St. Bonaventure Praises St. Dominic — Divine Comedy

St. Bonaventure delivers a masterpiece of reciprocal praise that reveals the delicate balance between honoring greatness and confronting institutional decay. After Thomas Aquinas praised St. Francis, Bonaventure responds by celebrating St. Dominic with equal fervor, establishing a principle of mutual recognition: where one saint deserves glory, so does his counterpart. The stakes are nothing less than the integrity of the Church's twin pillars of reform. Bonaventure paints Dominic as a prophetic figure from birth, named by divine inspiration and destined for spiritual warfare. Unlike contemporary scholars who waste time on legal commentaries by Ostiense and Taddeo, Dominic sought "real manna" and grew mighty in authentic learning. He launched his apostolic mission like a torrent bursting from a mountain spring, smashing against heretical strongholds and feeding the Catholic garden with living waters of truth. Yet Bonaventure's praise carries a devastating turn: the very order Dominic founded has abandoned his path. The smooth track his followers once traced is now deserted, filled with "mouldy mother" where once were "lees." The Dominican family has turned backward, inverting their steps, and will someday rue their ill harvest when rejected tares beg admission to the barn. This corruption stems from leaders at Acquasparta and Casale who stretch and cramp Dominic's original rule. Bonaventure concludes by identifying himself and naming his luminous circle of theological companions, all moved by Thomas's courtesy to honor a peer so worthy.