St. Bonaventure of Barcelona

September 11

Francisco was the only child in a farm family. He married at the age of eighteen, but became a widower just sixteen months later. He then followed a call to religious life as a Franciscan friar at the convent of St. Miquel d’Escornalbou, making his religious profession 14 July 1641, and taking the name of Bonaventura. Over the next seventeen years he served in various Franciscan convents as cook, porter, beggar and infirmarian, and was known for his quiet, pious devotion to work, prayer and Franciscan spirituality. In 1658 he was sent to the area of Rome, Italy, to promote a return to strict observance of the Franciscan Rule.  He founded four monasteries in that region. He was assigned to houses in Aracaeli and Capranica, and served as porter of St. Isidore’s College.  In 1662 he found the Riformella, a reform movement of retreats and spiritual meditation for his brother friars to bring them back to the original Franciscan spirituality; his writings about the “Retreats” received pontifical approval from Pope Innocent XI. Over the years he serves as asdvisor to many, including Pope Alexander VII, Pope Clement IX, Pope Clement X, and Pope Innocent XI. His feast is kept on September 11.