He chose the habit at 25, but often alternates it with other clothes because Marco Finco, in addition to being a friar and director of the Milanese Franciscan cultural center Rosetum (www.rosetum.it) for 25 years, he is also an actor who has been portraying the figure of Saint Francis and that of other saints for over twenty years. «This show is the summary of four Franciscan eight-hundred-year-olds», he specifies regarding Francis. His Christmas, an intimate show where the Capuchin friar moves alone among a few objects and which has moved from the Franco Parenti theater in Milan to other cities.
«In 2023 there was the anniversary of the Greccio nativity scene, in 2024 that of the stigmata, in 2025 that of the Canticle and this year that of the death. The Greccio nativity scene is the empty and bare manger that Francis chooses to celebrate the Eucharist and see that mystery of birth only through it. The stigmata are the seal of his journey, the Song is what he gave us and his death is what he calls sister. It is impossible to forget these Franciscan events whose anniversaries we have celebrated in recent years. On stage, with this, my third show on the saint of Assisi, I brought them all together. A complete gift to those who choose to follow me”, specifies Fra Marco, 62 year old from Milan, who had never thought about being an actor.
The decisive meeting
«As a child I wanted to be a farmer», he says, «and in fact I enrolled in the Faculty of Agriculture. In Cesano Boscone, in the meantime, I had started attending the Holy Family Institute and there I met young people with disabilities, even very serious ones. Meeting the friars who were with those young people changed my life. There were five friars, each different from the other. But together they were something else. They made fun of each other, they prayed. It was enlightening for me. I remember that I was already studying at the Seminary, but I was not aware of my vocation in those years”, confesses Brother Marco.
«Jesus breaks into my life through encounters with people and, when he happens, he probably gives me the answer to a question that was hidden in my heart. When I discovered the small convent inside the Holy Family I began to frequent it as if it were a home. This is why, for me, the Christian experience today is above all an experience of brotherhood and communion. I became close to friars whose names and surnames I remember, but the most important relationship was that with Monsignor Paolo Martinelli, appointed auxiliary bishop of Milan in 2014 and then apostolic vicar of southern Arabia. Do you know what event I often resort to? It appears in two Gospels, Luke and John, and I chose it for my ordination. It is the miracle of the miraculous catch, when Jesus orders Simon to cast the nets to catch fish, even though the fishermen had worked all night without catching anything. Obeying the word of Jesus, they caught an enormous quantity of fish, so much so that the nets broke and the boats risked sinking.. All this means that first of all you have to realize the miracle that has happened, and then also the presence of a company that supports you.”
Fra Marco continues: «In my life a miracle happened thanks to an encounter, but without the fraternity I would have been able to do little. And so I think that if everyone noticed the miracle of getting out of bed in the morning and returning to it in the evening, they should also notice the brothers they had next to them during the past day. The great drama today is that many people define themselves as alone because we have locked ourselves inside our homes more or less crowded with men and animals and we don’t go out. It’s life that leads us to experience this, people work ten hours a day, then they arrive tired and don’t leave the house, cutting off all social relationships. I know that outside of the Christian experience it is tiring to have relationships and I feel lucky. If you are a Christian, you cannot fail to deal with the Church, that is, with a community.”
The strength of brotherhood
“I didn’t know what to do with my life and the Lord put the friars in my path”, admits Brother Marco, paraphrasing Saint Francis. Translated: even your most beautiful and holiest projects are useless without sharing them with others. «Francis’ great revolution compared to all the pauperistic movements of the time is that he puts his project in the hands of the Pope, or rather of the Church, therefore of his brothers. All the other movements of the time became heresy or ended, his instead survived precisely thanks to his obedience towards people whose authority he recognized”, specifies Brother Marco.
«I have always been sociable, friendship has always been fundamental for me», he finally says. «The only task of the Christian life is the mission. Today I am dealing with music, theater and shows, because that is what my superiors wanted many years ago, when they asked me to direct the Rosetum, inaugurated in 1957 by Maria Callas, and today the only Franciscan cultural and artistic center present in Italy, in Milan. I write, I go on stage, I organize tours, I have twenty shows under my belt, and a multitude of brothers in the audience, but also on the street. Everyone on my side, together with Jesus.”
