By Our Editorial Staff
Conversations in St. Francis, XIII edition with Massimo Cacciari, Chiara Mercuri, Fabio Genovesi e Mariangela Gualtieri (15-28 november 2026, Lucca, Chiesa di San Francesco).
In the year in which the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca dedicates its cultural programming to the eight hundredth anniversary of the death of St. Francis, the historic Conversations in St. Francis focus on his figure and the spiritual and cultural legacy of the saint and the man. An opportunity to go beyond the most consolidated images and rediscover the radicality of a message that, eight centuries later, continues to speak to the present. From 15 to 28 November, four protagonists of Italian culture – Fabio Genovesi, Mariangela Gualtieri, Massimo Cacciari and Chiara Mercuri, – will address the figure of Francis through philosophy, history, fiction and poetry, in a path that intertwines in-depth analysis and dissemination and restores the complexity of an experience still capable of speaking to our time.
“A writer, a poet, a philosopher and a historian called to tell us about the experience and thought of Francis. The constant relevance of his message and the equally constant relevance of his practice of life that has always been far from the century and even more so today from the pervasive models of consumption, aggression against the environment, indifference and war.”
Opening the program, on Sunday, November 15 at 6 p.m., will be Fabio Genovesi with The Cosmic Forest and Burning Youth. Through the gaze of fiction, the writer will return a Francis far from clichés: the passionate, rebellious and unconventional young man, in whom conversion does not extinguish the fire of youth, but transforms it into an absolute life choice. A Francis observed as a modern rock star, through research that will also embrace music, understood as ‘Franciscan music’ but also as the musicality of his message. And then the questions that an extreme figure imposes on us: how come the man and the saint have known so many different interpretations over the centuries? What would we do in front of Francis today, and what would we think if a friend or a son made his incredible life choices?
On Friday, November 20 at 9 p.m. it will be the turn of Mariangela Gualtieri with Solar Fraternity, a sound ritual by and with the poetess, led by Cesare Ronconi. Published and unpublished verses will compose a tribute to Francis, imagined as a brother still present among us, capable of spreading a “mass of good” on earth. Maternal and rebellious words, luminous and mysterious, will give voice to a fraternity that embraces human beings and the living world. There will also be Bello mondo, the long and intense poetic thanksgiving that has its roots in Franciscan laudi. The production is by the Teatro Valdoca.
On Saturday, November 21 at 9 p.m., Massimo Cacciari will propose a reflection on Francis’ Outdatedness. The philosopher highlights the distance between the radicality of the Saint’s message and contemporary representations, which often return a sentimental image of him: the precursor of ecology, the generic friend of animals, the reassuring symbol of peace. But Francis loved creatures in their relationship with the Creator and understood poverty not as a simple renunciation of goods or the practice of almsgiving, but as a radical self-emptying, abandonment of one’s own egolatry. A reading that brings back to the center the radicality of his experience and the distance between the Franciscan message and our way of life. Cacciari also dedicated the volume Double Portrait. St. Francis in Dante and Giotto (published by Adelphi) to this rereading.
Closing the review, on Saturday, November 28 at 9 p.m., will be the historian Chiara Mercuri with Francis of Assisi. With the body and with words. Starting from the extraordinary richness of the testimonies and biographies dedicated to the Saint, Mercuri will highlight the profound link between his concrete experience and the message he left. Francis bore witness first of all with his body, making what he preached coincide with what he lived; at the same time, he entrusted about thirty writings with an intense and meditated word, destined to be preserved, read and accepted “without gloss”, in its essentiality. It is precisely in the unity between life, body and word that one of the most surprising aspects of his legacy is revealed.
Conversations in St. Francis are thus confirmed as an opportunity to rediscover the complexity of a central figure in Western history and culture, beyond the most usual simplifications and interpretations. Eight hundred years after his death, Francis is not only a memory to be celebrated, but a presence capable of raising radical questions about our time.
All meetings are free admission. To participate, you must book online on the www.fondazionecarilucca.it website.
Organization: Elena Aiello
Communication and external relations: Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca
Andrea Salani Tel. + 39 0583 472661 – Adele Cogno Tel. + 39 0583.472665
e.mail comunicazione@fondazionecarilucca.it
Press office: Davis & Co. | Lea Codognato e Caterina Briganti
Tel. + 39 055 2347273 | e.mail: info@davisandco.it / www.davisandco.it
