The Rose Ensemble, an American early music ensemble with an international reputation, will perform “Il Poverello: Medieval and Renaissance Music for St. Francis of Assisi” and “Let Us Sing as We Go” at the opening of a three-day conference on the environment at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity.
The program will be held Wednesday, June 29, from 7:30-9 p.m. in St. Mary’s Chapel. The chapel is located on the seminary campus on the far western end of Summit Avenue. The performance is free but tickets must be reserved by June 27. For more information, visit the seminary's website here.
The performance will explore themes of “integral ecology” through a motet of layered texts that weave the message of St. Francis of Assisi's communion with nature and Pope Francis' recent encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si'.
The Rose Ensemble’s program is a collaboration with the seminary’s Center for Theological Formation, which coordinates the various institutes and centers that support theological formation through funded research opportunities, conferences and activities in support of the mission of the school.
The performance opens the three-day workshop that is hosted by the Center for Theological Formation. Invited participants include 18 international experts seeking to share best practices in promoting the care of creation and the common good. They will explore ideas and initiatives that seek to promote integral ecology, a central theme of Laudato Si’.
The seminary has been preparing men for the priesthood since 1894, when railroad magnate James J. Hill and his Catholic wife Mary T. Hill donated money to build a seminary on Summit. It became the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity through a 1987 affiliation with the University of St. Thomas.
Today, more than 80 men are studying for the priesthood and another 74 lay people and members of religious communities are studying for their master’s degrees in theology.
