In a chance meeting with a man with a rare skin condition Giovanni was challenged to rethink his approach to life. In a moment he walked from the normal world of money-loving, to an upside down world of leper-hugging. At that point, still hesitent, he lent forward and hugged the stranger with the dead skin, in Gucci suit and all.

 

It sounds a bit like a rich mans gap-year experience. Where despite feelings to the contrary, they do something good in a journey of self-discovery. This conflict between wanting to do good and a lack of genuine compassion can make an individual feel fake and that their actions are counterfeit. What is impressive with the Giovanni incidence was the realness of the situation. He had decided to take a risk and live an entirely different way, but at his first opportunity to live out his decision he admits he is repulsed. What makes the situation amazing is that despite all of this it is determination to be a different person that makes him act out the compassion he wants to feel. Hypercritical? Maybe. But it is the start to the most amazing story.

Giovanni left his house (and all his clothes!) behind. By cutting everything back to basics, he became like the homeless people he used to give ‘bus money’ to. He left the city and started working for free on various charitable building projects and even built himself a simple shed on borrowed land. He spent time with people, walked a lot and had time out. He was given everything from food, to something to wear, even his little shed wasn’t his own. Primarily Giovanni dedicated his time to homeless and sick people who had nowhere else to go. It was all an active choice to live not just a non-consumerist life, but to approach living in a fundamentally new way – where any possessions, even the clothes on his back, restricted his freedom, his identity and his ability to help other people. Even his time,  that had been so valuable in the corporate world, was now given over to people and basic living.
 

Far from being seen as a wacky nut case, Giovanni has become accepted and is hugely popular in Italy. Loads of individuals recognise there is something very sane in walking completely counter-culturally and hundreds over the years have joined him in simplicity and helping others. As with all movements, Giovanni found it a struggle to keep it unorganised and simple. After popular demand, he wrote a few notes on what his lifestyle was like so that other people could use it as a guide and stick to it when they craved a bit of structure, power, running water…

The movement was and is, huge, even though Giovanni himself died after only 20 years. It’s a challenge though to have stumbled across a human that can live so extremely simply and positively in the West. His basic message was that its hard to be half materialist and half compassionate. We need to decide which we’re going for and which side of the tracks we choose to live on.

 

Find out more about Giovanni Francis Bernardone from Assisi.