Wednesday, September 12, 2018 – Lella Costa opened the Molte Fedi sotto lo stesso cielo 2018 festival with a performance titled “Touching Life. Pages from Adriana Zarri”, set in the stunning Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
The event was promoted by ACLI Bergamo, with the support of Fondazione Pesenti.
“What are you doing in the world, if you have no eyes, if you have no hands to touch life?
What we lack are eyes, enchantment, wonder at a world that is always changing, at a life that is always new. ”
(Adriana Zarri)
Photo by Clara Mammana
Adriana Zarri. was a theologian and essayist, the first laywoman in Italy to publish a book on the theology and anthropology of prayer. She was a defender of freedom of conscience, abortion rights, and anti-fascist ideals, deeply engaged in social issues.
Born in 1919 in San Lazzaro di Savena, daughter of a miller and a builder’s daughter, she joined Catholic Action in her youth. She contributed as a journalist to several newspapers, including il Manifesto, and appeared on television programs like Samarcanda.
In 1975, she chose to retreat to a remote farmhouse, communicating to friends in a letter:
“My new residence will be an old solitary farmhouse, where I will spend the rest of my life in prayer and silence.”
She embraced hermitage not as mystical ecstasy or detachment, but as a lay monastic vocation, a desire to live in solitude to better experience the profound encounter with God. Her hermitage wasn’t isolation: she welcomed friends and guests for meals, conversation, and shared prayer. She tended her land, cared for animals, sewed her own clothes, and wrote prolifically.
Adriana Zarri was a non-conventional theologian, difficult to categorize, with freedom at the heart of both her spiritual and personal identity. Rather than distancing herself from the world, she found her own way of being within it.
Lella Costa has long been one of Italy’s most respected and beloved stage performers, known for her deep civic engagement. Her collaboration with Molte Fedi has become a cherished tradition, built on shared values and ideas.
