(Vatican Media).- Young stoneworkers and marble workers, plasterers and decorators, and carpenters return to training in the workshops of the San Pedro Factory. In fact, on the afternoon of Monday, January 16, The Factory School of Arts and Crafts will be inaugurated, promoted in collaboration with the Fratelli tutti Foundation. The twenty young students, selected in recent months for each of the three courses planned for the first year, will be the true protagonists of the act, starting at 5:00 p.m. in the Chapter House of the Vatican Basilica.
ANDstudents from Italy, Peru, Germany and Belarus
They are twelve boys and eight girls, from Italy, Peru, Germany and Belarus, all of them with high school and technical/artistic training, as stipulated in the call. The youngest have just finished high school and have chosen the School of Arts and Crafts at the San Pedro Factory before entering the world of work or university studies. Others are university students who, also on the advice of their professors, have applied to attend the School. Others have already started one of the professions covered by the courses, others are unemployed or employed in precarious jobs. They will be the heirs of the young aspirants to “masons, carpenters, stoneworkers and all the artisans of the mechanical arts” that the Factory began to form 250 years ago.establishing the Pontifical Studio for the Arts, a true training center of excellence.
It was the old Pontifical Study ofand the arts
As documented by archival sources, Since the end of the 18th century, attendance at the Factory School was free, intended for the training of young artisans from all over Rome, open in the afternoons and on public holidays to allow students to work in the morning. Already then, the Factory chose to transmit to the new generations of artisans the technical knowledge of the ancients and the skills necessary to serve in the Vatican Basilica, as an act of love and responsibility. Even today, as Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, president of the San Pietro Factory and of the Fratelli Tutti Foundation, who will present the inaugural meeting today, points out, the Factory chooses to once again promote the transmission of this “practical knowledge”, linked to know-howe, with a didactic proposal and similar objectives.
The knowledge will be transmitted by the best artisans of the Vatican Basilica, in charge of the maintenance and restoration of a true treasure of faith, art and architecture.
free school
For this reason, the School is free and the knowledge will be transmitted by the best artisans of the Vatican Basilica, in charge of the maintenance and restoration of a true treasure of faith, art and architecture. Theoretical classes will be given in specially equipped classrooms in the premises of the Palazzo della Canonica, while workshop activities will take place in the workshops of the San Pedro Factory, where aspiring artisans will have the opportunity to practice and work closely with the master craftsmen of San Pedro.
For more than five centuries, the St. Peter’s Factory has been a center of excellence in knowledge, capable of stimulating the creativity and skill of artists and craftsmen constantly committed to meeting the specific needs of a unique building such as the Vatican Basilica. Students will learn traditional trades, adapted to new technologies. Participation in the School will provide the opportunity to build an educational community, formed in a spirit of brotherhood and with a view to integral human growth, as an alternative to the loneliness of knowledge and growing professional individualism.
Gambetti: a seed in human promotion
“The School -continues to explain Cardinal Gambetti- It will help us plant a seed in the field of human promotion, of formation at the service of culture, of the women and men of our time and of the Church.. Thanks to the secular tradition guarded by the San Pedro Factory, to the professionalism of the San Pietrinos and to the scientific contribution of the international academic scene, we will try to bear fruit in a truly comprehensive education, capable of involving, with the teaching of arts and crafts, the spiritual dimension, the cultural and anthropological dimension, ethics and the care of community life”.
Director, French Jesuitwith Occhetta
All the teaching staff will also be present at the inauguration, made up of the staff of the Technical Office of the San Pedro Factory, professors from Italian and foreign universities and highly experienced craftsmen. The proposed courses will be illustrated by Father Francesco Occhetta, General Secretary of the Fratelli tutti Foundation and director of the School, and by the scientific director Assunta Di Sante. Next, there will be a guided tour of the Vatican Basilica.
Training for professional growthsional and human
The training courses will have as objectives the professional and human growth of young artisans and the development of manual skills, with historical-artistic learning, knowledge of the materials used and the acquisition of technical and technological skills. LEducational activities include lecture series, seminars, guided tours and study visits to various locations in Italy. Through this form of active learning and generational transmission of knowledge, students will be able to immerse themselves in the life of the Vatican Basilica, learn about its spirituality, places, people and organization.
6 month courses
The courses will last 6 months with compulsory attendance. Throughout the duration of the School, students will stay in the “Villa Aurelia” residence of the Dehonian Fathers, located near the Basilica, where they will arrive on January 16 in the morning. They will be accompanied in the group dynamics by the tutor Gloria Amaduzzi, who will promote personal development through reflection, listening and exchange, so that the experience allows them to establish authentic and fraternal relationships, in an environment in which everyone can feel welcomed
Half of the applications submitted by girls
It is interesting to note that half of the applications were submitted by girls. Since the 16th century, in the work of San Pedro, the presence of workers employed in this type of work was certainly not episodic. Among the “sanpietrine” of the past, exemplary for their tenacity, entrepreneurial spirit and bravery, we find master masons, road builders, blacksmiths, wood and stone carvers, who enjoyed substantial economic parity and consideration compared to their male colleagues.
infoormation for the next selection
The selection of the candidates, which was carried out through a test and an individual interview with the support of the School’s organizational secretariat, coordinated by Paola D’Onofrio, took personal motivations into account. All expressed their desire to train in old trades, which today seem unattractive to many of their peers. Information for the submission of applications for the next selection of the School of Arts and Crafts of the Fabbrica di San Pietro can be obtained by writing to the School’s secretariat (scuola.artiemestieri@fsp.va).
We give you ‘Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI. Fifteen glances’
The new School of Arts and Crafts of the San Pedro Factory begins