CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII.
Pilgrimage to Mount Alvernia—The Philosophy of St. Bonaventure.
"In philosophia naturaliter latet sapientia Dei."
Amonc the places which are sacred to the memory of Francis of Assisi, there is none more famous than Mount Alvernia.
There the holy Founder loved to repose in prayer and meditation.
There innumerable wonders were wrought in him, and, above all, the ineffable one of the imprint on his flesh of the Sacred Wounds of the Redeemer.
There the fragrance of his virtues lingered, and the soul could not approach this solitude without unspeakable emotion, and without findingthe burden of the worldmoreheavy, and the blessed yoke of the Saviour more light and easy.
Two sanctuaries were especially dear to the children of St. Francis, that of Assisi and that of Alvernia.
At Assisi, Francis had united himself to poverty, and the fruit of that union
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was a generation as numerous as the stars of the firmament—a generation of Apostles, Martyrs,
Confessors, of Anchorites and Doctors—whose virtues, like the rays of the sun, have penetrated to the extremities of the earth; at Assisi, Francis had laid down, in humility and in hope, his natural body, and had passed to the blessed regions of eternity; at Assisi, new miracles occurring every day, had rendered glorious the cradle of this pious family.
Therefore the Saint thought himself happy when he could go and kneel on the soil which had been watered with the tears of his venerated father, and had received his last sighs.
The world itself turned lovingly towards this country, which was overwhelmed with heavenly favours ; it sent painters and artists to place in the temple of the Saint the flowers of their genius; it invited its great men to bow before the dust of the Saint; it brought sorrowful hearts to seek strength and peace in the memory of the most humble virtues of the child of God.
The sanctuary of Alvernia was the object of an equal veneration.
According to a pious tradition, the sides of the mountain were rent
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by the earthquake which shook the earth on the day of the death of the Saviour, and had left in these places imprints of its violence.
All the great and illustrious of the Church had enthusiastic words for the sacred mount, in the time of Bonaventure, and in the following centuries.
Popes and kings, great nobles, rich men and poor, have loved this place, and have related all the wonders of it.
" We love with all our heart," said Alexander IV., "the celebrated mountain of Alvernia, when we remember that it is the place where St.
Francis, his heart being kindled at the sight of the seraph to more fervent love, received those marvellous wounds which made him appear to be crucified, and which, like precious jewels, gave his body a dignity proportioned to that of his soul.
** We, who confide in the prayers of so great a Patriarch, take Mount Alvernia under our special protection, and use all our powers for its defence.
That is why we pray you, and warn you all, we exhort you seriously, and we command you expressly, in virtue of your obedience, by these apostolical letters, to appoint some of the brethren to serve God continually on this
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holy mountain, as we desire that this establishment should never, on any account, be destroyed or abandoned by the Order."
St. Bonaventure had desired for a long time to seek rest in this land of saints, and amid his painful labours, he ever looked towards this holy mountain, for a secret voice had told him that help would come to him from thence.
Accordingly, when he had accepted the task imposed on him by his brethren, of writing the life of St. Francis, and began to collect, from various sources, the information he required, Mount Alvernia attracted him, as to a garden of delights, where he could gather the sweetest flowers with which to adorn his work, and he directed his steps thither without delay.
Great, indeed, were the fervent transports of his love, when the Mount of Vision at last appeared before his eyes, and when his feet trod its narrow and precipitous paths.
"Tt is love, O my God, that directs me, and not reason, and I run eagerly wherever Thou dost lead me.
Those who see me do not know that I am intoxicated with love. ... They cannot discern the extent of my desire.
They
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know not that Thy love, when once kindled in the heart, prevents the use of reason; that he who fervently seeks Thee abandons himself and everything else, and that he who comes to Thee with a pure heart disquiets himself so little about all that passes around him, that often he hardly knows what he is doing himself."
Thus the disciple of St. Francis went on his way, plunged in an ecstasy of heavenly thoughts and meditations, till he reached the holy place where Heaven had worked its wonders, and where Christ had taught St. Francis a martyrdom of love.
His ascent of the mountain was interrupted by an imposing ceremony.
'The principal church, which had been built there and dedicated to "St. Mary of the Angels and of St. Francis," had not yet been consecrated, and the ceremony was delayed till the arrival of the Saint.
Brothers had been invited from far and near, and many days before the time fixed, the roads were thronged with Franciscan travellers, till a thousand religious had been gathered from their narrow cells, on the heights of the sacred Mount.
