teacher." As soon as she graduated, she took jobs teaching in elementary schools in the valley regions around Trento (1938–39), and then in Cognola (1940-1943), a town close to Trento, in a school for orphans run by the Capuchins. In the autumn of 1943, she left teaching and enrolled at the Ca'Foscari University of Venice, continuing to give private lessons. However, due to the circumstances of the war, at the end of 1944, she had to interrupt her studies. Founding Focolare: 1942-1951 Focolare was founded against the backdrop of the horrors of World War II. In the midst of this, Chiara discovered the life-giving alternative: God, who is Love. It would become the inspiring spark for the movement for peace and unity that would later emerge. In autumn of 1942, in the wake of a simple conversation about the love of God with a Capuchin friar, Casimiro Bonetti, he proposed that Silvia enter the Franciscan Third Order. Attracted by Clare of Assisi's radical choice of God, she took the name “Chiara,” which is Italian for “Clare”. Her experience of God's love was the topic of conferences she gave to the young women of the Third Order. Among them was Natalia Dallapiccola, who, at the age of 18, was the first to follow Lubich. Lessons from the war On September 2, 1943, Anglo-American forces began bombing Trento, which took it by surprise. Following the armistice between Italy and the Allies, the territory around Trento was occupied by Nazi forces and annexed to the Third Reich. Her brother Gino joined the communist partisans and fought against the Nazi-fascist regime. In the summer of 1944, he was arrested and tortured. Amidst the uncertainty about the future and fear for life itself caused by the war, Chiara realized how everything passes, everything collapses, everything is “vanity of vanities” (Eccl 1:1) and “only God remains.” She became convinced that “the salvation of the twentieth century is love”. She shared this great news with “letters of fire” that she wrote to her relatives, to the young women of the Third Order, and to her colleagues. Soon other young women joined her in living what they called a “divine adventure”. On December 7, 1943, in the chapel of the Capuchin College, she pronounced her total “Yes, forever” with a vow of perpetual chastity. A revolution born from the Gospel As she and her first companions ran to