‘The Sultan and the Saint’ revives 800-year-old interfaith exchange
A new film recounts the unlikely friendship between St. Francis of Assisi and the nephew of the great Muslim leader Saladin.
On Tuesday (Dec. 26), PBS (http://www.pbs.org/show/sultan-and-saint/) will air the result of Alex Kronemer’s fascination with the story in “The Sultan and the Saint,” a one-hour documentary he wrote and directed.
Forty years ago, Alex Kronemer was a bored college student on a semester-abroad tour of Italy when he entered what felt like his millionth Catholic church.
Thinking to sneak away, he headed for the exit. There, by the main door, was an exquisite Giotto fresco depicting St. Francis of Assisi undergoing trial by fire before the sultan of Egypt.
Kronemer stopped in his tracks.
“It immediately captured my imagination,” he said of the fresco, which shows Francis defiant before a chest-high pillar of flame that arises at the command of the enthroned sultan.
“It stayed with me,” Kronemer added, because he always felt that there was more to this particular saint than “just the guy who loved animals.”
More at the source: Religion News
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Ismailimail 