EUROPE/ITALY - International Conference: Marco Polo and the Franciscans in the East

Tolentino (Agenzia Fides) - "In the footsteps of Tommaso da Tolentino and Father Matteo Ricci" is the title of the opening session of the international conference "Travel Notes: Marco Polo and the Franciscans in the East in the 13th and 14th centuries", which will take place next Friday and Saturday in the Italian city of Tolentino. The initiative, which is part of the official program of the celebrations for the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death, is being scientifically supported by the Pontifical "Antonianum" University in Rome, the University "Ca' Foscari" in Venice and the University of Macerata. With the contributions of renowned speakers from Italian and foreign universities, the conference aims to highlight travel as a form of exchange and encounter between different cultures and religions in dialogue with each other.
Many cities in the Marche region of Italy have maintained relations with Venice for centuries, especially across the Adriatic: merchants and mendicants, such as the Franciscan Tommaso da Tolentino, set out in 1290 to reach first Armenia, then Persia, India and perhaps China, almost always travelling on Venetian merchant ships. On Friday afternoon, Gianni Valente, Director of Fides, will give a conference on the “Primum Concilium Sinense” that took place in Shanghai 100 years ago, between May and June 1924, to kick off the work in the church of San Catervo, which will be introduced by greetings from the Bishop of Macerata, Nazzareno Marconi, and Father Simone Giampieri, Provincial of the Franciscans. The documents of this Council - says the Director of Fides - express "the urgency of freeing the Catholic presence and works in China from everything that could make the Church appear as a para-colonial entity enslaved by foreign potentates".
On Saturday 19 October, the Nicola Vaccaj Theatre will host a three-day conference, which will begin with the greetings of the civil and religious authorities, followed by a long day of work on the theme that gives the entire conference its title. The chairman of the “Committee for the celebrations in memory of Blessed Tommaso da Tolentino”, the architect Franco Casadidio, stresses: “The aim of the conference is to enhance the centenary by highlighting the historical figure of Marco Polo from the perspective of the journeys he undertook, which link him to the routes of some important Franciscan figures who crossed Sino-Mongolian Asia and India for reasons related to evangelization and for purely diplomatic reasons. These itineraries represent an inexhaustible source of information at a religious, anthropological, geopolitical and cultural-historical level, and the choice of the title is intended to highlight the study of the typology of diary-chronicle sources, of which “Il Milione” (by Marco Polo) is an excellent example. Another section is dedicated to the travels of other non-Franciscan figures, such as monks and travelers, or to local chronicles of journeys and itineraries in this particular historical period”. (EG) (Agenzia Fides, 14/10/2024)

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evangelization

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franciscan

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dialogue

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culture

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religion

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