On this memorial of Saint Bonaventure – as mentioned in our post, one of the 37 Doctors of the Church – a fitting musical accompaniment is Anton Bruckner’s motet Os Iusti, (see the reflection on the composer by Julian Kwasniewski today in Crisis). The text is drawn from Psalm 36/37, used in the office of Doctors:
os iusti meditabitur sapientiam et lingua eius loquetur iudicium – The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom: and his tongue shall speak judgment.
Just so did Saint Bonaventure, and his beloved friend and fellow Doctor, Thomas Aquinas.
Here, as recommended in the article, is the rendition of Bruckner’s motet by the incomparable Tenebrae, conducted by Nigel Short. There is not much out there more beautiful and transcendent: