A village built to die with dignity and understand the deep meaning of suffering, through the practice of meditation. If it were a project, it would seem like madness, since the world turns exactly the opposite way. Instead, it is not a project but a reality, very concrete, even though it was born from the “madness” of a religious man, Father Guidalberto Bormolini, whose life is already a movie.
Tuscan, as a boy he learned to be a carpenter, he liked to build lutes, then he chose religious life, always in an original way, in the community of the Ricostruttori nella preghiera, which in the practice of meditation finds the strength to rebuild and bring back to life ancient religious buildings reduced to ruins. Lastly, we could say, a thanatologist, a scholar of the relationship between life and death.
Father Guidalberto, known to his friends as Pistu, likes to say that “death is never the opposite of life, it is only a passage of life itself.” A bit like another well-known religious man, Father Alberto Maggi, who says that one never dies: one is reborn twice, and the second time is forever. Father Guidalberto has lived for a long time in the community of San Leonardo al Palco, surrounded by greenery, in the province and diocese of Prato. This time, however, after having rebuilt monasteries in half of Italy, he has given shape to another dream: to bring back to life those who were dying. A total oxymoron. However, he succeeded, rebuilding the ancient village of Mezzana, in the Municipality of Cantagallo, where, they say here today, “death is not scary.”
The religious man is a man like few others: he does a billion things, but he has always remained faithful to his commitment, to be a bricklayer. If normal days include studying, meetings, conferences, he always gets up earlier, before dawn, takes his bricklayer tools and goes up to the village. Until recently it was a ghost town: a dozen ruins of abandoned houses. A few months ago the first part was inaugurated and it has become Borgo “Tutto è Vita”, a place that is starting to host the sick, some close to terminal life, to whom, through meditation, a new perspective is also offered: a place of spirituality and personal care. «Meditation – explains Father Bormolini – is at the center of everything, accompanied by other paths, especially artistic ones, but also with the care of the gardens, of nature in general».
Some volunteers live in the village, soon also some families with children and a small community of monks. A good part of the 12 buildings are already active, with gardens and an agricultural park. There is everything: in addition to guided meditation experiences, music workshops, storytelling, theater, poetry, dance, exhibitions and meetings. It really feels like being on another planet, also because the village has become a place of meditation where people who have encountered the disease welcome hundreds of people who, especially on weekends, come up for two days of silence and prayer. In part, but only in part, dozens of volunteers who have taken turns on the construction sites in recent years. In the village, the Casa del Grano stands out, so called because “the grain never dies”, and the space for the hospice (in agreement with the Tuscany Region) where, precisely, meditation is the backbone of the treatment. “It is the only one of its kind in Europe and only the third in the world”, underlines Guidalberto. A reality that excites guests and volunteers, who experienced a very significant moment for them in the last weekend of June with the inauguration of the last part of the village Tutto è Vita, which will soon be able to welcome the first people with illnesses to live the experience of a spiritual journey.
“These have been tough years,” Guidalberto admits, “we are still struggling with the consequences of the flood in autumn 2023 and other landslides in spring, but ours was still a great celebration, united with those who want to welcome, as Franco Battiato sang, “those who cannot bear the pains of existence.”
