5.20 St. Bonaventure: Prince of Mystics
By Dr. James Papandrea ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 24, 2025 | In Way of the Fathers (Podcast)
Listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS feed | YouTube Channel
This is a listener-supported podcast! Thanks for your help!
St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) continued the legacy of St. Anthony and was the Franciscan counterpart to Aquinas. He’s called the second founder of the Franciscans, and the Prince of the Mystics, because he continued the mystical tradition of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and he preserves for us the mystical spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi, as well as being an important influence on later mystics, such as St. John of the Cross.
Links
Check out this three-part series on St. Bonaventure by Pope Benedict XVI (from 2010)
Part 1: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=9267
Part 2: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=9271
Part 3: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=9284
The Classics of Western Spirituality volume on St. Bonaventure: https://www.paulistpress.com/Products/2121-2/bonaventure.aspx
Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com
Dr. Papandrea’s latest book is The Original Church: What it Meant—and Still Means—to Be a Christian: https://scepterpublishers.org/collections/new-releases/products/the-original-church-what-it-meant-and-still-means-to-be-a-christian?variant=46258102337713
Dr. Papandrea’s YouTube channel, The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/
Dr. James Papandrea is a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and a Catholic member of the faculty at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. A theological consultant for EWTN’s series The Heresies, he is also the writer and presenter for The Original Church series on YouTube. See full bio.
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
