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The Fondazione Oltre project brought him into classrooms across Italy as a restless young man full of doubts, stripping away the plaster and the pedestal. And with him, the desire to change the world.
Before becoming a saint, Francis was a young man like any other. He argued with his father, refused the path laid out for him, questioned who he really was. He made mistakes, suffered, loved. And then, without realising it, he changed the world.
The project travelled to Palermo, Milan and Assisi. Each city brought its own school culture, its own way of living adolescence. Yet in every theatre, something unexpected happened: the students recognised him. As someone who had been through something similar to what they were going through.
That recognition showed up in how they responded. Some wrote poems. Students from one art school sketched costume designs. Others produced group reflections that sharpened, over time, into small manifestos: commitments made in public, concrete steps toward change. These were authentic moments in which students chose their own language, far from any assignment or grade.
Young people have an enormous thirst for authenticity. They want real stories where they can find a little courage, and Francis turned out to be exactly that kind of story. His spirited rebelliousness, his search for meaning, his refusal to accept a life that felt wrong: all of this spoke directly to them. A mirror, rather than an icon.
