About Us – Our Values
spazio + spadoni was founded to foster collaborative relationships between volunteer and social engagement initiatives operating in Italy and women’s religious congregations engaged in social, community, humanitarian, and aid work, particularly in Africa, South America, and Asia.
The guiding principle lies in the meaning of the word “Mission”.
For spazio + spadoni, being on a Mission is the value-based reference that both actors utilize and feel as their own tool for connection with one another.
To ensure the sustainability of this virtuous cycle, “Spazio + Spadoni” supports, in various ways, the missionary congregations involved in carrying out Works of Mercy, while also promoting initiatives and activities aimed at revitalizing third-sector organizations in Italy by helping volunteers rediscover the idealistic and spiritual motivation behind their commitment to service and by fostering missionary experiences.
The Founder – Luigi Spadoni
Luigi Cesare Pizzi Spadoni was born in Versilia (LU).
His education was deeply marked by his experience in a Salesian college, where a clear missionary sensitivity was felt.
For over fifty years, he has been a Brother of the Misericordia of Camaiore and Lido, and was among the founders of the Misericordia of Lido di Camaiore.
As a boy, he worked in the historic Souvenir hotel in Lido di Camaiore, owned by his father Giuseppe and mother Bianca Maria. His parents educated him on the importance of responsibility, because “every action has weight” and “freedom is not a right, but a conscious choice to do good.” It is through their example that he grew up, inclined toward faith and hope, to live the present and look to the future with confidence, even in difficulties.
He interrupted his university studies to collaborate with a sector-leading ambulance outfitter as a sales agent and product developer.
In 1988, he founded Spencer Italia, a company producing medical devices for emergency and rescue. His insights, ideas, and entrepreneurial spirit created a reality that became a world leader in the EMS sector, capable of responding to the demands of a constantly growing and changing market.
For more than thirty years, Luigi has invented and patented life-saving equipment, developed markets in countries all over the world, cultivated personal relationships with the thousands of people he has dealt with, and created hundreds of jobs.
In 2020, he sold the company with the star to dedicate himself to a new phase of his life, leaving behind a dynamic, healthy reality that is respected everywhere for its solidity.
It was then that he began to give shape to his dream, spazio + spadoni, a Catholic-inspired movement that combines mercy and missionary spirit through relationships with missionary female religious congregations and volunteer associations worldwide.
His private collection of historic ambulances from all over the world became a museum open to visitors in 2010 and is located in the province of Parma.
In 2023, he received honorary citizenship of the city of Rosolini (SR) and the Silver Palm award – Iustus ut palma florebit, established by the Diocese of Acireale, together with Rosario Valastro, President of the Italian Red Cross.
Now there is spazio + spadoni
spazio + spadoni was founded to deal with the dissemination and regeneration of mercy in Italy and throughout the world.
The movement organizes projects, coordinates processes, finances works, and identifies paths to make a difference. The difference between an “act” and an “act of mercy” is achieved if the culture of the other, the culture of relationship, the culture of the gift, and a deep spiritual sense are rooted.
Being on a mission, always.
We carry out a mission when we bring the value of mercy where it is absent or has weakened over time.
We carry out a mission when we try to build a synthesis in people and organizations between doing and being.
We carry out a mission when our commitment drives us to fly like angels of mercy.
Where We Are
The House of spazio + spadoni: the Convent of San Cerbone
The Convent of San Cerbone, a historic building of great significance, is a truly mystical place, imbued with a spirituality that has endured through the centuries. Its secluded location amid the woods, situated about one hundred meters above sea level, naturally makes it a place of contemplation and reflection—qualities that have always made it a point of reference for the religious and the faithful who have lived there or visited it. This atmosphere of peace and introspection, immersed in the beauty of nature, creates an ideal setting for initiatives such as those of spazio + spadoni, which has chosen San Cerbone as its headquarters since 2021.
Since its founding, this place has been a spiritual center: built on the ruins of an ancient pagan temple, the convent has witnessed the transition from paganism to Christianity, serving as a symbol of the ability to regenerate and adapt to the changes of history. The Benedictine nuns who lived there in the 9th century and the Franciscans who settled there in the 15th century turned it into a house of prayer, dedication, and service to others—values that perfectly reflect the mission that spazio + spadoni carries out today.
