Nomadelfia – a place where fraternity is the law

Ada is a kind and delightful 96 years old Lady who spent most of her life at the service of orphanages. Is she a  Christian Nun? A worker in an orphanage? Neither of these options. At the early age of 19, back in 1946, she knew she wanted to be a Mother by vocation who over time cared and loved over 60 orphans like a real Mother.

Me and my Family met her for the first time over a weekend in September and my heart still feels full of love, excitement and inspiration for the stories she shared with us.

When we enter her little, spotless and welcoming bedroom I immediately felt a sense of peace.

Ada spoke very highly about Don Zeno, the priest and a lawyer at first who in 1931 founded a place called Nomadelfia ( where fraternity is the law ). He fought ferociously against injustice and with a gigantic ( as Ada described ) Faith built a community that follows the words and teachings of Jesus at the service of children in need, in a system where money is not needed and where everything is shared among the others, nobody owns anything apart from very few personal items. 

There was a time when they had about 1000 people living in Nomadelfia, now they are about 300.

Ada said they worked very hard to get what we now see, a beautiful, tidy, peaceful and well-organised community in the hills of Tuscany. 

To my eyes, it looks like heaven on earth but she said at the beginning the land has been renamed the land of the devil as they had to dig out for 30 years (!!) stones after stone.

Nomadelfia is a place where families live in big groups. Some kids are adopted, in foster care or biological children of the parents who look after them, and there is no difference between them, everyone is the same. 

There are chickens, cows, an ostrich and a cheese, olive oil and wine factory, carpentry, schools, a cemetery, a church and a bar where everyone meets up on Sunday.

Everyone ( excluding the children for obvious reasons) works but no one gets paid and no one is overworked or stressed about not being good enough.

This project sound so right to me, at the time it feels like this is how everyone should live. A simple life in a lovely supportive community, where greediness doesn’t exist and fraternity is the law.

Why am I sharing this?

1. during our stay ( a day ) I couldn’t stop thinking that I wanted everyone to know about this humanitarian project!
2. Perhaps someone will come up with this article and create another community like this and save thousands and thousands of orphans that are desperately looking for shelter, love and care!
3. Don Zeno was a peace fighter and despite the fact he had the majority of people ( including authority and at times the church itself ) he didn’t give up and he created something that everyone initially called a utopia.
4. Our world needs to hear this story  in order to create more beautiful projects like this one

I hope with this blog post you will get inspired to do something good for people in need. 

It is astonishing to think about how one single human being has been able to change the lives of many. May His soul rest in Peace. May many of us be inspired by his work. 

Ameen 

Lots of love

Giada

Ps: check out Nomadelfia’s project https://www-nomadelfia-it.translate.goog/chi-siamo/?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc