VATICAN CITY, 6 SEP 2009 (VIS) - Having visited the Shrine of Our Lady of the Oak in Viterbo, Benedict XVI travelled by helicopter to the nearby town of Bagnoregio, birthplace of St. Bonaventure (1218-1274, disciple of St. Francis of Assisi, bishop and Doctor of the Church), where he arrived at 5.20 p.m. Having been greeted by Mayor Francesco Bigiotti, the Pope visited the cathedral of St. Nicholas where he paused in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and venerated the relic of St. Bonaventure's arm. He then travelled by car to Bagnoregio's Piazza Sant'Agostino where he greeted the civil and religious authorities and delivered an address to the faithful gathered there.
"It is not easy to summarise the vast philosophical, theological and mystical doctrine left us by St. Bonaventure", he said. "In this Year for Priests I would especially like to invite the clergy to study this great Doctor of the Church so as to gain a deeper understanding of his teaching of a wisdom rooted in Christ".
"In recalling this great scholar and lover of knowledge", he went on, "I would also like to encourage and express my esteem for the service which, within the ecclesial community, theologians are called to make to the faith: faith which seeks the intellect, faith which is a 'friend of intelligence' and which becomes new life in accordance with God's plan".
St. Bonaventure, said Benedict XVI, was "a tireless seeker after God ... until his death. In his writings he showed the path to follow", a path that "involves the entire person in order to reach, through Christ, the transforming love of the Trinity".
"Faith, then, is the perfecting of our cognitive capacities and participation in the knowledge that God has of Himself and of the world; hope, we see as preparation for the meeting with the Lord which will mark the complete fulfilment of the friendship that even now binds us to Him; while charity introduces us into the divine life, making us consider all men our brothers, according to the will of the one heavenly Father".
Bonaventure was also a "'cantor of creation' who, in following St. Francis, learned 'to praise God in and though all His creatures'. ... How useful it would be today to rediscover the beauty and value of creation in the light of divine goodness and beauty!"
As a "messenger of hope", Bonaventure wrote that "to hope is to fly. ... But hope requires all our limbs to move and project themselves towards the true heights of our being, towards the promises of God".
"The truth is that we all ask ourselves about our own future and that of the world, and this question has a lot to do with hope", said the Holy Father. "It is indispensable to have a 'trustworthy hope' which, giving us the certainty of reaching a 'great' goal, may justify 'the fatigue of the journey'. Only this 'great hope-certainty' can assure us that, despite the failures of personal life and the contradictions of human history as a whole, we are always protected by the 'indestructible power of Love'".
"May St. Bonaventure help us to 'open the wings' of the hope that encourages us to be, like him, incessant seekers after God, cantors of the beauties of creation and witness of the Love and that Beauty which 'move all things'".
Having completed his address, the Holy Father went to the sports ground of Bagnoregio whence, at 6.30 p.m. his helicopter departed for Castelgandolfo, arriving one hour later.
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