Tell and enhance
our heritage

The Pastoral of Art at the Saint (P.A.S.) was born from the proposal to activate a series of initiatives, all focused on enhancing our artistic, cultural, and spiritual heritage within the Antonian complex. Welcoming pilgrims and visitors is a fundamental aspect of our Franciscan presence.

The places of worship that, as Franciscan friars, we are entrusted with have a very high value and offer opportunities for encounter for those who approach these places, whether individually or in groups.

Those who come into contact with these works of art, architecture, and spirituality gain something good for their lives, even just by observing the beauty they preserve. Beauty, in itself, is a moment of proclamation, because what is beautiful is also good, and what is good can only come from God. Coming into contact with the Antonian places means allowing oneself to be touched by the concrete reality of the via pulchritudinis, repeatedly cited by the recent popes as a privileged way of evangelization.

As a Franciscan community, we have felt called to take the lead in enhancing and investing energy and resources, believing in the potential of the Antonian complex. A new proclamation through beauty! For this reason, a team of friars and laypeople has been working on this front for several years.

In addition to acquiring specific skills through training programs, they have been entrusted with the task of developing the P.A.S. project (Pastoral of Art at the Saint).

The P.A.S. team is responsible for the design and management of all pastoral and cultural initiatives in the Welcoming Pilgrims and Pastoral of Art sector. In addition, they coordinate the staff at the information office. The attention to the requests of visitors and pilgrims, combined with the growing awareness of the pastoral value of the artistic-cultural heritage of the Antonian complex, has led to the definition of different categories of users. For each category, specific proposals have been designed, while other initiatives have been created for a broader audience.

The production of videos has received excellent feedback from both individual visitors and collective groups, such as parishes and ecclesial groups. These videos, created to enhance the artistic-cultural heritage of the basilica (but not exclusively), have been developed over time, also in collaboration with public and private museum institutions. The formats vary in duration and communicative style based on specific objectives. In particular, a series of step-by-step video reflections was proposed during Advent and Lent, distributed on social media and, in some cases, also broadcast on television.

The same positive feedback was received for the artistic-cultural documentary, created with the aim of expanding the knowledge of the figure of Saint Anthony and the Basilica.

Therefore, P.A.S. includes the following activities:

1. • Catechesis and reflection paths with art
   • Prayer meetings with art
   • Theologically/spiritually focused guided tours
   • Paths for specific categories
   • “Gospel with art” workshops

Throughout its eight centuries of history, the Antonian complex, thanks to the sensitivity of the friars who preceded us, has proven to be a unicum infused with art, faith, and spirituality, which today we are called to preserve and enhance, finding new possibilities within it to announce the good news through beauty!