Father Michael Calabria, O.F.M., PhD

Fr. Michael is a Franciscan Friar of Holy Name Province with over 30 years of engagement in the Islamic world. His journey began as a student of Egyptology at Johns Hopkins University (BA, 1983) and Brown University (MA, 1985), where he conducted archaeological work in Egypt. After earning a master's in library science from Columbia University (1988), he worked as an academic librarian before entering the Franciscan Order in 1996. He later completed theological studies at the Washington Theological Union (M.Div., MA, 2003).

As a friar, he lived in Cairo in 2001 and 2002, ministering at a leprosarium, and spent several summers teaching English at a Coptic-Catholic seminary. From 2003 to 2012, he taught at St. Bonaventure University, where he developed Arabic and Islamic Studies courses.

Fr. Michael completed his PhD in Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in 2015, with a dissertation on Egyptians in the Qur'an and Islamic exegesis. During this time, he served as a chaplain at Georgetown University and was active in interfaith dialogue through the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He has consulted for films such as Unity Production Foundation's Sultan and the Saint and Franciscan Media's In the Footprints of Francis and the Sultan: a Model for Peacemaking. He has traveled extensively throughout the Islamic world and speaks widely on Islam, Islamic art, spirituality, and Christian-Muslim relations.