As I mentioned in my previous project post, I've decided to do my storybook project on Saint Francis and stories surrounding his life! I'm planning on using the perspectives of other characters to retell major episodes from his life. I've named my project "Visions of Francis: Storybook of a Saint."
The first story I found last week is from The Little Flowers of St. Francis, translated by W. Heywood on the Sacred Texts website. As I said last time, this story recounts how a young boy, just accepted as a monk into the Order, was living with Francis and other friars. One night, the boy arises and can't find Saint Francis. The boy goes looking for Francis and then sees something amazing: "Christ and the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist and the Evangelist and a very great multitude of angels who spake with St. Francis." I would love to retell this story from the perspective of the boy, going into further detail about what he saw that night. Per Laura's suggestion, I'm going to use this boy as the central storyteller for the length of the project! Every other story will be told from the perspective of this boy having visions of the life of Saint Francis. This initial story will be the first "vision," and the other stories will also be told from the boy's perspective.
The second story I want to work with is Saint Francis and Brother Wolf, which can be found in the Saints and Animals unit in the UN-Textbook. I want to explain how exactly Francis was able to tame this wolf and create peace in Gubbio, from the point of view of the young boy having a vision of the events. I want to emphasize the legendary reverence that animals had for Saint Francis.
For my third story, I want to use another text from The Little Flowers of St. Francis on Sacred Texts. This one tells of Francis liberating a friar who had been, essentially, possessed by a demon. This story is short and pretty wide open, so I will add several creative details. Perhaps Francis will say some sort of mystical prayer and lay a blessing on the friar. Like the other stories, I plan to retell this from the perspective of the young boy having a vision of the great deeds of Saint Francis.
To end the storybook, I will cut back to the young boy in his room and have him explain how these amazing visions have impacted him. He will express great awe for the character of Francis and Francis's life events.
I want to express the values of Saint Francis through this storybook, including discussing his care for creation and deep love for the world around him. Using the boy from the first story as the narrator throughout will be a fun framing tool to help present some of Saint Francis's legacy through the lenses of childlike wonder.
Showing posts with label Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project. Show all posts
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Friday, September 6, 2019
Topic Research: Saint Francis
I've decided to do my storybook project on Saint Francis! I want to focus on retelling stories about his life from the perspectives of other characters. I may name my project "Visions of Saint Francis" or "Encounters with Saint Francis."
The first story I found is from The Little Flowers of St. Francis, translated by W. Heywood on the Sacred Texts website. It recounts how a young boy, just accepted as a monk into the Order, was living with Francis and other friars. One night, the boy arose in the middle of the night and couldn't find Saint Francis. The boy went looking for him and then witnessed "Christ and the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist and the Evangelist and a very great multitude of angels who spake with St. Francis." I would love to retell this story from the perspective of the boy, going into further detail about what he saw that night. The conversation between Francis and the divine is fascinating material.
The second story I want to work with is Saint Francis and Brother Wolf. This story is from the Saints and Animals unit in the UN-Textbook. I want to retell what happened from the perspective of the wolf and explain how exactly Francis was able to tame the wolf and create peace in the town of Gubbio. I love the transformation of the wolf in this story and how the narrative shows Francis helping a community in need.
Finally, I want to retell another story from The Little Flowers of St. Francis on Sacred Texts, this one about Francis and Friar Masseo. Friar Masseo is asked to perform a seemingly childish, silly task by Francis, and later that day Masseo has both skepticism and praise in his heart for Francis. God then reveals to Francis exactly what Masseo was thinking! I love the potential to explore Masseo's views of Saint Francis from a 1st person point of view.
The Wikipedia page on Saint Francis could also serve as a helpful resource for history, context, and additional stories when creating my storybook.
Another great story possibility, also from The Little Flowers of St. Francis on Sacred Texts, tells of Francis freeing a friar who had been descended upon by a demon. This story is short and pretty wide open, so I could easily take it into creative detail. Like the other stories, I would retell it from the perspective of the friar who encounters Francis.
The first story I found is from The Little Flowers of St. Francis, translated by W. Heywood on the Sacred Texts website. It recounts how a young boy, just accepted as a monk into the Order, was living with Francis and other friars. One night, the boy arose in the middle of the night and couldn't find Saint Francis. The boy went looking for him and then witnessed "Christ and the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist and the Evangelist and a very great multitude of angels who spake with St. Francis." I would love to retell this story from the perspective of the boy, going into further detail about what he saw that night. The conversation between Francis and the divine is fascinating material.
The second story I want to work with is Saint Francis and Brother Wolf. This story is from the Saints and Animals unit in the UN-Textbook. I want to retell what happened from the perspective of the wolf and explain how exactly Francis was able to tame the wolf and create peace in the town of Gubbio. I love the transformation of the wolf in this story and how the narrative shows Francis helping a community in need.
Finally, I want to retell another story from The Little Flowers of St. Francis on Sacred Texts, this one about Francis and Friar Masseo. Friar Masseo is asked to perform a seemingly childish, silly task by Francis, and later that day Masseo has both skepticism and praise in his heart for Francis. God then reveals to Francis exactly what Masseo was thinking! I love the potential to explore Masseo's views of Saint Francis from a 1st person point of view.
The Wikipedia page on Saint Francis could also serve as a helpful resource for history, context, and additional stories when creating my storybook.
