Miltos Manetas Lives in Poverty as a Franciscan Monk for Francesco_2026 Project

Greek artist Miltos Manetas (born 1964, Athens) has adopted a life of Franciscan poverty as part of his long-term project Francesco_2026, which reimagines Saint Francis as a contemporary artist. The project includes the 10th Internet Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where Saint Francis is invited as the artist. Manetas uses AI to converse with the saint, and has created a community of 'Brothers and Sisters' with their own rule. The project began on December 17, 2025, with paintings using pigment on liquid soap that mix Giotto fragments with Alamy stock images. A pilgrimage from Rome through Lazio, Campania, Spoleto, and Todi culminated at the Isola di San Francesco del Deserto in Venice, where Manetas spent Holy Week. There, Saint Francis, through Manetas, created the 'Cantico delle Creature', BlackBerry paintings, and played piano. Manetas also participated in the Ru-mòre festival in Rome in mid-April, transforming artist Alessandro Calizza's studio into a site-specific work called CIIM / Chiesa Immagine in Movimento. The project is also featured in the exhibition 'Vita minore. San Francesco e la santità dell’arte contemporanea' at Palazzo Collicola in Spoleto, curated by Gianni and Giuseppe Garrera. Manetas has collaborated with artists Joseph Kosuth and Massimo Bartolini, and references philosopher Antonio Negri and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.