St. Benedict & St. Bonaventure

St. Benedict - July 13

“What are the instruments of good works? In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength . . . Not to wish to be called holy before one is holy, but first to be holy, that one may be truly so called.”

St. Benedict

St. Bonaventure July 15

At an early age, he was a celebrated teacher and a powerful preacher. At thirty-six he was called to the highest post among the Franciscans, the Order which honors him as a second founder. He was an important figure at the Council of Lyons. “In Bonaventure, we meet a unique personality. He was unsurpassed in sanctity, wisdom, eloquence, and gifted with a remarkable skill of accomplishing things, a heart full of love, a winning disposition, benevolent, affable, pious, charitable, rich in virtue, beloved by God and man. The Lord endowed him with such a charming disposition that everyone who saw him was immediately attracted to him."

In these words, the historian of the Council of Lyons concludes his account of St. Bonaventure.