Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024

7 to 8:30 pm in The Galleria

Free for members, $10 for non-members

Together with St. Anthony, St. Francis is the most beloved and venerated saint in Italy. In his short life of only 42 years, he founded Order of Friars Minor and Order of St. Clare for women, based on his teaching of poverty, chastity and obedience. With his love and respect for all nature as God’s creation, in recent times he became a beloved of the ecological movement and was declared the Patron Saint of ecology by pope John Paul II in I979. He was canonized two years after his death in 1226, and was named Patron Saint of Italy in 1939.

Born in 1181 or 1182 in a wealthy family, Francis – a handsome and witty young man – lived a lavish life of a medieval rich man, jousting and spending money on expensive clothing. But as a teenager, he became increasingly disillusioned with that kind of life. His spiritual conversion, complete and fundamental change of life came slowly and gradually.

His life, teachings and poetry inspired different forms of art: numerous musical compositions, monographs, documentaries, even 15 movies and recently almost 18 million search results online. This presentation, in celebration of his Feast Day on Oct. 4, will show St. Francis portrayed by pre-Renaissance painter Giotto in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi and Santa Croce Church in Florence. Splendid frescoes immortalize the crucial events of St. Francis life, his temptations, humility, religious meditation and evolution of his holiness.