The spiritual history of the convent is intrinsically linked to the veneration of Saint Cerbone, Bishop of Populonia, whose relics were brought to Lucca in 786. The fact that the church and convent were dedicated to Saint Cerbone lends profound significance to this place, which becomes not merely a physical space but a site of veneration—a link between heaven and earth. The mystical aura surrounding Saint Cerbone is palpable within the convent’s walls, a reflection of the spirituality that still permeates the building today.
It is this context that makes the convent of San Cerbone the ideal place for spazio + spadoni, an organization committed to rediscovering and promoting works of mercy. The link between the past and the present is tangible: just as the convent was once a center of hospitality and charity, today spazio + spadoni has given new life to this place, making it a center for reflection, research, and action on works of mercy. Furthermore, the isolation of the convent from urban centers brings this place closer to the spiritual and human needs of contemporary society.
In this mystical place, spazio + spadoni has found the perfect environment for its initiatives to grow. The quiet and sacredness of the convent of San Cerbone allow for the development of projects deeply rooted in a tradition of charity and service. The contrast between the antiquity of its stones and the modernity of the activities carried out is a testament to how works of mercy can renew themselves and adapt to current challenges, while keeping the fundamental values of compassion and solidarity intact.
The convent, a symbol of Lucca’s Christian history, thus becomes a beacon of hope and action for the future, an example of how a mystical place can nurture new forms of mission and service. spazio + spadoni, with its mission, has found in San Cerbone a place where spirituality intertwines with modernity, creating a unique union that looks to the past with respect and to the future with innovation.
faq
spazio + spadoni is a Catholic-inspired movement created to inhabit the present time through mercy, making it visible, concrete, and shared. It is not a single project, but a community journey involving people, congregations, dioceses, and territories across five continents.
The heart of spazio†spadoni is OPERA M, the core path through which the movement promotes the reEvolution of the works of mercy. OPERA M does not limit itself to multiplying initiatives: it reinterprets works of mercy as spiritual, relational, and transformative acts, capable of generating dignity, proximity, and hope in the concrete contexts of life.
The name holds a symbolic and spiritual vision. spazio (space) indicates the place that opens, welcomes, and lets the other enter. spadoni is not an abstract concept, but a proper name, linked to the history of the founder, and recalls the action that impacts reality with responsibility and courage. Between the two words is the crucifix, a central sign: it manifests that Christ is the center of the movement, the origin and the measure of every choice, project, and relationship.
The inspiration of spazio + spadoni is explicitly Catholic. The movement recognizes in the Face of Christ the source of mercy and in the Spirit the strength that makes encounter and fidelity over time possible. Every path, project, or gesture is born from a shared Christian vision.
The handprint is an identity sign of the movement. It recalls a mercy that invokes, listens, meets, works, and overflows. It is not an operational scheme, but a spiritual form of action, which unites interiority and concrete responsibility.
The flock is a living metaphor for spazio + spadoni. It indicates a movement made of different people who do not walk in isolation, but support each other, orienting themselves together. In the flock, no one leads alone, no one is left behind, and the movement grows through relationship, not imposition.
spazio†spadoni presents itself as an inhabitable movement, not as a traditional association. One enters through a journey, not through formal membership, and grows through progressive responsibilities.
Anyone who feels the desire to inhabit their time with responsibility, let themselves be formed by mercy, and walk together with others in a community style. Participation takes different forms, based on the time and vocation of each individual.
No. spazio + spadoni involves lay people, consecrated persons, priests, young people, and adults, local communities, and ecclesial realities, each according to their own place and time.
A sober and essential style, deeply human, spiritually inhabited, communal, and never individualistic. A style that generates processes, not isolated events.
The symbols are visible signs of a lived journey. They tell of a belonging that matures over time and accompany the formation and responsibility of the different roles.
It begins by meeting, listening, and participating. There is no single door, but a threshold, which each person crosses in their own time.