DEATH.
By special Pontifical dispensation Bonaventure retained the office of
Minister-General for a short time after his elevation to the
Cardinalate. His successor could be elected only by a General Chapter,
and this could not conveniently be convoked until the feast of
Pentecost. This occurred on 20 May, 1274, and the place chosen for the
assembly was Lyons. The Saint presided, and having formally resigned
his office, Jerome of Ascoli, afterwards Pope Nicholas IV., was
appointed his successor. With this event Bonaventure's official
connection with the Order of St. Francis ceased. As we shall see, it
was almost coincident with his death.
The Council of Lyons was still sitting when Bonaventure was called to
his reward. He was only fifty-three years of age, but the immense
labours he had undergone and the habitual weakness of his
constitution, hastened the end.
[Illustration:
St. Bonaventure.
_From Raphael's Disputa, in the Vatican_.]
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On 6 July, the fourth general session of the Council was held. The
reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches was solemnly ratified.
Bonaventure preached on the occasion. He took for his text the words
of the prophet Baruch (v. 5). "Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high;
and look about towards the East, and behold thy children gathered
together from the rising to the setting sun, by the word of the Holy
One rejoicing in the remembrance of God". The body of the discourse
has not come down to us, but we can well imagine that it was well
worthy of the great occasion and of the genius and sanctity of the
preacher. It was his last public utterance--the _Nunc dimittis_ of the
Church's zealous champion as he witnessed the accomplishment of the
object for which he had long so earnestly striven. He was even then
standing on the brink of the grave. The echoes of eternity were
already beginning to sound in his ears and the everlasting years to
unfold themselves before his gaze. As he heard the solemn strains of
the grand _Te Deum_ that marked the close of the great event he must
have felt that his work for God and for the Church was accomplished.
Weakened by disease and worn out by the constant strain and pressure
of business, his strength was rapidly failing. The ceaseless activity
of his great mind, his restless energy and burning zeal, had hitherto
rendered him insensible to the body's decline, but at last the limits
of endurance were reached and the end was at hand. Bonaventure
returned home from the Council, and nine days later he was dead.
The exact cause of his death is not known. One {108} writer [Footnote
44] refers to an extraordinary mortality prevailing amongst the
members of the Council. It is just possible that some species of
epidemic, so frequent in those days, may have broken out in the city,
and that our Saint in his infirm state of health fell an easy victim
to it. Incidentally, we learn that one of the symptoms of his last
illness was a complete inability to retain even the least particle of
food. This is recorded [Footnote 45] in connection with the following
truly marvellous occurrence. On his death-bed our Saint longed with
all the ardour of his seraphic soul for the sweet intercourse of
Sacramental Communion. But the cause just mentioned made this
impossible. Still, as far as possible to appease his pious longing,
the Consecrated Host was brought into his room and placed beside him,
so that his eyes might rest upon it. This only intensified his desire,
until it would appear that the Lord could no longer withstand the
ardour of his pleadings. A wonderful thing was then seen to happen.
Without any visible agency the Sacred Host left the ciborium and,
moving through the air towards the dying Saint, vanished within his
breast!
[Footnote 44: Cf. "Opera Omnia," Tom. X, p. 67. No.4.]
[Footnote 45: Wadding, "Annals," Tom. IV, Anno 1274. No. 18.]
At an earlier period in his life a somewhat similar occurrence is
recorded. Bartholomew of Pisa and the author [Footnote 46] of the
Chronicles of the Twenty-four Generals relate that, on a certain
occasion, the pious {109} General, thinking himself unworthy,
abstained for a long time from saying Holy Mass. But the Lord was
touched by his humility, and one day as he was devoutly hearing Mass,
a particle of the Consecrated Host, solely at the command of the
Saviour, left the altar and entered his mouth, filling his soul with
divine sweetness. It may be that both records are but different
versions of the same fact, and we may doubt which of them is
authentic. But if Bonaventure's malady were such as described, we
should like to think that the Lord, pitying the loneliness and
extremity of His dying servant, afforded him, even by a miracle, the
supreme consolation which his passing spirit sighed for.
[Footnote 46: Cf. "Analecta Franciscana," Tom. III, p. 334.]
Another incident which touchingly illustrates the absolute poverty in
which the Saint died is recorded by Wadding. Although Bishop and
Cardinal, his sole possession on his death-bed was his breviary.
Everything else he had distributed to the poor, and even the breviary
he regarded not as his own but as belonging to his Order, and he
directed that it should be restored to the Brethren after his death.
We would fain linger by the deathbed of the Saint but the almost
complete absence of details gives us no encouragement to do so. We are
not told even where he died. Was it in the convent of his Order and
surrounded by his Brethren, or elsewhere? How did he bear himself in
that final struggle? What were his sentiments? What were {110} his
last words? None of these things are recorded. Apart from general
observations concerning his virtues and his holiness we only know with
certainty that during the night of 4 July, 1274, Bonaventure passed to
his reward.
We may well imagine that death has no terror for the Saints; at the
same time, we cannot say that it has any special attraction for them.
Even our Holy Father, St. Francis, whilst unawed at the approach of
"Sister Death," seemed yet submissively to cling to life. It is a
natural and a legitimate instinct. Life is the sum total of our
temporal gifts, and its preservation is a duty we owe to the giver. It
is true, granted the immortality of the soul, and future reward, that
there is a greater good than the body's life and that to secure it we
may, and in some cases ought, to forfeit the latter. But these
circumstances are abnormal and rarely occur. In the ordinary course of
events the soul's welfare does not demand the body's death. The
interests of body and soul run on parallel lines, and so long as right
order is maintained they cannot collide. We read indeed that the
Saints, vividly realizing the happiness of Heaven and aspiring to it
with steadfast confidence, longed for death. St. Paul exclaiming: "I
wish to be dissolved and to be with Christ," is quoted as an example
of this. But the attitude thus expressed by the Apostle is not
incompatible with a natural repugnance to, and shrinking from death.
