Come to Sarum College for a week of deep exploration of a specific text as it relates to the Christian Tradition.

This is an opportunity to have a week study break in the beautiful Salisbury Cathedral Close, where residential participants enjoy full board, access to the library and to the pattern of liturgy at Salisbury Cathedral. During the week, you will engage critically with the text using particular lenses to enable deeper consideration of its meaning, significance, impact and longevity for the Christian spiritual tradition, its adherents, and/or the wider cultural context.

In 2023, the module will focus on ‘The Life of St Francis’ by Bonaventure (also known as the ‘Major Legend’) composed in the first years of the 1260s.

This course will examine this specific text, the lives of Francis and Bonaventure, and their impact in the following eight centuries.

This course will focus in-depth on events and theologies present in ‘The Life’ and examine how such themes can inform theological conversations today.

Our lecturing team, and the topics covered, includes:

Dr Michael Hahn on the lives of Francis of Assisi and Bonaventure, the construction of the ‘Lives’ or ‘Legends’ about Francis, and methodologies of how to work with medieval hagiographies (or ‘Legends’) as theological sources.

Dr Hahn on key themes in ‘The Life’ such as conversion, visual re-creation of Christ’s life such as the creche at Greccio, and Francis’s reception of the stigmata

Br Samuel Double, co-author of Seeing Differently and frequent lecturer on Franciscan spirituality, teaching on themes of nature in ‘The Life’ and other early Franciscan texts, and how this relates to Franciscan approaches to ecology today

Professor Donna Trembinski of St. Francis Xavier University, author of the award-winning Illness and Authority, will be teaching on the themes of disability and trauma in Francis of Assisi’s life and in a range of the early legends about him

Dr Eleanor McLaughlin will be leading sessions on academic skills and on writing essays for this module

Dr Joost Joustra, the Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Research Curator at the National Gallery and Visiting Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College London is the curator of many exhibitions, including the 2020 exhibition Sin – which led to his book Sin: The Art of Transgression, and the 2023 (May-July) exhibition St Francis of Assisi. Dr Joustra will be leading sessions on Francis and art, the role of ‘The Life’ in Giotto’s famous frescoes, and the creation of the 2023 National Gallery exhibition.

Sarum Summer School auditors are participants who learn alongside postgraduate students but are not required to complete an essay or earn academic credit.

What does it mean to audit a course? 

Joining this course is an opportunity to have a study break in the beautiful Salisbury Cathedral Close, where residential participants enjoy full board, access to the library and to the pattern of liturgy at Salisbury Cathedral.

Whether it’s cultural events, sightseeing (Stonehenge is nearby for example) or shopping — there’s plenty to do if you’d like to extend your stay the weekend before and after the course. For ideas, visit Salisbury Cathedral Close attraction websites to see what’s on Sarum’s doorstep. Visit the Wiltshire Creative website to view events at nearby Salisbury Playhouse and the Salisbury Arts Centre. The Experience Salisbury website has an excellent city-wide listing of forthcoming events around the city.

Need financial assistance? View our list of grantmaking trusts

Enrolled students also may attend teaching weeks for modules in addition to the modules which they are studying for credit, by permission of the Programme Leader. Student rates for hospitality costs during a teaching week in 2022 were: £250 (en-suite), £200 (standard) and £60 (non-residential), along with an educational fee of £125 per booking. The audit fee and hospitality prices are reviewed annually with any changes effective from 1 July.