Presentation of the Franciscan Institute Medal to Brother William Short, OFM Feast of St. Bonaventure, 2014

It is my privilege this evening to present the Franciscan Institute Medal to our brother and colleague, William Short, OFM. As you know this medal honors the highest levels of contribution to the Franciscan intellectual tradition in the form of scholarly study of primary sources, publications of outstanding merit, and teaching that not only imparts this scholarship but engenders new generations of aspiring scholars.

This award has already been given to two colleagues who share with William Short the distinction of creating the Francis of Assisi: Early Documents series, Regis Armstrong. OFM Cap. and J. Wayne Hellmann, OFM Conv. This is the day that our solemn obligation of thanks to these scholar companions, our modern company of “The Three Companions,” is completed.

William Short completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of San Francisco in 1972 and his Master’s at the Franciscan School of Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California in 1976. Three years later, in 1979 the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome awarded his Licentiate in Sacred Theology and four years later he completed his doctorate at the Gregorianum. His thesis was entitled: Saints in the World of Nature: the Animal Story as Spiritual Parable in Medieval Latin Hagiography. It is important to note that while studying at the eminent Jesuit college of Rome, he lived at the Antonianum. (Witnesses assert that there his commitment to Franciscan Minorite life was reinforced in ways that will be reserved for narration by his own hagiographers.) However, in a serious vein, he came to know the many provinces of the Order through their students living in Rome and sharing the task of bridging a medieval legacy with a global fraternity seeking its place in a post-councilliar world.

Dr. Short returned to the United States and immediately took up duties as a member of the core doctoral faculty of the Graduate Theological Union in 1984 and that summer he joined the summer faculty here at the Franciscan Institute. This early teaching work here was the first of many projects and collaborations that have made him part of our work even though that was often managed in “long distance” fashion. The following year he became the academic dean of the Franciscan School of Theology and three years later was appointed to the position of president –a position he held until 1992.

In 1995 he reassumed the office of dean for a three year period and he is, again, filling that position as FST takes its courageous path to become a constituent program of the University of San Diego. This very brief chronicle of positions held reveals both a rapid rise to positions of critical importance for the Franciscan School. This swift ascension testifies to his extraordinary capacity and the determination of the friars of Santa Barbara Province to preserve and extend their own commitment to scholarship as evidenced in their litany of “all stars” of the modern era: Jeffrey Bridges, David Temple, Kenan Osborne—to cite a tiny sample of the men on whose shoulders Bill and his colleagues at FST were –and are--standing.

These administrative duties were accompanied by a constant stream of published works that includes book reviews and works for general audiences as well as erudite articles in numerous journals. I offer a sampling here: The review of Roberta McKelvie‘s, Retrieving a Living Tradition in the Catholic Historical Review (1999); The chapter in Timothy Johnson’s Franciscan Prayer entitled: From Contemplation to Inquisition: The Franciscan Practice of Recogimiento in 16^th Century Spain.” (2006); Eden Restored: A Medieval Vision of Saints and Nature in the 1992 spring edition of Continuum.

His translations include: Maria Pia Alberzoni‘s: Clare of Assisi and the Poor Sisters in the Thirteenth Century published by the Franciscan Institute in 2004; Paolo Sac chi’s Jewish Apocalyptic: A History for Sheffield Academic Press (1997).

Two works that deserve special mention for their accessibility for audiences beyond the academy are The Franciscans, The Liturgical Press (1989), and Poverty and Joy: the Franciscan Tradition (Maryknoll...