INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON ST. BONAVENTURA

St. Bonaventura, a native of Tuscany, was born Giovanni di Fidanza in 1221.

He entered the Franciscan order about 1242 and in the short space of

fifteen years rose to be seventh general of that order. Professor of

theology at the University of Paris, Bishop of Albano, and created a

cardinal by Gregory X shortly before his death in 1274, he was widely

venerated during his lifetime and is mentioned as a saint in Dante's

Paradiso. He was canonized in 1482 by Sixtus IV and a little over a century

later declared a doctor of the church by Sixtus V. He has usually been

known as the Seraphic Donor, probably because of his mysticism and constant

preoccupation with the vision of the Seraph which is described in the

Prologue to "The Mind's Road to God." In addition to this little treatise,

his major works are the "Reductio Artium in Theologiam" ("Reduction of the

Arts to Theology"), the "Biblia Pauperum" ("Bible of the Poor"), and the

"Breviloquium."