Tra Italia repubblicana e società globale. Visioni politiche ed ecclesiologiche del Santo di Assisi (1981-1982)

The purpose of the essay is to examine the celebrations of the 8th centena-\r\nry of the birth of St Francis of Assisi in 1981-82. Beginning with the conciliar\r\nrenewal, the aim is to shed light on the development of a new historiographi-\r\ncal reconstruction on the figure of Francis starting from a reawakening of the\r\nsources and to show, on the one hand, the recovery of the historical dimension\r\nby the Franciscan Orders, and on the other, the emergence of an instrumen-\r\ntalisation in politics and society that moves along completely different tracks\r\nfrom the historiographical acquisitions. Finally, the ecclesial and pastoral re-\r\nlaunch of the figure of the Saint by the Pontificate of John Paul ii is analysed,\r\nhighlighting harmony and divergence with the positions of the Italian Church\r\nand the secular world. In this way, the aim is to make a contribution to the\r\nfield of studies on the history of memory and to investigate the mechanisms of\r\nself-representation of a society at a specific historical moment.