Statement of Faith

Faith Statement

GEA University of San Marco is a Christ-centered academic community rooted in the apostolic faith, drawing from the deep wells of Christian tradition to serve the Church and the world today. 

Our Identity

Our identity is formed through the integration of contemplation, communication, creativity, and renewal—embodied in the Cluniac, Cistercian, Pauline, Wandering Clerics, Hildegardian and Guglielmite spiritual legacies, each contributing to a comprehensive vision of faith and learning.

We form contemplatives and communicators, artists and scientists, monks and missionaries—each called to bring light and truth into a world longing for hope.

We are heirs of the great traditions—and builders of what comes next.

Our Tradition

1. The Word Proclaimed: A Pauline Tradition and Ministry in Media and Publishing

We affirm the example of the Apostle Paul—missionary, theologian, and communicator of Christ to the nations—as our model for Gospel proclamation in the modern world.  Paul used the tools of his time—letters, scribes, public discourse—to establish spiritual communities across boundaries of geography, language, and culture. He proclaimed Christ with urgency and creativity across cultural and linguistic boundaries.  Paul’s letters shaped the Church across continents. His epistles were the first Christian media —crafted for clarity, truth, and pastoral impact. Following his example, we embrace the call to “become all things to all people” (1 Cor. 9:22) through modern means of communication. 

Like St. Paul, the Church’s first communicator and global missionary, we proclaim Christ boldly through modern means—publishing, media, and digital ministry. We continue this tradition through media, journalism, publishing, digital platforms, and theological broadcasting. Inspired by Paul’s epistolary ministry, we view publishing—whether in print or online—not merely as academic output, but as a missionary act: a way of forming minds, spreading truth, and building communion.

In a digital age, we are committed to using media, technology, and creative storytelling as instruments for the Gospel—reaching hearts and minds through faithful, intelligent, and compassionate communication. As Paul wrote letters to distant churches and reasoned with philosophers in Athens, so too we engage the public square with theological clarity, cultural sensitivity, and missionary zeal.

We prepare our students to be apostles of communication in an age of information, engaging the public square with clarity, charity, and conviction, proclaiming the Gospel across networks and platforms. Through storytelling, theological authorship, liturgical media, and missional publishing, we carry forward Paul’s vision: “That by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

2. The Word Studied: A Cluniac Legacy of Monastic Learning and Excellence

In the spirit of Cluny, we hold education to be an act of devotion. We affirm the Cluniac mission of monastic education, which cultivated a civilization of faith through disciplined scholarship, rich liturgy, and the intellectual formation of monks and clerics. Following the model of Cluny Abbey, we see education as a sacred duty: to raise up leaders for the Church who are spiritually mature, intellectually sharp, and deeply rooted in worship and community.

We strive to form students with the discipline of the monk, the reverence of the liturgist, and the curiosity of the scholar—whether in theology, law, science, or service to the Church.

3. The Word Contemplated: A Cistercian Heart

Rooted in the Cistercian tradition, we cultivate a faith that is contemplative, sacramental, and humble. We cherish silence, spiritual discipline, and the ordered rhythm of community life as a response to the love of God.  We teach students to seek God not only through intellect but through the heart—humbly, quietly, deeply. Prayer is not preparation for study—it is the study of God’s own presence.

The theology of the heart, inspired by Bernard of Clairvaux and the monastic fathers, teaches us to seek God not only in study but in stillness. Through lectio divina, common prayer, and simplicity of life, we form souls to hear the voice of Christ and to bear His peace in a noisy and distracted world.

4. Prophetic Renewal and Unity (Guglielmite Tradition): A Guglielmite Vision of Equality and Spirit-led Reform

We draw inspiration from Gioacchino da Fiore and the Guglielmite tradition from Milan (Italy), a lesser-known yet women bold voice in medieval Christianity dated back to 1260 that emphasized the renewal of the Church through the Holy Spirit, the dignity of women in the Church, and the coming of a new spiritual age of love and equality.

With deep reverence for orthodoxy and tradition, we nonetheless affirm the prophetic dimension of faith—that the Spirit continues to speak, reform, and unify the Body of Christ across divisions of gender, culture, and denomination. As Guglielma and her followers longed for a Church more radiant with holiness and justice, so we pray and labor for a unity that is both mystical and manifest. In the Guglielmite spirit, we affirm that the Church is continually renewed by the Holy Spirit. We recognize the dignity of all believers—especially the prophetic voice of women and the call to justice, reconciliation, and spiritual reform within and beyond ecclesial institutions.

From the Guglielmite movement, we affirm the prophetic renewal of the Church through the Spirit, the equal dignity of women and men in ministry, and the courage to imagine new forms of unity and holiness. We prepare leaders who are reformers—gentle, bold, and Spirit-led.

5. The Word Embodied: A Hildegardian Harmony of Arts, Music, and Science

A theologian, composer, herbalist, and mystic, Hildegard saw the cosmos as a symphony of divine wisdom. In the tradition of St. Hildegard of Bingen, we embrace the integration of arts, music, healing, and natural sciences into theological education. Inspired by St. Hildegard, we celebrate the unity of faith, creativity, and knowledge. 

In her tradition, we affirm:

• Music as theology, lifting the soul toward God
• The arts as sacred expression, revealing the beauty of truth
• Science and creation as revelation, to be studied with reverence and awe

We commit to integrating the sacred and the scientific, forming students to pursue truth in every discipline—art, music, medicine, ecology, and theology—as stewards of divine harmony.

6. The Word Reflected: The Mirror of Marguerite Porete and the Beghine Spirit

We honor the Beghine movement and the mystical theology of Marguerite Porete, whose Mirror of Simple Souls teaches the soul to rest in divine love beyond all works, status, or striving. We affirm the interior life—the “noble soul” that lets go of self to be transformed into God.

Like Porete and the Beghines, we value freedom of conscience, the mystical journey, and the quiet resistance to rigid structures that silence love. We form students not only to speak of God—but to be spoken by God.

7. The Word Journeyed: The Clerici Vagantes and the Borderless Love of Wisdom

We walk in the footsteps of the clerici vagantes (or Clerici vagi, Wandering Clerics)—those medieval scholars and monks who journeyed from town to town, university to monastery, in pursuit of divine wisdom. They were students, poets, critics, and preachers: committed to knowledge without borders and truth beyond walls.

In our age, eLearning and global access to education revive this vocation. Our students, like the clerici vagantes, are called to:

• Cross boundaries of nation, denomination, and discipline
• Learn with humility and teach with boldness
• Serve not one institution, but the Kingdom of God through the academy, the Church, and society

We are pilgrims of the intellect, forming a new generation of mobile scholars and digital missionaries who carry the light of truth across continents and platforms.

8. The Word Discerning: The New Era of Artificial Intelligence

As we enter the age of Artificial Intelligence, we respond not with fear but with discernment. Like Paul in Athens, we engage new languages and technologies to speak eternal truth. We see AI not as a threat to human dignity, but as a challenge to form digitally wise disciples who bring ethics, creativity, and compassion into technological frontiers.

We train theologians who understand algorithms. We form pastors who preach to digital congregations. We equip scholars who think deeply in an age of automation—holding fast to the truth that no intelligence can replace the Image of God in the human soul.