It all started in Rome, Italy in 1968, with one high school student, Andrea Riccardi, inspired to live out the Gospel.
Throughout the years, it has become a network of communities in more than 70 countries of the world. Sant’Egidio pays attention to the periphery and peripheral people, gathering men and women of all ages and conditions, united by a fraternal tie through the listening of the Gospel and the voluntary and free commitment for the poor and peace.
Three Pillars
Prayer, based on the listening of the Word of God, is the first deed of Sant’Egidio: it accompanies and guides life. Here in the United States and across the world, it is also a meeting and welcome point for whoever would like to listen to the Word of God and address their invocation to the Lord.
The Poor are brothers and sisters, friends of Sant’Egidio. Friendship with whoever is in a moment of need – elderly, homeless, migrants, disabled people, prisoners, street children – is the distinctive trait of the lives of whom is part of Sant’Egidio.
Peace has always been a central work of Sant’Egidio: to protect it wherever it is threatened and to help re-build it wherever needed,. The work to foster peace is part of a bigger service of reconciliation. It is also part of the fraternity lived through ecumenical commitment and inter-religious dialogue, in the “Spirit of Assisi”.
International Engagements
