In crossing Crusader army lines and being involved in the siege of Damietta on his way to meeting Al-Malik, Francis of Assisi has become an emblem of the possibility of overcoming barriers between peoples, cultures, and religions. In a creative interpretation, the so-called “Peace Prayer of St. Francis” was attributed to him during the cruelties of the First World War — a specter that looms menacingly once more.
The event and its interpretation have merged and blended, and this interaction is deserving of an evaluative study that will carefully avoid positivistic presuppositions or anachronisms. Ecumenical reflection has been innovative in seeing Francis as an ideal of inter-confessional reform and renewal in the human, social, political, ethical, and aesthetic fields.
Subsequently, Francis also comes to exemplify religion that is open and capable of including even those who do not identify with institutional religion.
The 1219 Damietta encounter has inspired a tradition of dialogue whose contemporary importance is becoming increasingly relevant. The Pontifical University
Antonianumis committed to making the memory of this meeting ever more fruitful, seeing this as a necessary counterbalance to the political and environmental crises that characterize our era.
Instituto Teológico and Universidad de Murcia
Murcia – Spain, 4-7 March 2019
The Efficacy of Words: A Meeting of Voices
A specific purpose of this meeting is the analysis of the languages, of the cultures, and of the methods of the encounter of religions in the perspective of Raymond Lull, and doing so also in the context of a more general reflection on the meaning of the borders between them in the meeting of Christianity and Islam, wherefore the Iberian Peninsula, and specifically the Theological Institute and the University of Murcia are a particularly appropriate ice cation for this.
Istituto di Studi Ecumenici "San Bernardino"
Venice, 14 March 2019
A History of Dialogue Beginning with Francis
The long experience of the "San Bernardino" Institute of Ecumenical Studies makes for dealing with the matter of the dialogue in a well-qualified manner and with attention to the new horizons of interreligious and ecumenical reciprocity.
Pontificia Università Antonianum - Facoltà di Teologia, Diritto Canonico e Filosofia
Rome, 9 April 2019
Reflecting on Hospitableness Past and Present
The Rome campus of the Pontifical University
Antonianum will host a reflection on the historical-theological significance of Al-Malik Al-Kamil's hospitality, and on the spiritual, indeed the mystical, roots of the Franciscan preference for
hospitableness, with a view to a renewal of its practice.
Pontificia Università Antonianum - Facoltà di Scienze Bibliche e Archeologia
Jerusalem, 15 May 2019
Damietta 1219
Being near, in terms of both geography and ideas, to the place of the meeting of Francis and Al-Malik Al-Kamil is itself an invitation to look more deeply into the historical dimension of the dialogue, with the aid of contributions from scholars who belong to the Franciscan "galaxy".
Fraternità Francescana Internazionale per il Dialogo Ecumenico e Interreligioso
Istanbul, 19 October 2019
Reciprocal Kindness
A city with a varied religious and political heritage, on the border between East and West, Istanbul is still today a space where interreligious dialogue has a key role in the perspective of world affairs, a place especially well-suited to favouring Muslim-Christian dialogue.
Istanbul, 28 ottobre-1° novembre 2019
Pilgrimage to Damietta
Pontificia Università Antonianum - Scuola Superiore di Studi Medievali e Francescani
Rome, 29 May 2019
Western Views of Islam
Conference on the occasion of the Eighth Centenary of the Meeting of Francis of Assisi with the Sultan Al-Malik Al-Kamil, in collaboration with "lslamolatina" research group of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Italian Center of Lullism and Commissio Sinica.
ÉcoleFranciscaine de Paris - Service National des Relations avec les Musulmans
Paris, 25-26 November 2019
1219, Francis and the Sultan: A Fruitful Meeting?
Reflecting on the richness and fruitfulness of the Franciscan tradition this Journey will conclude in Paris, there Jacques de Vitry reported the event at Damietta as, not only crossing the lines of the Crusader forces, but also as going beyond the religious, social, political and cultural confines of Western Christendom, at that time still self-referential and given to violence.
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