SBU friar publishes his work in Italy
Jeffery Cole
Issue date: 2/26/10 Section: News
Father Michael Cusato, O.F.M., director of the Franciscan Institute and dean of the School of Franciscan Studies, recently had a volume of his essays on the Franciscan Order published in Spoleto, Italy.
The volume, "The Early Franciscan Movement (1205-1239): History, Sources and Hermeneutics," spans the era between the birth of the Franciscan Order and the end of Brother Elias' reign as Minister General, Cusato said.
Cusato, who received a doctoral degree from the Universite Paris-Sorbonne, said the volume focuses on the beginning of the Franciscan Order, including the writing of The Rules, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, and St. Francis' opposition to the Crusades. Andre Vauchez, Cusato's professor from France, urged him to publish his essays in order to get his unique perspective into the scholarly world.
"It's really about the early years of the Franciscan community," Cusato said.
The volume includes 16 selected essays by Cusato.
"The most gratifying thing for me is that a significant number of my articles are published in one place in English and available now," he said.
Cusato said another reason for publishing his writings was to "unearth" the untold side of the early history of the Order, namely the perspective of Francis and his Brothers. Cusato said as more clerics came into the Order around 1220, they began to interpret the Order's ideas in their own way, which caused a clash in visions between the clerics and the original friars until Francis' death in 1226.
The clerics' vision (which emphasized preaching and the giving of Sacraments) "triumphed" over the friars' vision (which focused on helping the poor and addressing social problems) and is now the more commonly known side of the story, said Cusato. The volume attempts to not only present the lesser-known perspective of the friars, but to also show how the Order grew out of societal conditions of the time. It addresses the early Order as being both a spiritual and social movement.
The process of piecing the volume together took two years, due to what Cusato calls "differences in printing conventions" between European and American publishing styles. He also had to edit his essays by hand and then re-submit them overseas to the Italian Center for Studies on the Middle Ages, his publisher.
Because the volume was published in English, the publisher did not receive state subsidies that would normally have been granted had the volume been published in Italian. Cusato's connections to his colleagues in Italy and to his professor in France made publishing the volume overseas possible.
Though Father Michael Cusato said he believes his publisher will most likely be "less than enthused" about publishing further volumes due to the lack of state subsidies, he does anticipate more volumes of his works to be published.
A shipment of volumes should arrive at St. Bonaventure in a few weeks, and will be for sale at the offices of the Franciscan Institute in the basement of the Friedsam Memorial Library.
e-mail: colejr09@sbu.edu
The volume, "The Early Franciscan Movement (1205-1239): History, Sources and Hermeneutics," spans the era between the birth of the Franciscan Order and the end of Brother Elias' reign as Minister General, Cusato said.
Cusato, who received a doctoral degree from the Universite Paris-Sorbonne, said the volume focuses on the beginning of the Franciscan Order, including the writing of The Rules, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, and St. Francis' opposition to the Crusades. Andre Vauchez, Cusato's professor from France, urged him to publish his essays in order to get his unique perspective into the scholarly world.
"It's really about the early years of the Franciscan community," Cusato said.
The volume includes 16 selected essays by Cusato.
"The most gratifying thing for me is that a significant number of my articles are published in one place in English and available now," he said.
Cusato said another reason for publishing his writings was to "unearth" the untold side of the early history of the Order, namely the perspective of Francis and his Brothers. Cusato said as more clerics came into the Order around 1220, they began to interpret the Order's ideas in their own way, which caused a clash in visions between the clerics and the original friars until Francis' death in 1226.
The clerics' vision (which emphasized preaching and the giving of Sacraments) "triumphed" over the friars' vision (which focused on helping the poor and addressing social problems) and is now the more commonly known side of the story, said Cusato. The volume attempts to not only present the lesser-known perspective of the friars, but to also show how the Order grew out of societal conditions of the time. It addresses the early Order as being both a spiritual and social movement.
The process of piecing the volume together took two years, due to what Cusato calls "differences in printing conventions" between European and American publishing styles. He also had to edit his essays by hand and then re-submit them overseas to the Italian Center for Studies on the Middle Ages, his publisher.
Because the volume was published in English, the publisher did not receive state subsidies that would normally have been granted had the volume been published in Italian. Cusato's connections to his colleagues in Italy and to his professor in France made publishing the volume overseas possible.
Though Father Michael Cusato said he believes his publisher will most likely be "less than enthused" about publishing further volumes due to the lack of state subsidies, he does anticipate more volumes of his works to be published.
A shipment of volumes should arrive at St. Bonaventure in a few weeks, and will be for sale at the offices of the Franciscan Institute in the basement of the Friedsam Memorial Library.
e-mail: colejr09@sbu.edu
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