Seven bishops attended this august ceremony, and it was a solemn and impressive moment,
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never to be forgotten by this great assembly of the Order, when the voice of the consecrating
Prelate and the chants of the religious awoke the mountain echoes by the praises and supplications which they offered before the Throne of God.
Men of all classes in the Church were assembled there, and the sacred edifice itself could not contain the multitude.
The whole Church was represented on that auspicious day, on the summit of Mount Alvernia.
The ceremony of the consecration lasted for a long time, and when it was over the immense procession—consisting of bishops on horseback, and people preceding them with crosses and banners, the religious following and carrying tapers and singing psalms and hymns—descended the mountain, and marched round it; then the bishops, to commemorate the mysteries which had been enacted on its heights, blessed it under the name of the " Seraphic Mountain ".
From that day Mount Alvernia became more than ever venerable in the eyes of Christian people, and the great ones of the earth considered it an honour to tread its paths.
Other churches were built there, and on one day only
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did profanation and sacrilege ever penetrate to this holy place, when the Venetian army took possession of it, and it fell a prey to the fury of the soldiers ;. then, indeed, mourning and desolation, for a short time, replaced the holy sounds of penitence and praise.
But as soon as the soldiers retired, the zeal of the surrounding populations and of the religious repaired the havoc that had been made, and the children of the Lord continued, in their peaceful solitude, to celebrate His Name.
After this day of pious solemnity, Bonaventure passed some time in meditation, the secret joys of which he has revealed in one of his most sublime writings.
For a long time, during his busy life, he had sighed for a retreat where he might taste of the peace which Jesus brought to men, and whose joys St. Francis had so fervently declared.
Alvernia seemed to him to be the most favourable spot in which to find what he sought; and when the crowd had dispersed, and the brothers had departed after having received the blessing of their General, he entered upon his retreat, and the fruit of these quiet hours with God was the immortal book called Zhe
ST, ALBERTS COLLEGE LIBRARY
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Journey of the Soul to God, the great work which formed the delight of Gerson for more than thirty years.
Philosophy has never risen to greater heights or pushed her investigations further than in this book, nor has theology spoken in language of greater charm.
The philosophy of St. Bonaventure does not consist of a series of arid speculations which only deceive the soul.
The soul is made for happiness, and happiness is to be found in the Sovereign Good.
As _ this happiness is far above man, he can only reach it by raising his mind above himself, and as we are powerless to raise ourselves in this manner, except by the help of a superior virtue, our best dispositions are vain unless they are assisted by the Most High; and as this succour is only given to those who ask it, prayer is the source and principle of our elevation to God.
"The soul is not only the image of God: it is His dwelling-place, and we can find Him in it.
It is His dwelling-place when faith enlightens it, when hope excites it, and when charity inflames it.
It becomes like the Heavenly Jerusalem, and recalls to us the nine orders of angels, by its
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possession of the qualities corresponding with those of these Orders.
Then God dwells within it, and makes it His abode; it is His child, His spouse, His well-beloved, the sister and co-heir of Jesus Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit."
We can give no idea, in the small limits of this present volume, of the beauty of this book.
Its pages should be read and re-read, for there are in it almost as many thoughts as words, and we must meditate on it long and seriously, in order to penetrate its beauty.
Not only in this work, but also in his other works, all philosophic questions are included in his domain.
The human soul has nothing that is hidden from him, for he has sounded its deepest mysteries and discovered its most hidden retreats.
St. Bonaventure never forgets that reason without faith is restricted in its researches, and that, on the other hand, the torch of reason gives light to faith.
And in the same manner as reason is to be subject to faith, so philosophy is to be subject to theology, as to a science that is more august, more holy, and more suited to the needs of a heart which was created for a supernatural order.
St. Bonaventure has proved
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this inferiority of philosophy, when compared with theology, with special clearness, in a short
Treatise written to demonstrate the relation which philosophy and the arts bear to theology, and to prove that they are all absorbed in it, as into a natural centre.
The one thought of the Saint was to seek God in all things; to make everything a means of reaching Him, to see Him in everything, and to trace Him in every branch of science, as in every creature, and never by anyone was the divine mission of science so clearly understood. Science, so directed, can indeed produce wonders, but it needs for its disciples such men as Bonaventure, and even in a Christian age such men are rarely to be found.