Cardinal Giovanni Bona was born in 1609 to an old French family at Piedmont, Italy. Though his father wanted him to pursue a military career, Giovanni became a Cistercian instead and worked for fifteen years at Turin. He later became a superior general in Rome and modestly refused the Bishopric of Asti. He was eventually made a cardinal in 1669 by Pope Clement IX. Giovanni's literary works include An Easy War to God, Principia et Documenta Vitae Christianae, and Manuductio ad Caelum, the latter often compared to Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ. He died in 1674.