Saturday, March 14th Live on Zoom 10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence Pope Leo XIV proclaimed 2026 a “Special Year of Saint Francis,” and to reflect on this honor, we have the pleasure to hear from Professor Bill Cook, the ultimate expert on the life of this beloved saint.  He said, “If history is to be useful and not just entertaining for our time, we must first get the facts and contexts right for the subject, and then we need to think creatively about how to apply...

Saturday, March 7th Live on Zoom 10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence During the Renaissance, a Florentine orphanage opened and began admitting children in 1445, ultimately rescuing thousands of children and revolutionizing childhood foster care and education amid the splendor of exceptional Renaissance art and architecture.  Florence’s Ospedale degli Innocenti/Hospital of the Innocents  was Europe’s first orphanage for abandoned children.  In an era when children were...

Saturday, February 21st Live on Zoom 10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence One might have trouble imagining a connection between the works of the master French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) and the art of ancient Egypt.  However, Rodin was a great admirer of the art of antiquity and over the course of his life, he amassed a sizable collection of artifacts from Greece, Rome, and Egypt.  In his final years, Egypt became a particular source of fascination for Rodin and...