...the big moraine between Ivrea and Biella...

A need to express his desire and hope for the promises of God's kingdom in a radical way was what led the founder of the community, Br. Enzo - in those years an economics student at the University of Turin - to meet regularly in his Turin apartment at 8 Via Piave with a small group of Catholic, Baptist and Waldensian young adults, beginning in 1963. The group read the Bible together weekly, gathered every evening for the prayer of the hours, and celebrating the Eucharist together at Br. Enzo’s home as a group associated with the domus of the organization Pro Civitate Christiana. They were convinced that they would become the "little flock" opened to the fulfilment of the Lord's promises only if they remained poor, small, and aware first and foremost of the importance of sharing and listening.

With time, several members of the group began to discover a vocation to community life and celibacy. Br. Enzo decided to look for a quiet, rural location outside Turin, a meeting place everyone could reach, and where it would be possible to begin living in community. He found and rented a simple house at Bose, a small village outside the town of Magnano, on the moraine ridge between Ivrea and Biella. The group of friends from Via Piave organized a work camp to restore the beautiful Romanesque church of San Secondo, located a half mile from the dairy farms at Bose.