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- ry of the birth of St Francis of Assisi in 1981-82. Beginning with the conciliar renewal, the aim is to shed light on the development of a new historiographi- cal reconstruction on the figure of Francis starting from a reawakening of the sources and to show, on the one hand, the recovery of the historical dimension by the Franciscan Orders, and on the other, the emergence of an instrumen- talisation in politics and society that moves along completely different tracks from the historiographical acquisitions. Finally, the ecclesial and pastoral re- launch of the figure of the Saint by the Pontificate of John Paul ii is analysed, highlighting harmony and divergence with the positions of the Italian Church and the secular world. In this way, the aim is to make a contribution to the field of studies on the history of memory and to investigate the mechanisms of self-representation of a society at a specific historical moment.