Lanza del Vasto | |
|---|---|
 Lanza del Vasto | |
| Born | Giuseppe Giovanni Luigi Enrico Lanza di Trabia-Branciforte (1901-09-29)29 September 1901 |
| Died | 5 January 1981(1981-01-05) (aged 79) |
| Occupation(s) | Philosopher, poet, artist, and nonviolent activist. |
Lanza del Vasto (bornGiuseppe Giovanni Luigi Maria Enrico Lanza di Trabia-Branciforte;[1] 29 September 1901 – 5 January 1981) was an Italian philosopher, poet, artist, Catholic and nonviolent activist.
He was born inSan Vito dei Normanni,Italy and died inMurcia,Spain.[citation needed]
A western disciple ofMohandas K. Gandhi, he worked for inter-religious dialogue, spiritual renewal, ecological activism andnonviolence.[citation needed]
His father, Don Luigi Giuseppe Lanza di Trabia-Branciforte, was Sicilian and his mother, Anne-Marie Henriette Nauts-Oedenkoven,[1] was born in Antwerp, in Belgium. Very early he traveled in Italy and Europe. He entered the University of Pisa in 1922.[citation needed]
In December 1936, Lanza went to India, joining the movement for Indian independence led byGandhi. He knew of Gandhi through a book byRomain Rolland. He spent six months with theMahatma, then in June 1937, went to the sources of theGanges and theYamuna rivers in theHimalayas, a famous pilgrimage site. There he saw a vision which told him "Go back and found!"
He then returned to Europe. In 1938, he went toPalestine, then in the midst of civil war, toJerusalem andBethlehem, "between two lines of tanks".
He came back to Paris at the time when theSecond World War started. He wrote some books of poetry and in 1943 published the story of his trip to India,Return to the Source, which became a huge success.
He founded theCommunity of the Ark in 1948 which first met with many difficulties. In 1954, he returned to India to participate in nonviolent anti-feudal struggles withVinoba Bhave.
In 1962, the Community of the Ark settled in Haut-Languedoc, in the south ofFrance, at "La Borie Noble", nearLodève, in a deserted village. After numbering over a hundred members in the 1970s and 1980s, some communities were closed in the 1990s due to conflicts, ageing population (under thirty members) and a lack of interest in their work and lifestyle. Since 2000, groups are present in a few regions of France, in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Ecuador and Canada.[2]
In 1957, during theAlgerian War, del Vasto started with other well-known people (General de Bollardière,François Mauriac,Robert Barrat, etc.) a movement of protest against torture. Hefasted for 21 days. In 1958, he demonstrated against the nuclear power plant inMarcoule, France, which producedplutonium fornuclear weapons.
In 1963, he fasted for 40 days inRome during theSecond Vatican Council, askingPope John XXIII to stand against war -"Pour demander au Pape de prendre position contre la guerre."
In 1965, he was at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina, talking about non-violence during weeks with the students.
In 1972, he supported the farmers of theLarzac plateau against theextension of a military base while fasting for 15 days. In 1974, a community of the Ark settled in the Larzac in a farmhouse bought by the army.
In 1976, he participated in the demonstrations against the building of thefast breeder reactorSuperphénix atCreys-Malville, Isère (France).
In January 1981, del Vasto was working to found a new community inElche de la Sierra, in the Spanish province of Albacete, when on 5 January, he had abrain hemorrhage and was taken to the hospital of Ciudad Sanitaria Virgen de La Arrixaca inMurcia.[3][4][5][6] He died there on 6 Jan.[7]
Lanza del Vasto Luego de predicar durante 44 años a una sociedad que lo admiró sin compartir sus ideas como forma de vida el mensajero de la paz ya descansa finalmente en ella e la mitad de la lectura de un poema — como corresponde a quien convirtió su vida en poesía pura— y a los ochenta años de edad, falleció el 6 de enero, en Murcia, España
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