By Jessica Dillon
Contributing writer
Francis Week, a celebration honoring the life and legacy of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment, began Wednesday.
The celebration is meant to take students’ perceptions of St. Francis beyond the birdbath, said Fr. Francis Di Spigno, O.F.M., executive director of University Ministries.
“We can simply leave him with a birdbath in the garden and the bird sitting on his shoulder,” Di Spigno said. “And that would do such a great disservice to him. He’s more than just an animal lover. We just can’t end it there.”
This year’s celebration was designed to emphasize that notion. Each event, representing a different time in the life of St. Francis, was scheduled to help the campus community explore who St. Francis was as a person, Di Spigno said.
Di Spigno said this desire for students to delve deep into the life of St. Francis led to the selection of this year’s Francis Week lecturer, Christine Whitney Sanchez.
“Sanchez is coming to us with a corporate experience, if you will,” said Di Spigno. “She is an organizational speaker [who] talks about strategic collaborations. She comes to us with a very high pedigree of corporate America. Where the nexus is, where the points come together, happens when St. Francis goes to visit the Sultan.”
St. Francis, devout and firm in his Catholic faith, went to visit a Muslim caliphate during the Crusades. According to Di Spigno, St. Francis wanted to show that not all Christians carried swords—some carried the cross.
“Francis found a way to build a bridge between that which we fear,” Di Spigno said. “With the recent tension between races and between religions, this whole notion of: ‘How do we build bridges? How do we talk to the wolf? How do we build a better community?’ made it seem very appropriate for us to learn from someone who can teach us to recognize the other.”
Di Spigno said he hopes Sanchez can help students draw connections between the real world and Franciscan culture.
“Sanchez speaks in a language of the secular world,” Di Spigno continued. “Our hope for Francis Week is to help students recognize that some of the language used in the corporate world is not that different from what we are trying to create in this Franciscan spirituality.”
The lecture, which will be given Monday, Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. in the university chapel, is just one of several events that will take place during the next week.
LaurieAnne Wickens, a senior marketing major involved with passing out Lady Jacoba cookies Wednesday, will help with in Embrace it Africa’s “Color Me Happy” color walk/run.
“I think both events are great ways of getting students engaged and involved,” Wickens said.
“The cookies and hot chocolate speak to the hospitality of St. Francis and Lady Jacoba, and encourage students to take a second out of their busy days to celebrate their friendships. The ‘Color Me Happy’ event speaks to St. Francis’s ideals of helping the other—in this case, children in Uganda. By attending the color run, the other is brought close to home for a day, and what a fun way it is to bring people together. Who doesn’t love a color run?”
A complete listing of events can be found on the flyers posted throughout campus.
dillonj15@bonaventure.edu
