Baglio San Michele is not a convent, nor a tourist village, nor an indistinct commune. It is a traditional intentional community — ordered and serene — designed so that different people — singles and families — can live together authentically, respecting the specific needs of each season of life.
We have chosen to organise the community in two distinct and complementary sections, under the shared responsibility of the Chapter of the Wise, which ensures its regulation and mutual harmony. This division is not a separation, but a form of practical intelligence: it allows each person to live with greater clarity and freedom, and makes the whole Baglio more stable and more welcoming.
The harmony we seek is expressed in three inseparable dimensions: a clear and ordered mind, a strong and disciplined body, and a soul open to grace. Mens sana in corpore sano et in anima sancta. It is not a slogan: it is the concrete rhythm of the life we propose, both for those who live in the singles section and for those who live in a family.
The Singles Section
Young people in a path of formation live in individual cells, sober and comfortable personal spaces that guarantee privacy and rest, next to the Baglio’s common areas: kitchen and refectory, laundry, Finnish sauna and Turkish bath, gym, study and reading rooms.
Their life is accompanied by a soft rule: not a monastic rule in the strict sense, nor a military discipline, but a clear and shared rhythm, inspired by the Christian ascetic tradition, designed to foster interior order, authentic fraternity and harmonious growth. Those who live here do not renounce their freedom: they learn to exercise it with maturity.
Why a formative section of its own
For centuries the monastic tradition and lay confraternities have recognised that a path of formation requires dedicated spaces and rhythms, distinct from those of family life: a time of recollection, discipline and apprenticeship that precedes — for those who desire it — entry into the fullness of adult life, whether family or professional.
For this reason, in this first phase of the project, the singles section is organised as a male formative path, on the model of analogous historical experiences of postulancy and craft apprenticeship. It is not an ideological exclusion: it is an organisational choice, coherent with the current phase of the project. We remain open to evaluating, with the same care, the activation of an equivalent and autonomous path for women who make a motivated request — with their own spaces, their own rhythms and their own guidance — as soon as the community has the maturity and the resources to sustain it adequately.
The soft rule: a rhythm of ordered freedom
Prayer and spiritual life
The day begins with personal morning prayer. Every morning the Baglio chaplain celebrates Mass and those who wish may attend; on Sundays and holy days of obligation Mass is sung. The Rosary remains a free commitment, as does frequent confession. Sunday Vespers with Eucharistic Benediction are a particularly beautiful community moment.
Work and apprenticeship
Work — agricultural, artisanal or service — occupies the central part of the day: vegetable gardens, olive groves and vineyards; care of animals and small livestock; craft workshops (cabinet-making, blacksmithing, ceramics, restoration); maintenance and services. We work together, learn from the more experienced, and put to use what we already know.
Bodily discipline
Calisthenics and certain contact disciplines (grappling, judo) have a place in formation, according to the ascetic tradition that recognises in the government of the body an exercise of temperance and not an end in itself. They are not presented as training, but as part of a path of interior order that involves body, mind and spirit together.
Evening and spaces of freedom
Evening is a time for rest, reading, conversation or study. The soft rule does not claim to fill every moment: it offers a solid framework within which each person can reconcile social life and personal recollection.
Why a soft rule? Because a clear structure, when proposed with respect and without rigidity, becomes an instrument of freedom. It helps to overcome dispersion, to cultivate continuity and to grow in an integral way. It takes nothing away: it restores order, direction and joy.
The horizon we propose is precisely that expressed by the motto mens sana in corpore sano et in anima sancta: a lucid and ordered mind, a strong and disciplined body, a soul capable of receiving grace. Three dimensions that nourish one another.
What the singles do at the Baglio
Here one does not “pass the time”. One works, learns, builds. The singles of the Baglio take an active part in the productive and artisanal life of the community. Each brings his own skills and, at the same time, acquires concrete knowledge that makes him more autonomous.
Agriculture and the land
Vegetable gardens, olive groves, vineyards, orchards, harvesting, soil care, regenerative agriculture practices. Direct contact with the earth forms the body and the attention.
Animal husbandry and pastoral care
Care of animals, management of the poultry yard, small livestock, production of cheese and honey. Concrete responsibility towards living creatures.
