The exhibition is sponsored by the General Ministers of the First Order: Friars Minor, Friars Conventual and Friars Minor Capuchin
Promoted by the Custody of the Holy Land, Foundation Meeting for Friendship among Peoples, ATS Pro Terra Sancta
Itinerary by: Maria Pia Alberzoni, Caterina Cappuccio, Simone Lombardo
Essays from the course created by: Father Francesco Patton, Fra Michael Anthony Perry, John Tolan, Bartolomeo Pirone, Fra Narcyz Klimas, Jacques Gaffiot, Carla Benelli and Osama Hamdam, Andrea Avveduto
General coordination of: Andrea Avveduto, Sara Cibin, Giacomo Gentile, Tommaso Saltini

A powerful and unexpected meeting.
In 1219 Francis went to Damietta, in Egypt, in the midst of the fifth crusade, driven by the desire to meet Sultan Malek el-Kamel and be able to speak to him.

From there he will be returning to Italy unharmed, distorting the expectations of many and perhaps even his own.
What are the fundamental and extraordinary aspects of the encounter between Francis and the Sultan?
What other examples of communication between Christians and Muslims can be traced today?
And what aspects of this 800 years old meeting challenges us? Or teaches us?
The exhibition tells us about the meeting between Francis and Sultan. Its context in which it happened and from the historical sources it possesses. The purpose is to study the reason why Francis undertook this journey , his itinerary and finally his destination and meeting the Sultan in Damietta. All of this is directly linked to the aftermath of this meeting both immediately like the earlier rule written in 1221, and subsequently, as for example, the establishment of the Franciscan friars in the Holy Places (Custody of the Holy Land) and in other lands of the Middle East, up to Morocco and Egypt.