September 30, 2009

Briar Cliff University Honors Francis of Assisi
Feast of Saint Francis features prayer service, campus liturgy

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Briar Cliff University will honor Saint Francis of Assisi at 9 p.m.,  Sunday, Oct. 4 with Transitus, a prayer-vigil commemorating the final moments of his life and his passing in 1226. Transitus is a Latin term for the remembrance and celebration of passage from life to death.  

On Monday, Oct. 5, at 11:30 a.m., Briar Cliff students and employees will gather in the Chapel of Our Lady of Grace on campus for a liturgy celebrating the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. An ice cream social also will be held in the Saint Francis and Saint Anthony Courtyard on campus Monday afternoon.

In keeping with tradition, Briar Cliff students will decorate campus sidewalks with chalk illustrations of the life of Saint Francis and depictions from the poem “Canticle of the Sun” by Saint Francis.

Saint Francis of Assisi was a Roman Catholic friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans. He also is the patron of the Sisters of Saint Francis, the founding religious order of Briar Cliff University. Saint Francis is known as a peacemaker and is the patron saint of ecology because he saw all of creation as sacred. He believed people need to live in right relationships with all of creation.

Briar Cliff University is a Catholic institution with an enrollment of more than 1,100 students from 28 states. Students are educated in the Franciscan tradition of excellence in the liberal arts and career preparation in an environment of care and compassion. For more information, please visit briarcliff.edu.

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