set forth in the true prophecy of that other friend of the Bridegroom, the Apostle and Evangelist John, under the similitude of the Angel ascending from the rising of the sun and bearing the seal of the Living God. For at the opening of the sixth seal, “I saw,” saith John in the Apocalypse [Apoc. vii, 2], “another Angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the Living God.”

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me shall not sin. They that explain me shall have lifeeverlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.30-31.