JOHN

See also:

• BONA (BONE)
• JOHN BONA (1609-1674)

BONA (1609-1674)  , Italian cardinal and author, was born at Mondovi in Piedmont, on the loth of October 1609 . In 1624 he joined the Congregation of Feuillants and was successively elected prior of Asti, abbot of Mondovi and general of his order . He was created cardinal in 1669 by Clement IX., and during the conclave, which followed that pope's death, was regarded as a possible candidate for the papacy . He died on the 27th of October 1674 . Bona's writings are mainly concerned with liturgical and devotional subjects . Of the numerous editions of his works, the best are those of Paris (1677), Turin (1747) and Antwerp (1777) . Stores of interesting rubrical information, interspersed with verses and prayers, are to be found in the De Libris Liturgicis and the Divina Psalmodia; recent advances in liturgical studies, however, have somewhat lessened their value . The De Discretione Spirituum treats of certain higher phases of mysticism; the Via Compendii ad Deum was well translated in 1876 by Henry Collins, O . Cist., under the title of An Easy Way to God . Sir Roger L'Estrange's translation (The Guide to Heaven, 168o) of the Manuductio ad Coelum was reprinted in 1898, and a new edition of the Principia Vitae Christianae, ed. by D . O'Connor, appeared in 1906 . The devotional treatise De Sacrificio Missae is the classical work in its field (new edition by Ildephonsus Cummins, 1903) .

The

chief source for the life of Bona is the biography by the Cistercian abbot Bertolotti (Asti, 1677) ; the best modern study is by A . Ighina (Mondovi, 1874) .