Eighty-four years ago on August 14, 1941, Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Conv., was killed with a phenol injection inside a starvation cell of Block 11 of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
Our partner in encouraging the study of the Franciscan cultural heritage, the Academy of American Franciscan History is a research institute presently affiliated with the Franciscan School of Theology in San Diego, California. Founded in 1943, the Academy
Eighty-four years ago on August 14, 1941, Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Conv., was killed with a phenol injection inside a starvation cell of Block 11 of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
On August 11, the Franciscan family celebrates the feast of St. Clare of Assisi (1193-1253), the first woman to join Francis and his brothers in forging a new Gospel way of life.
On August 8, with the rest of the Church, the Franciscan family celebrates St. Dominic, although not simply as a memorial but as a feast, honoring him as "our holy Father."
On August 5, Franciscans and many Canadian Catholics remember Blessed Frédéric Janssoone (1838–1916), a Franciscan friar noted as “God’s pedlar (peddler),” a missionary evangelizer and pastoral organizer.
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"The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition - a Tradition 'Turned Upside Down'" by Johannes Freyer, OFM, is the latest lecture of the Franciscan Zoom Lecture Series, hosted by the Franciscan School of Theology at the University of San Diego.
"The Promise and Limits of Personal Climate Action: Can 'Thinking Globally, Acting Locally' Be Enough?" by Ed Tverdek, OFM, PhD, is the latest lecture of the Franciscan Zoom Lecture Series, hosted by the Franciscan School of Theology at the University of San Diego.
"The Shape of Holiness: St. Bonaventure's Theology of Grace for Troubled Times" by Katherine Wrisley Shelby, PhD, is the third lecture of the Franciscan Zoom Lecture Series - Winter 2025 Semester, hosted by the Franciscan School of Theology at the University of San Diego.
In this presentation, Fr. Johannes Freyer, OFM, will outline the distinct concepts and thought patterns that emerged when the Franciscan form of life interacted with the patristic tradition and the newest scholastic theology.
In this discussion about the promise and limits of personal climate action, Ed Tverdek, OFM, PhD, suggests that our shortcomings can be attributed to a failure to take seriously Pope Francis’ message in his encyclical Laudato Si’ and his subsequent apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum – and that the transformative vision of a culture less wed to consumerism and growth – long expounded by “radical ecologists” and now by Pope Francis – remains our best vehicle for evangelization as Franciscans.
This presentation by Katherine Wrisley Shelby, PhD, will explore the relevance of St. Bonaventure's teachings on grace for our 21st-century context -- namely, within a culture that largely interprets grace as an individual ticket to personal salvation at the expense of all others, Bonaventure rather calls us to understand how grace necessarily invites us into communion with our "neighbor" and the broader world around us.
