THE CAVE OF SAINT BONAVENTURE
Dante in the XII canto of his Paradise mentions Saint
Bonaventure (his real name was Giovanni di Fidanza) born in Civita
in 1221. The legend tells that young Giovanni met St.Francis in
the so called "Cave of Saint Bonaventure" where he was
cured from a deadly illness and so took the vows of the Francescan
order shortly in 1238. In 1254 he became the master in charge at
the Sorbonne in Paris, but the very next year the representatives
of mendicant orders (Domenican and Francescan) were excluded from
the teaching in the French university. Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas
were the leaders of the opposition to this decision obtaining the
cancellation by Pope Alexander IV. In 1257 he became General Mininster
of the Francescan order (the seventh after Saint Francis), reorganising
the entire order. In 1273 he was appointed Archibishp of Albano
and Cardinal. He died in 1274. A church dedicated to Saint Bonaventure
was built in Civita in 1525 where there was his house.
The church was destroyed by the landsides and in 1810 it was abandoned.
Today the only reminder of its existence is the little tabernacle
along the pathway that runs parellel to the southern border of the
cliff.
This painting, made by Francesco Ciacci for the local
confraternity, shows a rare picture of St. Bonaventure who protects
the town of Civita (below) depicted before the big earthquake in
1695.
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