An Orientation to This Series
Welcome to Assisi Pilgrimage Online, a six-week Zoom series led by Ken Butigan. Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service is grateful that you will be joining us for this virtual experience of walking in the footsteps of Saint Francis and Saint Clare.
This pilgrimage invites us to study the lives of the founders of the Franciscan tradition, to pray for peace, to build community, to strengthen our nonviolent journey, and, most importantly, to open the space for spiritual deepening and discovery in this time of crisis and opportunity.
St. Francis exerts a powerful influence on our own time nearly eight hundred years after his death. Many aspects of the life of this spiritual pioneer have inspired people everywhere: his compassionate relationship with the poor; his familial relationship with nature; and his spiritually transformative relationship with the world. St. Clare contextualized this vision by building a radically innovative community.
For three decades, Pace e Bene has been motivated by these facets of journey of St Francis and St Clare, but we have been especially inspired by their powerful practice of peacemaking. In this series, we will explore the many aspects of Francis and Clare’s life and work within the context of their commitment to living the peace and nonviolence of Jesus.
“Pace e Bene” (pronounced “pah-chay bay-nay”) is an Italian greeting attributed to Francis of Assisi meaning “Peace and all Good.” It is a vision, a blessing, and a yearning for the well-being of all. In this spirit, we hope that this pilgrimage is a time of transformation, healing and creative energy for all of us.
A Word about This Pilgrimage
Pace e Bene led a weeklong, in-person pilgrimage to Assisi in 2019. Facilitated by John Dear and I—with Ryan Hall and Veronica Pelicaric bringing their many gifts—it was a breathtaking experience, with thirty of us walking the path of the founders of the Franciscan tradition and reflecting on their call for us to become agents of nonviolent change. As pilgrims of peace, we explored the story of Francis and Clare and its enduring message of renouncing violence and pursuing the nonviolent life as it unfolded in this beautiful Italian hill town eight centuries ago.
The COVID-19 pandemic prevents us from returning to Assisi anytime soon – but it doesn’t stop us from embarking on a virtual pilgrimage to experience this “city of peace” and its many sites that evoke the profound spiritual awakening which Francis and Clare helped unleash in the late Middle Ages. Such an awakening is needed now more than ever as we confront racial injustice, economic inequality, militarism, and the existential threat of the climate crisis.
Over six Zoom sessions — on Tuesdays from October 4-November 8, 2021 (4-6pm Pacific / 7-9pm Eastern) — we will re-trace the steps of Francis and Clare using the the eight stages of the ancient ritual of pilgrimage (The Longing, The Call, The Preparation, The Departure, The Journey, The Arrival at the Center, The Return, and The Integration):
October 4: Session 1: The Longing
Theme: Francis and Clare’s pilgrimage from violence to wholeness, transformation, healing and forgiveness. Sites: Assisi; Rocca Maggiore (Assisi castle); Chiesa Nuova (Francis’ family home); Collestrada battlefield.
October 11: Session 2: The Call, The Preparation, The Departure
Theme: Conversion from the “unjust normal” to the nonviolent life. Sites: San Damiano; Santa Maria Maggiore - Piazza del Vescavado (Bishop’s home); Clare’s family home.
October 18: Session 3: The Journey Begins
Theme: Francis and Clare’s nonviolent actions. Not only did these events resolve specific conflicts, but they also symbolized a dramatic alternative to long-standing cultural and religious patterns of violence, including war, marginalization, retributive justice, civil strife, Church-state conflict, and the domination of nature. Sites: Monte Casale (the robbers); unknown site (the lepers); Arezzo (the factions); San Damiano (the pope).
October 25: Session 4: The Journey Continues
Theme: Francis and Clare’s nonviolent actions (continued). Journey to the “enemy.” The wolf. The invaders. The Sultan Malek al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade. Sites: Gubbio; Nile Valley; San Damiano; Santa Maria degli Angeli and The Porziuncola.
November 1: Session 5: The Arrival at the Center
Theme: The stigmata. The Canticle of the Creatures. The final assurance of forgiveness. Making peace between Assisi’s bishop and mayor. Francis’ last days and resting place. “Perfect joy.” Sites: Piazza del Vescavado (Bishop’s home); San Damiano; The Porziuncola; The Basilica of Saint Francis.
November 8: Session 6: The Return and The Integration
Theme: Clare’s long return and integration. The Franciscan Tradition. Assisi under the Nazis. Fr. Louie Vitale, OFM. Sister Klaryta Antoszewska, OSF. Pope Francis. Our return, integration, and next steps. Site: The Basilica of Saint Clare. The Museum of Memory (Assisi).
Background on each of the sites we will be visiting is provided. Each session has its own webpage, with resources and specific content.
SESSION COMPONENTS
Each session include include a weekly presentation, group reflections, short readings, the occasional video, and discussion posts. And just as we often do on pilgrimage, you are encouraged to keep a journal, where you can reflect on the sites, on the various Franciscan themes, and, most importantly, your own insights.
Readings and Audio Tracks
For Session 1, you are invited to peruse a couple of readings:
“Introduction,” Franciscan Nonviolence, a little book published by Sr. Mary Litell, OSF; Fr. Louie Vitale, OFM; and Ken Butigan
At the bottom of each session webpage you will see a “bonus audio track” on “Francis and Clare at the Beginning.” This set of eight audio files (including the first one at the bottom of this page) finds Francis returning to San Damiano toward the end of his life, reflecting on all that has transpired since the life-changing experience he had there so many years before. To hear this file, just click on the track. You can also download it.
