Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

Father Columba Stewart, OSB, Benedictine monk, scholar of early Christianity, and executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, will deliver the 2019 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, titled “Cultural Heritage Present and Future: A Benedictine Monk’s Long View,” on Monday, October 7, at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., at 7:30 p.m. The lecture is a free public event and will also stream live online.

Dubbed “the monk who saves manuscripts from ISIS” by Atlantic magazine, Stewart has spent 15 years working with international religious leaders, government authorities, and archivists to photograph and digitize ancient to early modern religious manuscripts, especially those at risk due to war, strife, or economic uncertainty.

The Jefferson Lecture is the National Endowment for the Humanities’ most widely attended annual event, and it is the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. Past Jefferson Lecturers include filmmakers Ken Burns and Martin Scorsese, novelists John Updike and Toni Morrison, and historian James McPherson.

The October 7 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities will be live-streamed at www.facebook.com/nehgov. NEH invites those unable to attend to watch the event online and join the national conversation about the lecture, using the hashtag #jefflec19 and tagging @NEHgov.