GO! The ‘Chapter of Mats’ with the young people of Europe
The ‘Chapter of Mats of Young People ’ event for the Centenary of the Transitus of St. Francis in August 2026 offers to the many young people already present in Assisi for the Feast of Forgiveness, but also to the many young people coming from all parts of Europe, a time of listening, dialogue, formation, prayer and celebration.
At the time of the Saint, the friars would come to St. Mary of the Angels for the feast of Pentecost to celebrate the General Chapter, and by 1221, this gathering numbered thousands of friars from all over Europe: the event is remembered as the ‘Chapter of Mats’ (cf. FF 1848). What makes this custom interesting for our time is the way it was conducted. Basically, they met to share the life, the good that flourished through the work of the brothers and the Grace of God, to discern through the emerging social problems the priorities for action and to synthesise some teachings that would help to start again with renewed impetus towards the new challenges that lay ahead. So much so that this constituted an occasion for Francis to assign new ‘obediences’, to give ad hoc assignments in response to shared needs and the signs of the times.
It was decided, therefore, to live an event whose recipients would be young people between the ages of 18 and 33, believers and non-believers, from all over Europe, to whom we would propose moments of listening, dialogue, sharing of experiences with a sapiential slant, contact with the beauty of art, and evening fraternity moments, taking advantage of some of the places in Assisi that are typical of the life of St Francis.
Aware of the contemporary power of St. Francis, a visionary who shapes reality, the objective is to offer young people an experience through which they can draw from the life and message of the Abbess, through a ‘capitulatory’ dynamic, inspirations and sapiential content to face their daily lives and the most pressing current problems in a more human and qualified way.
