Introducing Francesco Sacchini’s Exhortation and Advice to Jesuit Educators: An Interview with the Editors
Monday, August 16, 2021
Cristiano Casalini, Ph.D., and Claude Pavur, S.J., have been collaborating to expand Anglophone access to sources in the rich tradition of Jesuit educational thinking. Their most recent publication Exhortation and Advice for the Teachers of Young Students in Jesuit Schools is their latest contribution. It is a bilingual edition with notes and a full introduction. By reviving original sources with unique commentaries, the editors have continued their mission of making these resources available and applicable to educators in Jesuit institutions today.
Francesco Sacchini (1570–1625) was an Italian Jesuit, a much-respected rhetorician, biographer, and an official historian of the Society of Jesus. He left behind two priceless essays known as the Protepticon (“exhortation”) and the Paraenesis (“advice”). Throughout Sacchini’s life, the art of instructing, forming, and educating youth remained high among his concerns. At his death, he left these manuscripts with the hope of providing educators of the young with consolation, spirit, and important advice based upon his own teaching experience.
In order to promote this new publication, the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies (IAJS) conducted an interview with the editors so they could share their insights into the message and significance of these essays.
Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies: Could you start off by sharing with us how you came about this project of documenting the wisdom of Jesuit education?
Cristiano Casalini: What Claude and I wanted to do with this project was to show how much, how deep, and how extensive the thinking around education conducted by the Jesuits has been throughout the centuries. In the history of Jesuit education, we have important milestones like the Ratio studiorum, and the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP). Our overall project was to cover these moments and this entire period, but of course we had to break it down. The first section was 1540–1616, which was reflected in our first book [Jesuit Pedagogy, 1540–1616: A Reader]. The next period, 1616–1703, was really the golden age of Jesuit education. We found that there were so many unexplored sources within this period that one volume couldn’t be enough, so we had to split the project into three volumes. One will be the Jesuit reader number two [Jesuit Pedagogy, 1616–1703: A Reader], and it will collect the documents and mostly unpublished primary sources in the same style as the first. The other sources are covered in Jouvancy’s The Way to Learn and The Way to Teach, and this book, Sacchini’s Exhortation and Advice.
Claude Pavur, S.J.: Yes, the larger project was to gather the pedagogical writings of the early centuries of the Society. We already did a whole volume on the 16th–century, and we wanted to do the 17th–century. These works are the fruit of a lifetime of thinking about and experiencing Jesuit education, but they are also something elaborated in the context of a deep Jesuit spirituality.
IAJS: Who was Francesco Sacchini, S.J.? What was his importance in Jesuit education?
Casalini: We might think that the Jesuits who wrote about education, pedagogy, or the practice of teaching in the Jesuit schools were also the most experienced teachers. Sacchini demonstrates that this is not always true because he only had some experience as a teacher. Certainly the art of instructing, forming and educating youth was one of his most important concerns throughout his life even though he spent not much time as a teacher himself.
Pavur: Sacchini served for many years as an official historian of the Society. As a historian, he had to spend most of his time in his room going through documents. Yet, his love was for the formation of the Society and the cultivation of spirituality in the younger men. His heart was in teaching, even while he was confined to a somewhat bureaucratic office as an historian for the Society.
IAJS: What does this book tell us about the Jesuit mission of education?
Casalini: Sacchini is addressing the young Jesuits who have joined the order with this idea of becoming missionaries, only to discover their lives are deeply rooted in teaching. He is reminding them that teaching is not only an important mission of the society, but also for yourself, and the youth in formation.
