Thank you for coming out to celebrate
25 years of art, community and creation!
From November 8-11, 2024 at the Garde Gallery at 311 State Street, we showcased art, books, and other artifacts used, and in some cases created, by members of the community.
The pieces represented themes that were central to St. Francis House: peace & justice, housing,
food access, cooperative economics and spirituality. The Life & Art of St. Francis House exhibition celebrated 25 years of community connections and development at St. Francis House and was part of the process of completing the transfer of its two houses to Hearing Youth Voices and
the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust.
St. Francis House began in 1999 as an intentional residential Christian community in a house overlooking downtown New London. In 2002 we expanded to include the adjacent Victory House property to provide more living accommodations as well as office and meeting space. These two buildings at 30 and 32 Broad Street anchored St. Francis House.
The founding motivation to serve as a place of prayer, a house of hospitality and a center for peace and justice ministry was informed by Franciscan tradition, Gandhian nonviolence, and the Catholic Worker movement. Through the years St. Francis House evolved to include many people not in residence as well as some with different spiritual paths but who shared values and social justice commitments.
Since 1999 members of the St. Francis House community were involved in efforts responding to crises and opportunities with action. This dynamic in some instances led to the creation and/or critical support for new initiatives serving New London and the surrounding area involving homelessness, urban education, peace witness and anti-racism work, community gardening and food policy, youth empowerment and exploring new ways to understand and change our local 
economy.