Lacrymosa dies illa, Qua resurget ex favilla Iudicandus homo reus: Huic ergo parce, Deus!

Iesu, pie domine,
Dona eos requie!

Amen.

Sorrowful that day is breaking,
When from ashes man is waking,
And to judgment he is hastening;
Therefore, spare, O God, thy chastening.

Gentle Jesus, Saviour blest,

Grant to them Thy peaceful rest!

Amen.

BONAVENTURA

Bonaventura, whose family name was John of Fidanza, was born in Tuscany in the year 1221. He is said to have been greeted by St. Francis upon his entrance into the order of Franciscans with the exclamation, "Buona Ventura!” "Welcome!"-hence the name by which he is most widely known. In 1245 he became professor of theology at Paris; in 1256, general of his order; in 1273, cardinal-bishop of Alba. He was a rival of Thomas Aquinas, the great Dominican, and was styled Doctor Seraphicus.

While certain writings ascribed to him would indicate that he shared the ecclesiastical errors of his age, yet he "must have possessed a richest personal familiarity with all the deeper mysteries of the spiritual life" (Trench). Luther calls him " praestantissimus vir," and Dante mentions him in his "Paradise."

He died at Lyons in 1274, during the council, at which he was in attendance upon Pope Gregory X.

BONAVENTURA

I

DE SANCTA CRUCE Recordare sanctae crucis, Qui perfectam viam ducis

Delectare iugiter. Sanctae crucis recordare, Et in ipsa meditare Insatiabiliter.

Quum quiescas aut laboras,
Quando rides, quando ploras,
Doles sive gaudeas;
Quando vadis, quando venis,
In solatiis, in poenis
Crucem corde teneas.

Crux in omnibus pressuris,
Et in gravibus et duris

Est totum remedium.
Crux in poenis et tormentis
Est dulcedo piae mentis,
Et verum refugium.