Born into wealth, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi, saw God in the weakest, most despised persons. He sought to draw near them. Renouncing his inheritance, Francis embraced voluntary poverty as a way of life.

The decisions of Francis’ first followers to live without property and to refuse money in payment for their work were motivated not by ascetic ideals or detachment from the world, but by a sense of fellowship with humanity and all creation. Drawn powerfully to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they rejected security in wealth and privilege and put all their trust in human relationships — in fraternity.

In this seminar, Brother Anthony Zuba describes the economic principles of the Capuchin Franciscan order and its efforts to recapture the radical choices of their Franciscan ancestors in order to create an interdependent, humane world.

Brother Anthony Zuba is a Capuchin Franciscan friar on staff at the Parish of Holy Cross-Saint John the Baptist in New York City.