Reverend Timothy Verdon -Special Educational Lectures Florence Italy

Reverend Timothy Verdon received his PhD from Yale University in 1975. He is a former Fulbright Fellow and a current fellow of the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence (Villa I Tatti) and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Verdon’s wide academic background includes published books and articles on Renaissance artists including Massaccio, Donatello, Michelozzo, Piero della Francesca, Ghirlandaio, Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci, Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Pontormo, and Frá Bartolomeo. He currently teaches at Stanford Centre in Florence and has also conducted courses at Yale, Syracuse University, Florida State University and Georgetown.

Monsignor Verdon is also a Roman Catholic priest and serves as the canon of the Florence Cathedral and chamberlain of the Cathedral Chapter. He is president of Ars et fides, an international consortium of associations that foster links between art and religious faith. Monsignor Verdon is also the Director of the Office for Catechesis through Art of the Florence Archdiocese and a member of the Administrative Council of the Cathedral Foundation.

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Art and Prayer Retreat with Monsignor Timothy Verdon

Art and Prayer Retreat in Florence

In the IV century, Saint Augustine called God “Beauty ever ancient, ever new”, acknowledging His transforming touch in all that attracts the eye and heart.  Today, at the beginning of the XXI century, many still seek and find God in the experience of beauty. If you are interested in exploring this dimension,  please join us for a week of spiritual exercises in Florence, Italy. Our small group (no more than 20 persons) will have opportunities to visit churches and monasteries, but our retreat is not a guided tour.  Conducted in the library, chapel and gardens of a historic villa where you will also lodge, this week-long spiritual journey situates direct experience of the monuments within a framework of shared and private prayer, meditations through art and group exchange.

                The week of exercises from the evening of Sunday, to Saturday morning, develops interrelated aspects of Christian life in a way meant to assist participants’ inner growth. Daily mediation themes and schedule (subject to change should specific monuments become inaccessible) are as follows:

Sunday- City of God, City of Man.

Monday- Christ, Art and the Church.

Tuesday- The Christian Journey.

Wednesday- Signs of Salvation.,.

Thursday- Nature, Silence and Contemplative Peace.

Friday- Sharing the Life of God. 

Saturday- Descent from the Mountain. 

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