Focolare founder Chiara Lubich, was born on January 22, 1920, in Trent, Italy, the second of four children of a working-class family. She was an elementary school teacher and always had a special interest in philosophy. In 1943 she decided to give her life to God.

In the midst of the destruction and hopelessness of World War II, a group of young women gathered around 23-year-old Chiara Lubich. What bound them together was their faith and their experience that God is Love. They realized that God is the only ideal worth living for and, as a result, they focused their lives on the Gospel.

That experience radically changed their lives. They resolved to live as persons whose actions and thoughts would be based on the Gospel. The consequences were many. One was that this life spread and after two months a community of 500 people of all ages had come to life around them. The group was often referred to as the “focolare,” the Italian term for the hearth or family fireside.

Its goal became one of striving towards the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer to the Father: "May they all be one" (Jn 17:21). A spirituality of unity came to life and gave rise to a movement of spiritual and social renewal.

Years passed and this life spread like wildfire. Popes recognized a formidable force in this movement and advocated its growth. The heads of Christian Churches, from Athenagoras I to Archbishop George Carey, encouraged its expansion in their Churches. Leaders of the major religions recognized the relevance of this solid spirituality for their own followers. And Chiara traveled to Thailand and Japan to meet with Buddhists, to New York to meet with the Muslim followers of Imam Warith D. Mohammed in the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque in Harlem, to Buenos Aires to meet members of the Jewish Community gathered at the B’nai B’rith center, to India to meet a large number of Hindu faithful.