From 3 to 8 November 2025, the International Meeting of the Artist Friars of the Order of Friars Minor was held at the General Curia in Rome, promoted by the General Secretariat for Missions and Evangelisation and the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office of the Order, with thecollaboration of Br. Samuel Abiyu, violinist friar and student of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, and of Br. Antonino Clemenza, professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome.
This year, in celebrating the eighth centenary of the Canticle of the Creatures, the artist friars accepted St. Francis' invitation to look at the world with new eyes, capable of grasping the presence of the invisible in the visible. The Canticle, in fact, continues to be a source of inspiration and creativity, an invitation to recognise the beauty of reality and to return it to the wounded world, with a spirit offraternity and gratitude. The call addressed to all the entities of the Order was answered by 14 friars from Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, India, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, the Holy Land, Venezuela, and Hungary. In the richness of their different artistic expressions, they passed days of formation and sharing on the ministry of being an artist in the Order, of exchange of experiences, of confrontation with Br. Alessandro Brustenghi, tenor friar of the Seraphic Province of St. Francis of Assisi and Sardinia, and with Br. Sidival Fila, visual artist of the Province of St. Bonaventure of Lazio and Abruzzo.
Amongst the most significant moments of the meeting, the dialogue with the Minister General, Br. Massimo Fusarelli, represented a precious opportunity for sharing and discernment. In an atmosphere of fraternal listening, the Minister offered a reflection on the vocation of the artist friars at the service of the Church and the contemporary world, stimulating a fruitful exchange of ideas and perspectives. Following the example of St Francis of Assisi, the friars rediscovered how art, lived as a humble service to beauty, becomes a bridge of fraternity: through brushes, chisels, musical notes, words, colours and sounds, it weaves relationships, preserves the evangelical and ecclesial memory, and opens up toshared contemplation.
The artist friars questioned what a Franciscan aesthetic can be in the contemporary world and how art can become a way of evangelisation, when it is lived as a vocation and ministry at the service of the Gospel. During the days of the meeting, the artist friars also experienced a moment of pilgrimage and prayer in the Sanctuary of San Damiano in Assisi, where St. Francis composed the Canticle of the Creatures.
The artist, an inspired man, is called to make God's beauty visible in everyday life.
The friars gathered together dreamed of new common projects, eager to make the Canticle of the Creatures resonate even today, with Francis of Assisi, in the life of the world.
Read the homily of Br. Chryzostom Fryc (Italiano)
Read the homily of Br. Massimo Fusarelli: Italiano – English – Español
Read the text of the Dialogical Workshop by Br. Massimo Fusarelli: Italiano – English – Español
See all photos on Flickr
