Illinois Medieval Association

“Gain through Loss: Accruing Spiritual Wealth from Voluntary Poverty”
Organizer: Francis A. Grabowski III
January 26, 2024, 3:00 pm Central, online

In response to the great expansion of wealth in Europe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries arose movements dedicated, ironically, to its renunciation. Francesco Bernardone (St. Francis of Assisi) is unquestionably the most notable medieval mendicant, yet he was but one of many who traded their conventional prosperity for evangelical poverty. Although it is easy to lump these movements together and treat them as though they were fundamentally the same, they were unique in terms of their origins, geographies, values, and receptions. This panel seeks to investigate those medieval movements committed to voluntary poverty in their varying forms and expressions, collectively or individually, and the figureheads that inspired them.

Send proposals of no longer than 300 words to fgrabowski@rsu.edu no later than November 15, 2023.