VATICAN CITY, 30 OCTOBER - This afternoon the courses 2023/2024 of the School of Arts and Crafts of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, which returned last January, after 250 years, to transmit the practical knowledge of the master craftsmen of St. Peter's to the new generations, were inaugurated.
The calendar of lessons for the new class of 20 pupils, 12 girls and 8 boys from Italy, Spain and Latin America, will start tomorrow, Tuesday 31 October 2023.
This year, two new courses will be added to the educational offer: the courses for blacksmiths and mosaicists will be added to the courses for stonemasons, bricklayers, decorators, plasterers and carpenters, which were already activated in the last edition that ended in June 2023. Like last year, the lessons will take place within the Vatican walls, between classroom meetings and workshop activities.
The young people selected for the second edition, all between the ages of 18 and 25, were welcomed this morning to the lodgings arranged for them by the Fabbrica di San Pietro and in which the students will live for the duration of their training experience at the School.
In fact, the School of Arts and Crafts proposes an integral educational approach, which aims at the full development of the person in his or her individual and community dimension and, thanks to the constant accompaniment of a community animator, encourages a growth that is spiritual, human and professional at the same time.
Welcoming the students on their arrival was Fr Francesco Occhetta, Director of the School and Secretary General of the Fratelli tutti Foundation.
In the afternoon, the class reached St. Peter's Basilica for the opening ceremony in the Chapter House, where students and teachers met Card. Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of the Basilica and President of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, and Dr. Assunta di Sante, scientific director of the training project. At the end of the ceremony, Prof. Pietro Zander led the students on the first visit of the course to the Vatican Basilica.