We believe this to be in {111} some degree the characteristic of all
men, saints as well as sinners.
Bonaventure's death was regarded somewhat in the light of a public
calamity. The effect it produced upon the Council of Lyons is narrated
as follows. [Footnote 47] "At this time, whilst the Council was still
sitting, the most reverend Father in Christ, the Lord Cardinal
Bonaventure of most venerable memory was laid with the holy Fathers,
filling, as we may believe, the Church Triumphant with joy at his
advent, but affecting the Church Militant with incredible grief at his
departure. For Greeks and Latins, clergy and laity, followed his bier
with bitter tears, lamenting the grievous loss of so great a
personage."
[Footnote 47: Author of the "Chronicles of Twenty-four Generals," Cf.
"Analecta Franciscana," Tom. III, p. 356.]
In accordance with the custom of the time and country, Bonaventure was
buried on the day of his death. His funeral was attended by the Pope
and all the Prelates of the Council. Peter, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia,
celebrated Holy Mass and preached the funeral oration. He took for his
text the pathetic words in which David laments the death of Jonathan
(2 Kings 1. 26): "I grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan--exceedingly
beautiful and amiable above the love of women". The text was suggested
no doubt by that striking characteristic of the Saint upon which all
his biographers so strongly insist--his wonderful amiability. As one
{112} writer [Footnote 48] expresses it: "This grace the Lord had
granted him that whosoever looked on him was forthwith irresistibly
drawn to love him".
[Footnote 48: The historian of the Council of Lyons. Cf.
"Opera," Tom. X, p 67.]
At the next session of the General Council the Pope referred to the
grievous loss sustained by the entire Church in the death of
Bonaventure. And to mark his sense of gratitude for the immense
labours he had undergone on its behalf he ordered all the priests and
prelates of the Catholic world to offer up Holy Mass for the repose of
his soul.
The Saint was buried in the church of the Friars Minor at Lyons. In
the year 1434, a new church dedicated to St. Francis was erected in
the city, and thither, as to a more suitable resting-place, the body
was translated. This took place one hundred and sixty years after the
Saint's death. Marvellous to relate, the head was then found to be
entirely incorrupt. The hair, lips, teeth, and tongue were perfectly
preserved and retained their natural colour. The people of Lyons were
profoundly affected by this miracle, and they chose Bonaventure for
the patron of their city. The movement, already on foot, to obtain his
canonization received thereby a new and powerful impetus.
On the occasion of this translation the body of St. Bonaventure was
placed in a costly reliquary at the command of the Minister-General,
and kept at the Franciscan Church at Lyons. Later in the {113} same
century, the Minister-General, Father Francis Samson, removed the arms
of our Saint from Lyons, and entrusted them to the keeping of the
Religious at Bagnorea. In the Cathedral Church of this town these
relics are still piously venerated. Around the reliquary which
encloses them runs the inscription, "Father Francis Samson, General,
bequeathed this reliquary to the Convent of St. Francis in Bagnorea, 1
May, 1491 ".
In 1494 King Charles VIII. of France erected a magnificent side-chapel
for the remains at Lyons, and in return requested some relic of St.
Bonaventure. His desire was granted, and the relic he obtained he
finally presented to the chapel of Fontainebleau. Thence it was taken
to the Franciscan Church at Paris, where it remained till the French
Revolution. Other relics of St. Bonaventure were removed to Venice in
1494 where they are still exposed to the veneration of the Faithful.
The shrine at Lyons was enriched with many valuable
offerings--tributes of gratitude to the efficacy of our Saint's
intercession. There, in one urn plated with silver, his body was
preserved; the head being reserved in another equally costly. There,
too, the remains rested in veneration till the second half of the
sixteenth century.
In 1562, Lyons fell into the hands of the Huguenots who made an
assault on the Franciscan Church there and rifled St. Bonaventure's
shrine of its treasures. Owing, however, to the foresight and {114}
heroism of Father James Gayete, the Superior, their sacrilegious
purpose was, in part, thwarted. This holy man had betimes taken the
precaution of enclosing our Saint's relics in two urns and burying
them in a secret place. The two Religious who shared his secret were
sent to another convent lest what they knew be wrung from them by
torture. Father James was subjected to much harsh treatment, but all
to no avail. A search was then instituted through the friary and its
grounds, and finally the Huguenots succeeded in discovering the body.
This was borne to the public square and burned with many images,
pictures, and objects of devotion.
When peace again prevailed, the Religious who knew of the secret
returned to Lyons and produced the urn which contained the head of our
Saint as also the crucifix and chalice he was wont to use. The former
cultus was once more revived; the friary and church rose from their
ruins and the shrine of St. Bonaventure regained its old-time
splendour. During the French Revolution, however, the profanation was
more complete. The friary and church were razed to the ground, and
once again the urn containing the head of our Saint was buried for
safety in a secret place. This time, however, the holy Religious died
without divulging his secret, and all subsequent searches to find the
relics have proved unavailing.
[Illustration:
_Photo. Alinari_.
ST. BONAVENTURE.
_Church of St. Maria degli Angeli, Dintorni (Tiberio d Assisi)_]
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