Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation

Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation

General Information
Type	Non-profit foundation (onlus / ente del terzo settore)
Founded	2010 (statutes updated in 2020)
Founders	Emilio Pisani, Claudia Vecchiarelli, with participation of the Centro Editoriale Valtortiano
Headquarters	Isola del Liri, Italy
Official language	Italian (with communications in English and French)
President	Fiammeta Pagnanelli
Website	https://mariavaltorta.com
Mission
Main objectives	Preserve manuscripts, archives, and items related to Maria Valtorta; protect and restore the house in Viareggio; promote academic study, critical editions, multilingual dissemination, exhibitions, and support the study of her work from both a religious and literary perspective.

The Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation (or Fondazione Erede di Maria Valtorta) is an Italian non-profit entity established to ensure the preservation, promotion, and dissemination of the work and literary heritage of the Italian Catholic mystic and writer Maria Valtorta. Today, it is the central institution that safeguards the core documentary collection (manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence) as well as the patrimonial elements (house-museum, family archives) while supporting initiatives aimed at deepening and expanding knowledge of the work left by Maria Valtorta, for the purpose of evangelization.

History

Upon Maria Valtorta’s death in 1961, her heirs were the Order of the Servants of Mary and Marta Diciotti. The Order of the Servants, a religious congregation founded in 1233 by seven Florentine merchants and active today worldwide, inherited the Valtorta house located in Viareggio. Marta Diciotti, a devoted assistant and confidante of the writer during her long years of illness, inherited all the manuscripts with their related rights, as well as the author’s personal belongings. She was also granted a life usufruct right over the house.

In 1986, Marta Diciotti made a will in favor of the publishing house Centro Editoriale Valtortiano (CEV), entrusting publisher Emilio Pisani with the mission of continuing to publish the writings. In 1998, while Marta Diciotti was still alive but living in a nursing home, the Servite Order sold the Viareggio house to the CEV. A few years later, Emilio Pisani, with the help of volunteers, undertook a complete restoration of the building, notably to remove humidity, and reopened it to visitors from all over the world.

Upon Marta Diciotti’s death in 2001, the CEV became the owner of all of Maria Valtorta’s material and moral heritage. It then became necessary to entrust this heritage to an independent legal entity capable of ensuring its long-term preservation and management. In this context, in 2010, Emilio Pisani and his wife, Claudia Vecchiarelli, founded the Fondazione Maria Valtorta CEV Onlus, with non-profit status. This legal change clarified roles, established a dedicated board of directors, and implemented governance adapted to the requirements of Italy’s non-profit cultural sector. The CEV then returned to its main activity as a publisher, while the Foundation took over the management of rights, manuscripts, assets, and dissemination initiatives.

On February 10, 2020, the Fondazione Maria Valtorta CEV changed its name to the Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation (Fondazione Erede di Maria Valtorta), thus officially recognizing its role as the custodian of the writer’s complete legacy.

Mission and legal status

Maria Valtorta’s bedroom in her restored historic house, now used as a museum by the Foundation.

The Foundation describes its mission as follows:

Our Mission

The mission of the Heritage Foundation is to evangelise through the reading of the literary work of Maria Valtorta so as to illustrate the life of Jesus Christ – who lived with His Apostles, Disciples, His S.S. Mother and people in general – with the aim of forming women and men transformed in their behaviour according to the teachings of Jesus.

“Now we must continue the illustration of the Gospel for this poor Catholic world that no longer knows how to see the Gospel as the heavenly pearl of every sacred culture, the indispensable, the insuperable”. Maria Valtorta, The Notebooks. 1944 (November 14)

This will be done abiding by the following objectives:

• Share the moral and spiritual values ​​of the Maria Valtorta’s literary work in the name of universal brotherhood.
• Maintain the literary integrity of Maria Valtorta’s work, without any transformation or dismemberment.
• Translate the work into all the languages ​​of the world.
• Expand the Heritage Foundation in all continents in order to create a Valtortian network in order to evangelise. A network that maintains perfect adherence to the writings of Maria Valtorta, showing unity in the methods and content of evangelisation.
• Preserve and propose every memory of the person of Maria Valtorta as an asset of public interest.
• To preserve and protect the original manuscripts of Maria Valtorta, to validate that everything printed complains with the originals. To take care of the maintenance and management of the Valtorta house-museum in Viareggio – living testimony of the events that in there happened so that it can continue to be open to visitors, who come from all over Italy and the world, and so that also can host cultural activities aimed at getting to know the Valtortian writings.

The Foundation is formally registered as a non-profit organization (onlus in Italian law), specifically designed to ensure the long-term preservation of the Valtortian heritage in all its forms — material, intellectual, and spiritual. Its purpose is to centralize the preservation of original manuscripts, correspondence, photographic documents, as well as to enhance the heritage site (the house in Viareggio). Furthermore, it promotes editorial activities in several languages, often in collaboration with the CEV, in both print and digital editions, targeting a spiritually, academically, and literarily oriented readership. Cultural and commemorative events, temporary exhibitions, conferences, and multimedia content dissemination complement these lines of action, with an international outreach.

Organization and governance

Emilio Pisani, historical publisher of Maria Valtorta’s work and founder, with his wife Claudia Vecchiarelli, of the Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation.

Governance is based on a board of directors that appoints a president and a vice-president and divides responsibilities between executive and supervisory bodies.

Among the key members of the initial board of directors (2010) were the founders Emilio Pisani (1935–2023), historical publisher of Maria Valtorta’s writings (CEV) and Claudia Vecchiarelli (1943–2012), his wife, as well as experts in heritage management, archival science, and archaeology, to ensure rigorous administration.

The Foundation publishes and updates the composition of its board of directors on its official website.

The Foundation also maintains strategic partnerships with religious institutions, universities, specialized publishers, and literary heritage associations to multiply synergies and promote the outreach of the Valtortian work in various cultural and linguistic contexts.

Assets, locations, and archives

The Foundation holds a rich documentary collection including the original handwritten notebooks (1943–1950), correspondence, period photographs, early editions, notes, and other unpublished documents. It also ensures the legal protection of the copyrights attached to the complete work, in its various linguistic formats. The central heritage site is the house in Viareggio, where Maria Valtorta lived and died. Restored and open to the public as a house-museum, it is a place of study and reflection. The restoration recreated a museographic route combining reading areas, a video library, archive display cases, and a reception area for researchers and spiritual or literary visitors.

See also

• Maria Valtorta — biography.
• Centro Editoriale Valtortiano — publishing house dedicated to the publication of Maria Valtorta’s writings.
• The Work Given to Maria Valtorta — literary heritage of Maria Valtorta.