BONA, GIOVANNI

Cardinal, Cistercian monk, liturgist, and ascetical writer; b. Mondovi, Piedmont, Oct. 10, 1609; d. Rome, Oct. 28, 1674. Bona took the habit of a Cistercian monk of the Congregation of Feullants in Italy when he was 16 years old. He pursued studies in Rome and became a successful professor of theology (1633–36). He was appointed prior, abbot, and abbot general of his congregation (1651), and, finally, was created cardinal in 1669.

Bona's liturgical writings, the fruit of vast research and soberly critical judgment, place him among the founders of modern liturgical studies. The scope of his work on the Divine Office, De Divina Psalmodia, is suggested by its earlier title, Psallentis Ecclesiae harmonia, Tractatus historicus, symbolicus, asceticus de divina psalmodia eiusque causis, mysteriis et disciplina, deque variis ritibus omnium Ecclesiarum in psallendis divinis officiis (1653). His work on the Mass, Rerum liturgicarum libri duo (1671), is simpler and clearer. In explaining the origins of the Mass, its different ways of celebration, its structure and constituent elements, he keeps surprisingly free, for a man of his time, of symbolic interpretation and polemic tone. Another work, De sacrificio missae tractatus asceticus (1658), offers pious considerations in aid of the priest's devotion as he offers the sacrifice of the Mass.

Bona's ascetical works are not original. Drawing from extensive readings in the Fathers, St. Thomas, and more recent spiritual writers, such as St. Francis de Sales and St. Ignatius, his teaching is simple, solid, and traditional. In his Manuductio ad Coelum (1658), after explaining the ultimate end of man and insisting on the need for a spiritual director, he treats his subject according to the familiar three ways (see three ways, the). In his Via compendii ad Deum per motus anagogicos et orationes jaculatorias (1657), he explains how union with God is perfected in actual loving attention to Him, and proposes ejaculatory prayer as a means to this. His De discretione spirituum (1671) is usually discussed in modern treatments of the discernment of spirits.

Bibliography: g. bona, Hortus Coelestium Deliciarum, ed. m. vattasso (Rome 1918). h. dumaine, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie (Paris 1907–53) 2:992–1002. j. m. canivez, Dictionnaire do spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire (Paris 1932–) 1:1762–66. l. bertolotti, Vita Ioannis Bona (Asti 1677). "Si può sperare la canonizzatione del Cardinale Giovanni Bona?" Rivista storica Benedettina 5 (1910) 253–268, 321–364. pius x, "Il Cardinale Giovanni Bona a Mondovì," ibid. 418–422. a. corsi, "La feste centenarie di Mondovì pel Cardinale Giovanni Bona," ibid. 535–540. a. michelotti, "Musica e poesia nell'opera del cardinale Giovanni Bona," ibid. 6 (1911) 5–35.

[t. boyd]