Part Sixty-three--Swords of Honor: A Knight’s Crusade for Right, part three - Santo Francesco

OPENING DAY
COMPONENT: SANTO FRANCESCO
TOPIC: SAINT FRANCIS AND THE FANTASTIC MONASTICS
VISITOR: SAINT FRANCIS

India was our student presenter for the day. I lit about 20 candles, and played Gregorian chants to make the room feel more monastery-ish.

India played the guitar and led us in singing one of Saint Francis' hymns.

She put together the presentation for her father, Jeremy who was Saint Francis. He looked great with a tonsure around his shaved head. 

He was such a fun and funny visitor!

 

He "blessed" Smokey--like the real Saint Francis, and like the Catholic churchmen do on Saint Francis' day.

Bridey led us in one of our inquiries that day.

Later, Jeremy made us laugh some more when he demonstrated the monk chanting scene Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (thunk!) 

YOUNG ADULT COLLOQUIUM VISITOR
DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY

The young adult class read three major books during the year—one for each of our major components: King Arthur -- The Once and Future King, Saint Francis -– The Divine Comedy, and Jeanne d'Arc -- Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc. 

Our Swords of Honor bookmarks, re-themed from the last year's colloquium.

Michelangelo's grandmother came to our school and gave us some background on the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. 

She told how Italian high school students take three years to learn and study the Comedia. And even though we only had an hour with her, she enlightened our understanding of Dante’s allegorical description of Inferno, etc. 

She read several passages to us in her beautiful Italian.

In the video below she reads these opening lines:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.

Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai,¹⁰
tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto
che la verace via abbandonai.

I was never taught Dante like this in college--it was a great experience!

COMPONENT: SANTO FRANCESCO
TOPIC: LO STIVALE (The Boot -- Italy)
VISITOR: AN ITALIAN

Michelangelo's family helped him teach about Italy.

An inquiry: dancing to a popular Italian song, Tarentella Napoletana.

Michelangelo's mother made this wonderful focaccia for us again!

 

We also drank Italian soda with added cream. No wonder it tastes so good.

SAINT ANDREWS ABBEY: A BENEDICTINE MONASTERY 

 A few weeks later we were off to a real monastery in Pearblossom. We spent almost an entire day learning to sing square-note notation Gregorian chants, attending a mass where we used our chant-singing skills, and touring most of the site. Brother Bede stayed with us, answering questions and showing us the abbey. 

We received a lesson in calligraphy.

The monks practice ora et labora, pray and work, which is one of the Latin expressions my students had learned. Making clay figurines is part of the monastery's self-sufficiency work.

Technically, Saint Francis was not a monk but a friar. Monks stay in monasteries and work for a living, but in medieval times friars wandered the countryside begging for their food.

This was a very enlightening and fun day. My favorite part was learning to read square-note music so we could sing Gregorian chants with the monks. 

COMPONENT: SANTO FRANCESCO
TOPIC: BROWN ROBES AND BOWL CUTS (Monasteries)
VISITOR: GIOTTO

At the end of our study of Saint Francis, Giotto, (Lorenzo), visited us. The real Giotto painted churches and monasteries.

There was one big inquiry afterwards--painting frescos like Giotto. We were given plastic plates, water and plaster of Paris with a twine loop to add at the top for hanging up later. 

Giselle is drawing her picture, and then she will transfer the image by laying it lightly over the drying plaster of Paris and tracing lines on the plaster.

The students were mostly finished by the time I started, but I really wanted to paint a fresco.

I tried painting this version of Saint Francis, though this one is by Cimabue, not Giotto.

Mine looks more cartoonish, but I think my Saint Francis looks happier than Cimabue's version!😁  Giselle and I hung our frescoes on the wall for the rest of the year!

What a fun way to learn about Giotto and frescoes!

GILDING AND ILLUMINATION CLASS

The next week Karen led my Latin class in a workshop on gilding and illumination.

The students knew they were listening to an expert!

CLOSING DAY SANTO FRANCESCO

The students shared their projects at our closing day of Saint Francis. Since St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, Giselle gave a powerpoint presentation on horses. She was in the midst of her preparations to be the visitor, Joan of Arc, and she didn't have lots of extra time. Since she was taking horseback riding lessons, this presentation dovetailed with the work she was already doing.  

Giselle taught us that unicorns don't have hooves like horses--they have cloven feet.

The students shared an impressive list of topics in their presentations and displays:  

• All Creatures of our God and King Animal booklet
• Tour of Italy map and travel brochure
• San Gabriel Mission model
• Pasta making
• Saint Clare
• an original Gregorian Chant
• Mosaics
• Topographical map of Italy
• Marco Polo 
• Italian Children's song
• Birds, Triorama and bird feeder
• Tower of Pisa Triorama
• Gondolas
• Creches
• Tower of Pisa song
• Giro d'Italia (bike race)
• I'm a Monk song and video
• Lupo di Gubbio video story
• San Francesco and the Wolf video
• What Monks Say video
• Horses
• Original music for our Everyman medieval morality play
• Book of hours

Some of the presentations were done by Skype since some of our families live hours away. Brittany and her boys were able to enjoy our presentations electronically, and then they shared their project the same way. We watched their movie of Saint Francis and the Wolf on a big screen. It worked out great! 

We laughed so hard when Brittany fainted as the wolf came too near her!

Here we are saying hello to them. I didn't realize that Brittany was taking a photo of us while we talked to her--she posted it in our school docs later on. Technology is amazing!

Giselle is holding up Brittany's family on the laptop so they could be in the photo. What a fun closing day!