Eight Centuries Less. Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi died in 1226. The son of a wealthy merchant, who cast his expensive clothes at his father’s feet, chose a life without possessions in the service of the poorest. Eight hundred years after his death, his philosophy continues to inspire people.
St Francis paved the way for our way of thinking about and embodying peace, poverty and care for the earth.
On 26 November, 10 and 17 December, UCSIA welcomes historians and professionals from the social sector to put these ideas and ideals about peace, poverty and ecology into context and assess them in the light of today’s challenges.
The lecture series is linked to the exhibition Eight Centuries Less at the Ruusbroec Library of the University of Antwerp.
The Franciscan Virtue of Poverty
Webinar (in English) by UCSIA Summer School alumnus Neslihan Şenocak (Columbia University)
One of the enduring ironies of medieval history is that a group of Italian lay penitents, begging in sackcloth, led by a man who called himself simple and ignorant, became in a short time a very popular and respectable religious order, with cardinals and university professors among its ranks.
In 2012, Neslihan Şenocak (Columbia University) published the critically acclaimed book The Poor and the Perfect, in which she provides a grand narrative of this fascinating story. The book shows how the quintessential Franciscan virtue of simplicity gradually gave way to learning, while study came to be considered an integral part of evangelical perfection.
In this lecture, Professor Şenocak traces the links between early Christian (late antique) asceticism, Francis’s embrace of poverty and the development of the ideal within the Franciscan order.
Neslihan Şenocak is Associate Professor of History at Columbia University. She specializes in medieval religious, intellectual, social and political history. Her research and teaching focus on popular religion, political theology, criminal justice, medieval Italian communes and in particular the ways in which the emerging universities influenced the theo-political institutions of medieval Latin Christendom. Professor Şenocak is an alumnus of the first UCSIA Summer School of 2003.
Programme
-
16:00 CET | Welcome and introduction
by Erik De Bom, Director of UCSIA -
16:10 CET | Lecture 'The Franciscan Virtue of Poverty'
by Neslihan Şenocak (Columbia University) - 16:50 CET | Q&A
- 17:00 CET | Einde
Poverty in the streets
Later that day, Pascal Debruyne (Odisee University of Applied Sciences) will explore the theme of poverty in the present day. In his lecture Visibly Invisible: Begging in Our Society (in Dutch), he will share insights from his book on begging in our cities.
Eight Centuries Less
How do Francis’s ideas on peace, poverty and ecology live on today? Discover the other lectures in the series:
- On Peace on 26 November 2026 – a joint lecture (in Dutch) with Barbara Mertens (TAU) and Bénédicte Kusendila (Pax Christi Flanders)
- On poverty on 10 December 2026 – a lecture (in Dutch) by Pascal Debruyne, a lecturer and researcher at Odisee University College
- On caring for the Earth on 17 December 2026 – a joint lecture (in Dutch) with Marianne Ritsema van Eck (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Karel Ceule (Broederlijk Delen)
This series ties in with the exhibition ‘Eight Centuries Less’. From Francis’s youth in Assisi to the Jesuit ‘magis’: explore the surprising traces of Francis of Assisi in the collection of the Ruusbroec Institute Library. Featuring manuscripts, devotional prints and, for the first time, Sister Rumolda’s habit.
You can visit the exhibition free of charge until 29 January 2027 at the Ruusbroec Institute Library, Grote Kauwenberg 34, 2000 Antwerp.
