By Our Editorial Staff
A year of events dedicated to St. Francis conceived and promoted by the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Foundation.
Who was Francis? This is the question around which the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Foundation has devised an extensive program of events that will characterize the whole of 2026, starting on Saturday 21 March, entitled Francis. Eight hundred years later: thought, history, poetry, music.
“Who was Francis – asks the president of the Foundation Massimo Marsili – before the story we read in the second biography of Thomas of Celano and in the text by Bonaventure of Bagnoregio? Francis was a cultured man of chivalric ideals and a rich man. This is indicated by the corpus of thirty documents written in Latin and the choice to live according to the values of pauperitas, not of poverty. We want to contribute to this question and this observation by placing his message and his cultural heritage in history, literature, the arts and theology at the center of the Foundation’s cultural activities. The Convent of San Francesco in Lucca was one of the first settlements after his death and the site of a known and respected studium. Canon in Verse, the Conversations and concert activities will be mainly dedicated to the Nineteenth Centenary of his death. Some events planned and organized with the Lucca Classica Festival, Photolux, Lucca Film Festival and the IMT School will enrich the Franciscan program through photography, music, cinema and the discovery of new historical documents on the Church and Convent of San Francesco in Lucca.”
THE FOUNDATION’S EVENTS
Francis. Eight hundred years later: thought, history, poetry, music kicks off on Saturday 21 March, World Poetry Day, with the poet Valerio Magrelli. A double meeting at the Oratory of the Guardian Angels, at 6.00 pm and 9.00 pm, which is part of the sixth edition of Canone in verso, an exhibition dedicated to the profound dialogue between sounds and words. With Literature and Literality in St. Francis, Magrelli presents some reflections on St. Francis starting from his relationship with the texts, poetic and sacred. Production, on the one hand, and interpretation, on the other, will thus appear as indispensable processes on the path to holiness, understood as adherence to the Gospel word.
The Church of San Francesco hosts on Sunday 29 March, at 5.30 pm, Cantando la Pasqua di San Francesco, the concert of the historic Gaetano Luporini Philharmonic of San Gennaro, conducted by Giampaolo Lazzeri, which will perform music by Thomas Doss, Marco Frisina and Riz Ortolani.
On Friday 8 May, at 9.00 pm, the Church of San Francesco will also be the scene of the second of the appointments of Canone in verso: Alberto Casadei, professor at the University of Pisa and one of the leading scholars of Dante and the Divine Comedy, together with the young actress from Lucca Matilde Bernardi brings to the stage for this evening, An unknown wealth: St. Francis and Dante. Casadei, between historical facts and literary transfiguration, reconsiders the way Dante interprets Francis in the eleventh canto of Paradise.
In June, the traditional birthday concert for the reopening of the Conventual Complex of San Francesco on Friday, June 26, also at 9:00 p.m., will be dedicated to Francis: the choir of the Musical Chapel of the Papal Basilica of St. Francis and the Florentine Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Fr. Peter Hrdy, will trace a musical path that alternates contemplation, expressive force and choral impetus through the music of Fr. Francesco Maria Zuccari and Fr. Domenico Stella.
On October 4 at 5:00 p.m., the Archbishop of Lucca Monsignor Paolo Giulietti will preside over a Eucharistic celebration, which will be followed by a concert organized in collaboration with the diocesan Caritas of the students of the Boccherini Conservatory and the Passaglia Music High School.
For the CONVERSATIONS from 15 to 28 November, the writer Fabio Genovesi, the poet Mariangela Gualtieri, the philosopher Massimo Cacciari, and the historian Chiara Mercuri will address the radicality of Franciscan life and message.
SYNERGIES WITH LOCAL REALITIES
There will also be Lucca Classica Festival, Lucca Film Festival and Photolux in this rich calendar, with events included in their respective programs and supported by the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Foundation. On Saturday 2 May in the church of San Francesco, at 9.00 pm, Lucca Classica Festival will offer the show FRANCESCO by Aldo Cazzullo and Angelo Branduardi, who will tell the life and stories of the “most Italian of saints”.
From Saturday 26 September to 4 October in the San Micheletto Complex, the Lucca Film Festival will organize a series of dedicated screenings. From silent cinema to contemporary reinterpretations, the cinematographic interpretations of Francis, including Il poverello di Assisi, from 1911, Francesco, giullare di Dio (1950) by Roberto Rossellini and Francesco d’Assisi (1966) by Liliana Cavani.
From November 28 to January 6, 2027, Photolux will offer the exhibition FRANCIS: his places and the sense of the sacred that can be breathed there: 56 black and white shots by Elio Ciol, one of the fathers of great Italian photography, dedicated to Franciscan places since the fifties.
For more information on individual events, how to participate and book, consult the website www.fondazionecarilucca.it
