Film ‘The Sultan and the Saint’
Franciscan Brother Matthew Beckmann will introduce the film and respond to questions.
Early on in the year we focused on Welcome and Hospitality as Christian Practices, and in another session reflected on Reconciliation and Forgiveness. In this session we invite you to join us for a film that tells one of the great lost stories from history. Set during the terrible time of the Crusades, it speaks with urgency to our present. Two men of faith, one an itinerant Christian Preacher and the other the Sultan of Egypt meet and engage in inter-faith dialogue in the middle of the Third Crusade. St. Francis sought peace, not by means of political negotiations or a legal treaty or by compromising his faith in exchange for coexistence with Islam, but by converting the enemies of the faith to Christianity. He didn’t achieve his goal of converting the Sultan but the impact of this encounter had a profound effect for good on both men.