The Guardian of Silence

The story of a woman who has taken an oath of silence on her own terms.

In 1980, Antonella Lumini (1952) took an oath of silence on her own terms. She doses her communication with others, while working part time at the National Library of Florence. The rest of her day is spent in contemplation, meditation or in selective company. Some call her a mystic, but she is convinced that “silence asks for answers and invites loneliness, introspection and a deep relationship with yourself.” The pandemic has created a newfound interest in her work and her message. In this book, Lumini tells her story and shares the insight she has learned through silence and stillness.

The pandemic can be experienced as a propitious opportunity to follow an inward voyage, a call for change to awaken our conscience. By experiencing a moment of silence, you realize that the world is racing at a dizzying speed. It is alarming. And a tiny corpuscle was enough to bring it to a halt.