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The saints

St. Bonaventure

The Seraphic Doctor, minister general of the Franciscans, found washing dishes when he was named a cardinal.

Feast: 15 July · 1221 to 1274 · The Middle Ages · Bagnoregio, Paris and Lyons

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Painting of St. Bonaventure in a Franciscan hood and cardinal’s red, holding a pen.

Claude François, 1655. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Bonaventure

Paris, the 1250s

Bonaventure was a Franciscan who studied and taught at the University of Paris alongside Thomas Aquinas.1

At thirty-six he was elected head of the whole Franciscan order.1

He held the order together through bitter disputes about how to live poverty.

Patron of the city of Lyons2

01St. Bonaventure

The dishes

The story goes that the messengers bringing his cardinal’s hat found him washing dishes, and he asked them to hang it on a tree until he finished.1

He died during the Council of Lyons in 1274.1

Live it this week

Finish the dishes

Bonaventure kept washing dishes when honors arrived. This week, when praise or attention comes, finish the humble task in front of you first.

Notes

How we know · 2 sources for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Bonaventure”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Bonaventure”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.