Bonaventure (Italian Bonaventura Lavanga) was born on January 4, 1651 at Potenza in the Kingdom of Naples. At the age of 15, Bonaventure entered the Conventual Franciscan Order at Nocera. Ordained priest in 1675, he undertook the preaching ministry across Basilicata and Campania.
For 36 years (1675–1711), Bonaventure served as Conventual Franciscan preacher and master of novices — famous for his Marian devotion and personal asceticism. He died at Ravello on October 26, 1711.
Bl. Bonaventure of Potenza's 36-year Conventual Franciscan preaching ministry across Basilicata and Campania — established the southern-Italian Conventual Franciscan preaching tradition of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
His tomb at the Convent of San Francesco at Ravello on the Amalfi Coast.
The late-17th and early-18th-century Italian Conventual Franciscan in black Conventual Franciscan habit preaching at the Convent of Ravello — the iconography of Catholic southern-Italian Franciscan tradition.