Craft workshops
Cabinet-making, blacksmithing, stucco, ceramics, bookbinding, tailoring, restoration. The ancient crafts return to life and form the hand and the eye.
Services and maintenance
Plumbing, electricity, masonry, cooking, logistics, care of common spaces. Everything needed for the community to function with order and beauty.
To explore the professional roles sought and concrete opportunities for work and formation:
A typical day
- 6:00 Rising, personal prayer
- 6:30 Holy Mass
- 7:00–8:00 Breakfast
- 8:00–12:00 Work, study, apprenticeship
- 12:30 Lunch
- 12:30–14:00 Free time
- 14:00–19:00 Work, study, physical discipline
- 20:00 Dinner
- 20:00–22:00 Free time, reading
- 22:00 Prayer, silence
Indicative times: rural life and the seasons require flexibility. On Sundays and holy days of obligation Mass is sung at 10:00 and Vespers are celebrated at 17:30; in Lent, instead of Vespers, Compline is sung at 19:00.
Ready to take the next step?
If you are on a path of personal formation and are looking for a concrete place where you can work, form yourself and grow in order and freedom, the first step is a get-to-know-you conversation. No immediate commitment: only the possibility of looking one another in the eye and understanding whether this path can be yours.
The Families Section
Families live in autonomous apartments, complete with all necessary services: their own kitchen, their own bathrooms, a full space of intimacy. Next to the apartment there is, where possible, a small vegetable garden, a garden and a cultivable plot.
This autonomy is not isolation. Families are full members of the community: they share meals at community moments, collaborate in agricultural and artisanal work according to their own times and availability, take part in the liturgical celebrations and the feasts of the Baglio. They remain free, however, to organise their own day according to the needs of the children, work and domestic life — because the family needs space to breathe, and its stability is itself a gift for the whole community.
The rhythm of a family’s day
There is no imposed timetable: each family organises its own day autonomously. Yet the life of the Baglio offers certain shared fixed points that families can freely draw upon:
- Morning: daily Mass remains open to those who wish to attend with their children, before or after home schooling.
- Daytime: the common spaces (gardens, workshops, craft shops) are also accessible to parents who wish to work alongside their children or contribute part-time to the productive life of the Baglio, without the obligations of the soft rule.
- Afternoon: spaces for children — courtyard, farmyard, small common library — allow the little ones to play together under the shared supervision of the families present, in a context where children grow up knowing one another from an early age.
- Evening: on Sundays and feast days, Vespers and community moments (shared meals, vigils, liturgical feasts) naturally involve the families who wish to take part.
Education and transmission
Children are at the centre of life at the Baglio. Families who wish may organise forms of shared home schooling among several family units, also drawing on the artisanal and agricultural skills present in the community: a child grows up seeing the land, wood and wool being worked — not only a screen. The transmission of knowledge between generations, and not only between parents and children, is one of the founding aims of the project.
The role of women in the community
Women — wives, mothers, but also professionals and craftswomen in their own right — are an active and non-peripheral part of life at the Baglio: in the management of the craft workshops, in agriculture, in the care of common spaces, in the education of the children of the whole community and not only of their own, in the liturgical and cultural life. The Chapter of the Wise welcomes among its members also women who have given proof of responsibility and dedication to the community. As the project grows, we intend to develop dedicated paths and spaces also for women who desire an autonomous formative journey, on the model of the one already active for the singles.
Why this division
The choice of two distinct sections arises from a simple and realistic observation: the needs of someone on a path of personal formation and those of a family with children are not the same. Imposing the same regime of life on everyone would generate frustration; respecting the differences generates harmony.
Those who live in the singles section find a structure that supports and forms them. Families find in autonomy the space necessary to raise their children and live their own intimacy. The two sections complete each other: the first brings energy, labour and momentum; the second bring stability, rootedness and intergenerational transmission. Together, under the common care of the Chapter of the Wise, they form a richer and more resilient community.
An invitation to enter
This organisation is not an ideology: it is an architecture of life designed so that people can be well and grow, each according to their own season. If you are on a path of personal formation, here you find a clear rhythm, concrete work and guidance. If you are a family looking for a beautiful, safe and rooted place, here you find autonomy and community together.
Baglio San Michele does not ask anyone to renounce themselves. It proposes entering a rhythm of life that is more ordered, more true and more full.