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The Pact of Unity, July 16, 1949

Jul 14, 2014

Chiara Lubich recounts to a group of young people, the mystical experience of the summer of 1949 which laid the foundations for the nascent Focolare Movement.

1279292488Lubich Giordani Montet, Switzerland, August 15, 2001. Chiara Lubich was surrounded by 50 young people and several professors from the Focolare’s Centre for Studies who were about to give birth to the Abba School and the future Sophia University Institute. Chiara wished to speak to them from the heart, conveying to them that particular experience with Igino Giordani that lies at the foundation of the Focolare Movement: the Pact of Unity at Holy Communion. It was July 16, 1949; Chiara was 29 years old. A study on the Pact of July 16, 1949 has been published in a book entitled: Il Patto del ’49 nell’esperienza di Chiara Lubich.  Download mp3 Video in italian http://vimeo.com/100116616

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A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’

The first presentation of Chiara Lubich’s book ‘Paradise ’49’ took place on the 22nd of May 2026 in the Paul VI Hall at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. The book is a collection of writings in which the Foundress of the Focolare Movement bears witness to and shares her mystical experience from the years 1949 to 1951.

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A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’

A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’

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The first presentation of Chiara Lubich’s book ‘Paradise ’49’ took place on the 22nd of May 2026 in the Paul VI Hall at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. The book is a collection of writings in which the Foundress of the Focolare Movement bears witness to and shares her mystical experience from the years 1949 to 1951.

Chiara Lubich: “Do you know where we are?”

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It is the 16th of July 1949. Chiara Lubich is in Tonadico, in the Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy, for a period of rest together with some of her first companions. They are joined there by the Honourable Igino Giordani, whom Chiara called Foco. On that day, Chiara and Foco sealed a Pact of unity, a prelude to the spiritual and mystical experience that Chiara would live between 1949 and 1951. This period is known as “Paradise ’49”, the writings from which have recently been published in a book (for now in Italian). In the introduction to the book, the theologian Piero Coda offers some insights “For a theological reading” of the text. Here is an extract, relating specifically to the Pact of the 16th of July, together with a short video of Chiara Lubich from 20 December 1999, in which she shares this experience of light with the Gen, the young people of the Focolare Movement.