Diary of Fire

The author began life as a bricklayer, became a war hero, worked as a journalist against Fascism. His diary begins in WWII with his burning desire to love God and a conviction that married life is a way to sanctity.

ISBN: 9780904287172

Igino Giordani was born on September 24^th 1894 in Tivoli, near Rome. He began work as a builder’s apprentice at the age of 13 but his employer realised his intelligence and paid for his schooling to continue. Igino Giordani served as an officer in the First World War and was seriously wounded. He completed his university studies while still recovering. In 1920 he married Mya Salvati and they had four children. While teaching in Rome he met Don Luigi Sturzo, the founder of the Partito Popolare Italiano, and was invited to become editor of the party’s newspaper. In 1918 he published the first of his 89 books which were together to cover the teachings of the Fathers of the Church, the lives of the Saints, the social teaching of the Church and studies in Christian spirituality.

At the invitation of the Vatican library, Giordani visited the United States to study librarianship at Columbia University, and on his return was given the job of redesigning the library catalogue. In 1932 he became director of Fides, a monthly journal of Catholic studies, and he also found time to translate works by Tertullian, John Chrysostom and Justin. In 1946 he was elected as a deputy to the Constituent Assembly and in 1947 was elected to the Communal Council of Rome. He was elected to Parliament in 1949, and in 1953 following his retirement from politics was appointed director of the parliament library.

Diary of Fire which appeared in Italian shortly before his death in 1980, gives a glimpse of his political career but also records a new phase in his spiritual life which began after his meeting Chiara Lubich in 1948. In the course of the next 32 years he became a co-founder of the Focolare Movement and the first married focolarino.