Another great story possibility, also from The Little Flowers of St. Francis on Sacred Texts, tells of Francis freeing a friar who had been descended upon by a demon. This story is short and pretty wide open, so I could easily take it into creative detail. Like the other stories, I would retell it from the perspective of the friar who encounters Francis.
I love this image of Saint Francis casting out demons in Arezzo! Possibly near the OU study
center there?? Giotto di Bondone is the artist here, source: Wikimedia
Friday, August 30, 2019
Topic Brainstorm
These are some potential topic ideas for my storybook project!
1. Saints and Animals
For this topic, I would start by reading the unit on Saints and their Animals in the UN-Textbook.
I'm especially interested in Saint Francis, and the possibility of retelling the animal stories surrounding his life intrigues me. I read his page on Wikipedia, and it notes that "He...became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment, and it became customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October." Saint Francis is a fascinating person in the history of religion, and the connection to nature he and other saints had would be fun to write about! The website section on Saints who Loved Animals could also be a resource for me.
2. Enneagram types and Canterbury Tales
I really enjoy the Canterbury Tales. I read a lot of Chaucer in a medieval literature class last year at OU, and I loved the way he developed characters in his short stories. For this project, I would re-read some of the Canterbury Tales, which I could do in the UN-Textbook unit on these stories. I could mix-in my love for the Enneagram personality framework by re-telling certain tales in a way to bring out the characters' Enneagram types. I would use the Enneagram Institute's website as a resource for the traits exhibited by different number types. Knowing a decent amount already about both the Enneagram and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, this would be a creative way to combine two strong interests of mine.
3. Stories from China
As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, I'm interested in studying abroad this summer and have been considering China as a potential location! The rich history and culture of China fascinates me, and I plan on reading the "China" unit in the UN-Textbook during this course. I don't have a firm idea on what this storybook project would look like yet, but I would use these stories as a starting point as well as some of the Chinese stories on Freebookapalooza. I would possibly focus on re-telling tales that have moral applications. The Wikipedia page on Chinese Folklore was interesting to browse and could serve as a valuable resource for this project.
4. Encounters with Christ (Using the Gospel of Mark)
The Gospel of Mark has always been a captivating text for me growing up in a Christian family, and I'm thrilled to re-read it with fresh eyes in the UN-Textbook unit I'm planning on reading for week 4. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus Christ encounters many unique people during his ministry. For this project I would focus on lesser-known stories in Mark and re-tell them from the perspective of minor characters. This creative way of looking at the Christian New Testament would be an enjoyable project for me. In a class I took last year on Judaism, I learned about Midrash--a genre of Rabbinic literature that fills in the gaps of Biblical stories and playfully interacts with Biblical texts in order to deduce moral implications or make interpretative claims. I could write in a somewhat midrashic style for this project, likely using the Wikipedia page on the Gospel of Mark as a resource for important context.
1. Saints and Animals
For this topic, I would start by reading the unit on Saints and their Animals in the UN-Textbook.
I'm especially interested in Saint Francis, and the possibility of retelling the animal stories surrounding his life intrigues me. I read his page on Wikipedia, and it notes that "He...became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment, and it became customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October." Saint Francis is a fascinating person in the history of religion, and the connection to nature he and other saints had would be fun to write about! The website section on Saints who Loved Animals could also be a resource for me.
A painting of Saint Francis preaching to animals by an
anonymous Italian painter. Source: Wikimedia
2. Enneagram types and Canterbury Tales
I really enjoy the Canterbury Tales. I read a lot of Chaucer in a medieval literature class last year at OU, and I loved the way he developed characters in his short stories. For this project, I would re-read some of the Canterbury Tales, which I could do in the UN-Textbook unit on these stories. I could mix-in my love for the Enneagram personality framework by re-telling certain tales in a way to bring out the characters' Enneagram types. I would use the Enneagram Institute's website as a resource for the traits exhibited by different number types. Knowing a decent amount already about both the Enneagram and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, this would be a creative way to combine two strong interests of mine.
3. Stories from China
As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, I'm interested in studying abroad this summer and have been considering China as a potential location! The rich history and culture of China fascinates me, and I plan on reading the "China" unit in the UN-Textbook during this course. I don't have a firm idea on what this storybook project would look like yet, but I would use these stories as a starting point as well as some of the Chinese stories on Freebookapalooza. I would possibly focus on re-telling tales that have moral applications. The Wikipedia page on Chinese Folklore was interesting to browse and could serve as a valuable resource for this project.
4. Encounters with Christ (Using the Gospel of Mark)
The Gospel of Mark has always been a captivating text for me growing up in a Christian family, and I'm thrilled to re-read it with fresh eyes in the UN-Textbook unit I'm planning on reading for week 4. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus Christ encounters many unique people during his ministry. For this project I would focus on lesser-known stories in Mark and re-tell them from the perspective of minor characters. This creative way of looking at the Christian New Testament would be an enjoyable project for me. In a class I took last year on Judaism, I learned about Midrash--a genre of Rabbinic literature that fills in the gaps of Biblical stories and playfully interacts with Biblical texts in order to deduce moral implications or make interpretative claims. I could write in a somewhat midrashic style for this project, likely using the Wikipedia page on the Gospel of Mark as a resource for important context.
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