Pavur: It’s exhortation and advice. “Exhortation” is the larger, first essay. The “exhortation” is really designed to give young teachers a sense of the importance, value, and the high calling of the teaching profession. He’s trying to show them that teaching is a cultivation of charity and humility. These are the two greatest virtues, according to Ignatius. Sacchini addresses the effort required in teaching, but says we should not fear the difficulty, for it is worth the great delights that come as a reward. His second little essay is on “advice.” There he gives profound advice about what is practical in running a classroom. Interestingly, part of what is practical is how you think of your job! You’re not going to go into the job with the right attitude if you think it’s just something to get through. He says instead, you must think of what the meaning and value is. Another part of his advice is to cultivate that sense of the depth of the teaching profession. He has a very profound sense of the social impact of his teaching. Meanwhile, he's pulling all kinds of references from all kinds of authorities. This is another great attraction of Sacchini’s work. He’s got a very vivid imagination. It's a work that is not at all written in a theoretical plane, it is written with real concreteness.
IAJS: How would you say that this book helps us to better understand the Society of Jesus, or Ignatian spirituality?
Casalini: I think that if you combine this book, the intended public, the way this book is structured, the content that it conveys, and a profile of the author, you have really one prism through which the entire history of the Society of Jesus is summarized. The style that Sacchini uses to write this book is so culturally high while at the same time it is so eloquent and so simple, so knowledgeable, that in fact it’s really, again, a prism of Jesuit culture.
Pavur: Sacchini gives something that is very hard to find if you just look at the Ratio studiorum for the studies of the Society. These studies are extremely important. They're written about in the Jesuit Constitutions authored by Ignatius. The Ratio is a development right out of that document, and it provides a structure, a kind of skeleton and brain, the overall plan of what one must do. It’s the rationale. On the other hand, Sacchini gives us the heart and the muscle. He gives us the motivation, the love that should be present in this work, and a sense of its large scale meaning and importance. Sacchini provides the fullest vision of Jesuit education. In fact, Sacchini presents a spirituality of the classroom. Frequently people have separated spirituality and study. With Sacchini, you find the two of them together. In the very academic practice there is a promotion of spiritual life. Learning is connected to fullness of life, and with fullness of life, one's spirituality is affected. I don’t think you can have a full image of Jesuit spirituality unless you have both Sacchini and Ratio studiorum elements together.
IAJS: Who do you think this book would be useful for today, and how might readers benefit from reading this book?
Pavur: I think every teacher can profit from this book, even if you’re not a believer. It sets such a high standard for one’s concern for the development of students. I would certainly say that every person teaching or administrating in a Jesuit school should read this book more than once because here you get the pure flavor of Jesuit education. I also would say all religious in education or formation, and anyone planning to teach in a Catholic school.
Casalini: If I were a teacher in the Jesuit school today, I would want to learn about the culture and identity of the place I’m working. In order to do so I would really need to look into books like this to get a deeper understanding of what’s going on. There are many practices throughout books like Sacchini’s that today’s teachers will recognize or be inspired by.
IAJS: Were there any key takeaways that really spoke out to you as you were reading and translating the document?
Pavur: One thing I would like to stress is that this is a book of wisdom. There is wisdom that goes beyond the classroom, there’s wisdom about life. This book raises your soul, and makes you grateful. I’d also say his personality―he’s just such a real and living personality. I think we can elevate ourselves by simply being in contact with a man who was revered. He was not flashy, but one of the humblest of people. He had a holiness about him, a dedication, one that was very rare. He was a truly authentic educator and I think a saintly person.
Casalini: First, the eloquence and rhetorical imagery of Sacchini are spot on, and certainly they stand out. The second thing I would like to point out is how Sacchini addresses the practice of education. Books like Sacchini’s provide us with the flesh to the body of Jesuit education, it provides us the whys, the hows, and the goals. It shares the idea that the Jesuits hold to the child or the pupil the utmost reverence, which is a philosophy deeply rooted into this book. So, if someone, a teacher today, doesn’t think of herself or himself as just a professional or a practitioner doing a job but thinks that she or he is really into a mission, this book is for her or for him.
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Exhortation and Advice for the Teachers of Young Students in Jesuit Schools is now available from Jesuit Sources. Watch a short preview of the interview here.