Sebastian Forum
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND, MAINE
Irene Fellowship
“No man should ever make anything except in the spirit in which a woman bears a child, in the spirit in which Christ was formed in Mary's womb, in the love with which God created the world.”
– Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God
Interested in learning more or applying for a fellowship?
About the Irene Fellowship
When Sebastian of Rome lay riddled with the emperor’s arrows, the courageous widow Irene – come to prepare his body for burial – discovered the breath lingering in his body and carried him back to her home on the Palatine Hill. There, she nursed Sebastian back to strength and enabled him to return to the emperor for his final bold witness to Jesus Christ. In the same spirit, the Sebastian Forum offers cultural leaders a place of spiritual and intellectual retreat in the natural splendor of Acadia National Park and opportunities to extend their teaching, art, and apostolates to summer visitors and the local community.
Through the Irene Fellowship, the Sebastian Forum offers competitive funding to individuals and organizations whose work advances our mission, enabling them an opportunity to strengthen their commitment to God through retreat and make concentrated progress on their work in the peaceful environs of Acadia National Park. Fellows will provide an event related to their project for the local community while on Mount Desert and be exposed to the Catholic history of the island.
Irene Fellowships are awarded on an annual basis. The Sebastian Forum is especially interested in work that explores the responsibilities of Christians in the educational, civic, literary, and artistic spheres and builds them up in the faithful exercise of those roles.
We are currently reviewing applications for our inaugural cohort of Irene Fellows.
“Perhaps we were called to found, to organise, or to lead some little movement or society or a group in an existing society, or to take charge of a hospital or club or post—any such thing. We started with the one idea of serving God, but gradually the formalities, the necessary social life, the business side, has overcome us. From being an apostle we have become an organiser; from being an organiser, a business man or woman.”
– Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God