The Zoom link being used for every session is:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82948329997?pwd=NXZkUGJWOGJLMU5wcjFTeVh4eFU3UT09
Meeting ID: 829 4832 9997
Passcode: 015625
Below are a few other resources for our journey. Welcome aboard!
Ken Butigan teaches at DePaul University in the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Program (and serves as Affiliate Faculty with the Catholic Studies Department). He has led four cohorts of students to Assisi and Rome on pilgrimage. He has worked with Pace e Bene for thirty years and currently consults on the organization’s strategy. For more information, click here. He also serves on the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative’s executive committee. With a few exceptions, virtually all the photographs used on this site were taken by Butigan.
Resources
BACKGROUND
Adrian House, Francis of Assisi: A Revolutionary Life (Hidden Spring/Paulist Press, 2001).
Paul Moses, The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and St Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace (Random House, 2009).
Andre Vauchez, Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint (Yale University Press, 2012).
Augustine Thompson, Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (Cornell University Press, 2012).
Paul T. Murray, Seeing Jesus in the Eyes of the Oppressed: A History of Franciscans Working for Peace and Justice (The Academy of American Franciscan History, 2022). This volume includes a chapter on Pace e Bene co-founder, Fr. Louie Vitale, OFM.
Judith Dean, Every Pilgrim’s Guide to Assisi and Other Franciscan Places (Paraclete Press, 2006).
Map
Click here, then click on the map to expand it.
Videos
Assisi Walking Tour This is a tremendous two-hour walk through Assisi featuring many Franciscan sites within the city.
Rick Steves (at the 13:48 mark)
Phoebe Moritz Ms. Moritz was a DePaul University student who took part in Ken Butigan’s June 2018 Study Abroad program to Assisi and Rome: “St. Francis of Assisi’s Pilgrimage of Peace.”
Alex Bednar Mr. Bednar was part of Ken Butigan’s March 2016 Study Abroad program to Assisi and Rome.
Other
Francis and Clare: A Chronology
Rick Steves Audio Tour of St. Francis Basilica
PILGRIMAGE
Pilgrimage is a meaningful journey to a significant destination. It is a form of spiritual magnetism drawing us to our potential wholeness. In Mystics and Zen Masters, Thomas Merton saw it as a timeless and existential ritual: “The ‘sacred journey’ has origins in prehistoric religious cultures and myths. [The human person] instinctively regards [themselves] as a wanderer and wayfarer, and it is second nature for [them] to go on pilgrimage in search of a privileged and holy place, a center and source of indefectible life.”
Over the millennia, this search for “the center and source” has led pilgrims to leave what is familiar in order to enter the unfamiliar, urged on by a call that is often deeply personal but also deeply universal.
This call can take many forms. As Jean and Wallace Clift suggest in their book The Archetype of Pilgrimage, pilgrims sometimes seek to answer an inner call, or experience a miracle, or achieve pardon, or give thanks, or experience a place of power, or reclaim lost or forgotten parts of themselves, or get outside the normal routine of life so something new can happen, or seek meaning.
Or any number of other reasons. We invite you to reflect deeply on your own reasons for taking this pilgrimage. Only you can say what has stirred you to do this.
It is a gift, this stirring. One of the things that stirred this particular pilgrimage into being was the longing to honor the peacemaking Francis and Clare—and to deepen our own commitment to and capacity for living the nonviolent life, as they had.
During the European Middle Ages, vast numbers of people went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago del Compostela, Assisi, and other places. Many others were unable to make a physical pilgrimage, so they went on a virtual one: using holy travel books, engaging in the Way of the Cross in their local church, or walking a labyrinth.
Similarly, we are making a virtual pilgrimage, which can be as powerful as a physical one.
BONUS AUDIO:
Francis and Clare
AT THE BEGINNING
TRACK 1:
ARRIVING AT SAN DAMIANO
FranCiscan VISION
Francis of Assisi became convinced of three things over the course of his life: God loves us unconditionally; God wants the fullness of life for all; and God calls each one of us to bring this love and fullness of life alive in our lives and our world.
These convictions were the basis of his lifelong pilgrimage spreading the news of God’s love in words and actions.
They shaped Francis’ approach to how he conducted his life and envisioned the burgeoning religious community he founded.
They also have had far-reaching impacts across the eight centuries in the many tributaries of the Franciscan traditions and in the larger world.
For Francis, God was the Most High who was Transcendent Goodness, a Goodness that was lavished especially on the poor. To become voluntarily poor is to share the plight of the poor but also to share in the life of God who gives everything.
This Trinitarian God—known in the fullness and magnificence of life, in the crucified Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit who is actively vivifying all that exists—was, for Francis, worthy of praise and endless gratitude.
In 1212 Clare of Assisi joined him in his work.
If Francis was born into a family that represented one center of power of Assisi life (the emerging mercantile class) Clare was born into a clan that represented the other (the long-established nobility). In tandem their renunciation served as a complementary and virtually complete rejection of the world of getting, spending and dominating.
Their vow of voluntary poverty was an intuitive critique of the growing disparities in 13th century Europe as it witnessed the shift from rural to urban life, the rise of the merchant class, the coming end to feudalism and the emergent monarchies and nation-states.