Bonaventure
Friar and cardinal bishop of Albano who preached at the Second Council of Lyon when the Greek envoys were received, and died there on 15 July 1274. The council’s record praises his learning, eloquence and holiness.
The record of the council of 1274 lists “brother Bonaventure of Albano” among the cardinal bishops seated at the pope’s right (Second Council of Lyon, Brief Record (Brevis nota) cols 61–62). While the council waited for the Greeks he preached to the assembled prelates on the verse of Baruch that bids Jerusalem arise and look toward the east (Baruch 5:5), and he preached again at the mass of the feast of Peter and Paul, when the creed was sung in Latin and in Greek (Second Council of Lyon, Brief Record (Brevis nota) cols 64–65).
He died at the hour of matins on Sunday 15 July 1274. The record calls him a man of eminent learning and eloquence, outstanding in holiness, kind, approachable and merciful, beloved of God and men. He was buried the same day in the house of the Friars Minor at Lyon, with the pope and the whole council present; Peter, cardinal bishop of Ostia, preached on David’s lament for Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:26), and the pope ordered every priest in the world to sing a mass for his soul (Second Council of Lyon, Brief Record (Brevis nota) cols 67–68). See the Second Council of Lyon.
In the timeline
- May 1274, firm dateThe Second Council of Lyon
Gregory X holds a general council at Lyon, where envoys of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII accept the Roman faith and primacy. The council also fixes the rules of the papal conclave. After the emperor’s death the Greek church repudiates the union.