Sant'Egidio Community

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OFFICIAL NAME

Sant’Egidio Community

 

ALSO KNOWN AS

Sant’Egidio

 

ESTABLISHED

1968

 

HISTORY 

The Sant'Egidio Community was founded in Rome on the initiative of Andrea Riccardi who, in the climate of renewal of the Second Vatican Council, began to bring together a group of high school students to listen to the Gospel and put it into practice. Their experience took the form of activities in favour of the poor, especially children and the elderly in the suburbs of Roman. In these same neighbourhoods, the work of evangelisation began, leading to the birth of communities of adults. In 1973, in the church of S. Egidio in Trastevere, community evening prayer began, which since 1998 has been held each day in the basilica of S. Maria in Trastevere. From the second half of the 1970s the Community spread to other Italian cities and then to other parts of Europe, Africa, America and Asia. 

On 18 May 1986 the Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed the erection of the Community of Sant'Egidio as an international association of the faithful.

Being close to the poor in the world, the Community has experienced the tragedy of war. This has led to a commitment to peace that saw the Sant'Egidio Community as the architect of the peace agreement for Mozambique in 1992, which was reached in Rome after more than two years of negotiations. Since the 1990s, this commitment has had a positive impact on many conflict scenarios around the world. 

Since the World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, convened by St John Paul II in 1986, the Community has taken up the Pope's closing invitation: “Let us continue to spread the message of peace and live the spirit of Assisi”. Since then, the Community, committed to ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, has promoted the “Peoples and Religions" International Prayer Meetings for Peace.

 

IDENTITY

The Community of Sant'Egidio is a family of communities rooted in different local Churches that, with particular attention to the peripheries and the marginalised, gathers men and women of all ages and conditions, united by a bond of fraternity in listening to and communicating the Gospel.

Prayer, the poor and peace are its fundamental points of reference.

Prayer, based on listening to the Word of God, is the first work of the Community; prayer accompanies and directs its life. 

The poor are the brothers, sisters and friends of the Community. Friendship with those in need (lonely and non-self-sufficient elderly people, immigrants, homeless people, the sick, children at risk of marginalisation, people with disabilities, refugees and war victims, prisoners and those sentenced to death) is a characteristic feature of the life of those who participate in Sant'Egidio. In this friendship with those who are most in need, as Pope Francis has said, "those who help mingle with those who are helped, in a tension that becomes an embrace. And the protagonist is the embrace'.

The awareness that war is the mother of all poverty has driven the Community to work for peace, to protect peace wherever it is threatened, to help find peace again, and to facilitate dialogue where peace has been lost.

 

STRUCTURE

The government of the Community is entrusted to the President, assisted by the Vice-Presidents, the Council of Presidents and the General Ecclesiastical Assistant. The President is elected every five years by the electoral plenary assembly composed of the delegates elected by the members of the regions in which the local communities are gathered. The local communities and regions are presided over by an elected leader.

 

WORKS

The Community of Sant'Egidio has set up numerous works in different countries to support the poor. These include soup kitchens for the poor, centres for feeding children, language and culture schools for immigrants, counselling and guidance centres, afternoon schools for children, centres for the disabled, doctors' surgeries, centres for the mentally ill and art workshops for the disabled. The Community is committed to giving a home to those who do not have one: it runs family homes for children, the sick, the homeless and the elderly, as well as sheltered houses for the elderly, co-housing experiences and refugee shelters. Sant'Egidio is also responsible for setting up two entirely free humanitarian programmes in Africa: DREAM, for the diagnosis and treatment of HIV (in 11 countries) and BRAVO, for civil registration. Since 2016, the Humanitarian Corridors programme has been active, providing legal access routes and reception in Europe for refugees.

 

PUBLICATIONS

https://libri.santegidio.org/

 

WEBSITE

http://www.santegidio.org

 

HEADQUARTERS

Comunità di Sant’Egidio

Piazza S. Egidio, 3/a - 00153 Roma

Tel. [+39]06.585661 - Fax 06.5800197

E-mail: info@santegidio.org