Documentary Shares the Story of Seventh-day Adventists in Italy

The year 2024 is special for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Italy, marking the 160th anniversary of its presence in that country.

Now a documentary seeks to tell the story of Seventh-day Adventists in Italy, regional church leaders recently reported. Tiziano Rimoldi, professor in the School of Theology at Italian Adventist University Villa Aurora in Florence, takes a journey through the significant places of that history. He recalls the many events that the denomination has experienced through those years, including moments of joy and sorrow, with what he says is the ongoing closeness of the Lord’s presence.

The first witness of the Adventist message in Europe was Michael B. Czechowski, who, arriving from the United States, chose to begin his preaching in the Waldensian valleys, in Piedmont, in the summer of 1864. The year was not yet over when Catherine Revel descended into the baptismal waters and became the first European Adventist.

Over time, churches and institutions of the denomination in Italy were born. An example of this is the school now known as Italian Adventist University Villa Aurora, which prepares young men and women for service in the communities as pastors and pastoral assistants. Today, Villa Aurora, as it is commonly known, is a campus well integrated into the city.

The film also highlights the path of religious freedom for Adventists, culminating in the Agreement with the Italian State in 1986 and approved by Public Act 516 on November 22, 1988. This law, which turned thirty-five years old in 2023, regulates relations between the Italian Republic and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“Thanks to the support of the worldwide body of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the self-sacrifice of the Italian Adventist faithful and God’s help, dreams that seemed impossible have become reality,” Rimoldi says at the end of the documentary.
“The words of Ellen G. White [co-founder of the denomination],” Rimoldi continues, “written in her diary in 1886 while she was reflecting on the mission in Italy, still echo today, full of hope: ‘We will work, we will pray, and we will believe.’ ”

This verbal trilogy concludes the 32-minute documentary film produced by the Ellen G. White Study and Documentation Center, made in collaboration with Italian Adventist University. “These are words that call us to action as we reach out into the future, without forgetting the past, our roots, and divine guidance,” regional church leaders said. “Today, we too stand on the shoulders of those who preceded us.”

The documentary is available on the Chiesa Cristiana Avventista del Settimo Giorno website and on YouTube.

The original version of this story was posted by EUD News.