Saint Francis of Assisi
The exhibition Eight Centuries Shorter commemorates the 800th anniversary of the death of this Italian ‘poor man’ and takes place almost a year after the death of the first Jesuit pope, who chose the name Francis in honour of the saint of Assisi.
The Ruusbroec Institute Library holds numerous relevant sources that make tangible the dialogue between Franciscan simplicity and Jesuit spirituality.
Exhibition 'Eight Centuries Less'
Through six thematic zones, we invite you to explore some of the most remarkable and unexpected traces of Francis and his companions, drawn from the collection of the Jesuit Heritage Foundation at the Ruusbroec Institute Library.
HUMAN
Who was Francis before he became Francis? In the HUMAN section, we get to know Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone, the young man from Assisi who turned his back on his worldly life in 1205 to devote himself to the poor and serve God.
MYSTICISM
ALSO
In the ALSO section, we get to know the Franciscan family and trace how the various orders are represented in the collections.
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT is one of the central themes of Francis’s thought. We draw a link with Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, which was inspired by the Canticle of the Sun written by Saint Francis of Assisi.
LESS
In the LESS section, we explore the ideal of poverty that the Franciscan orders continued to embrace long after the death of their founders, sometimes in its most radical forms.
MORE
Finally, in the MORE section, we see how the Franciscan “less” (detachment) and the Jesuit “more” (commitment) ultimately lead to the same goal. Francis’s detachment is necessary in order to make room for the Jesuits’ Magis.
Listen to the audio guide
The exhibition’s audio guide is also available as a podcast. In a single episode, it takes you on a journey through the life of Francis, from his exuberant youth to the Jesuit concept of magis.
Lecture series
Alongside the exhibition, we are organizing a lecture series that connects Francis’s thought with contemporary challenges: peace, poverty and ecology.
We begin each session with an in-depth exploration of Franciscan thought. We then give the floor to organizations that continue to draw inspiration from his ideas today.
The lectures will take place at the UCSIA House. For each of these occasions, different pieces from the collection will be displayed at the UCSIA House.
The Jesuit Heritage Foundation
In 2020, the University Centre Saint Ignatius Antwerp (UCSIA) and the University of Antwerp established the Jesuit Heritage Foundation. This public-benefit foundation is dedicated to the academic and societal valorization of the Jesuits’ movable cultural heritage in Antwerp and beyond.
This can take many different forms: academic research, of course, but also bringing that research to a wider audience through lectures, exhibitions and other cultural activities, publications or the development of educational materials.
