The Franciscan Institute Medal: 1991

The Franciscan Institute Medal 1991 FRAN A4 !Up. I ANTMON Engelbert (Antonius) FRANq 3 t ?5"»COTWl ANTMlW. Lothar(Karl)Hardick THE FRANCISCAN INSTITUTE MEDAL was established in 1987 to honor scholars who have made outstanding contributions toFranciscanStudies in the areas oftheology, spirituality , philosophy and history. =3$ y J CITATION Tonight The Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University recognizes the outstanding contributions to Franciscan scholarship of two great German Friars Minor: Fr. Engelbert (Antonius) Grau of the Province of Bavaria and Fr. Lothar (Karl) Hardick of the Province of Saxony. We honor two lifetimes of scientific historical research in the service of the Kingdom of God, the Church, and specifically, the communities in the Church dedicated to the Franciscan vision. The scholarship of these men has not been sterile but has been directed with fraternal love towards the revitalization of Franciscanism throughout the world. From a circle of German Franciscan friars in the 1950s began to appear a series of volumes containing studies and translations of the Franciscan sources, "Franziskanische Quellenschriften," the forerunner of Franciscan anthologies in many languages. As these fonts for the life of St. Francis and the early Franciscan movement appeared, a new appreciation and enthusiasm for the Franciscan charism circuited the world. German scholarship was the seed that produced a new era of Franciscan studies. It was this same German Franciscan scholarhip which laid the solid foundation for the Franciscan renewal which followed the Second Vatican Council. Among the outstanding friars of this movement, many of whom we can honor only in the communion of saints, are Father Engelbert Grau and Father Lothar Hardick. Francis and Clare were the principal pillars of the literary work of both men. Already before the War, Fr. Engelbert had published in 1939, a joint translation with the late Fr. Luchesius Spätling of Thomas of Celano's trilogy on St. Francis. In 1951 appeared the first volume of the "Quellenschriften," the Writings of St. Francis of Assisi, edited by the late Fr. Kajetan Esser and Fr. Lothar Hardick. In 1952 came Fr. Engelbert's Life and Writings of FRANCISCAN INSTITUTE MEDAL151 Sf. Clare of Assisi, a work translated into English in the Philippines in 1983. The section of this work on the spirituality of St. Clare was the work of Fr. Lothar. In 1955 Grau published his new edition of Celano in the "QueUenschriften." In that same year outside this series of sources, appeared the Werkbuch zur Regel des Heiligen Franziskus, studies on the Franciscan Rule, the work of many German Franciscans including Fr. Engelbert and Fr. Lothar, who edited the volume. When Fr. Ignatius Brady's English translation of this work was published as The Marrow of the Gospel in 1958, American Franciscans suddenly discovered that a new age of Franciscan life had dawned. Meanwhile the translations continued. In 1957 came Hardick's translation of the chronicles of Jordan of Giano and Thomas of Eccleston. In 1966 Englebert Grau's translation of the Sacrum commercium under the title The Bond of St. Francis with the Lady Poverty gave the world a new appreciation of this long-neglected work in the spiritual rationale of the Franciscan movement. In 1973 Grau and the late Fr. Sophronius Ciasen pubUshed their study and translation of the Legend of the Three Companions. Finally in 1980, Hardick and Grau published a new German translation of the Writings of St. Francis, based on the recently-published edition of their countryman, Fr. Cajetan Esser. Americans may know Fr. Engelbert best through a joint work with Esser, a synthesis of Franciscan spirituality, first published in 1958 as Antwort der Liebe: Der Weg des franziskanischen Menschen zu Gott, translated into English in 1963 by Ignatius Brady as Love's Reply. And perhaps Lothar Hardick is best known today in America for the Admonitions of St. Francis of Assisi, published in Germany in 1981 and in English translation in America in 1984. These are but some of the highlights of the approximately 150 books and articles of Franciscan history and spirituality which have come and continue to come for the pen of Fr. Engelbert Grau and Fr. Lothar Hardick. This lifetime of scholarly collaboration has moved the Franciscan Instiute to...