Bonaventura

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Bonaventura (1221–74). Govanni di Fidanza, Christian mystic and saint. Born near Viterbo in Italy, he believed that he had been rescued from illness by the intercession of St Francis. He entered the order of the Friars Minor, and became minister-general in 1256. His Itinerarium Mentis in Deum describes the way that leads to God by the path of his illumination. Leo XIII called Bonaventura ‘the prince of mystics’; E. Gilson called him ‘a St Francis of Assisi gone philosopher and lecturing at the university of Paris’.