I have read in several sources that St. Bonaventure tells us that when St. Francis of Assisi died he was transformed into the angel Rhamiel. Does the Catholic Church recognize this as truth?
No. The Church teaches that angels and human beings are entirely different orders of creatures and do not transform from one to the other. Since St. Bonaventure is a Doctor of the Church, I highly doubt that he taught that St. Francis of Assisi became an angel at death. Without having seen the material you’ve read, my guess is that your sources either misquoted Bonaventure or misunderstood his intent. For example, in the past, it was common for consecrated religious to call their founders “Our seraphic father” or “Our seraphic mother.” St. Therese of Lisieux, as a case in point, used the adjective “seraphic” to describe her order’s founder St. Teresa of Avila. This was not intended to mean that the person had actually become a seraph, anymore than a mother describing her child as “a little angel” intends to say that her child is actually an angel. In the same way, it is possible that whatever Bonaventure actually said about his order’s founder Francis was hyperbole that has been misunderstood.
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