Assisi Easter Retreat

The Assisi Easter Retreat is a spiritual retreat in Assisi, Perugia, Italy, held in Holy Week and shaped by silence, meditation and devotion. It is open to anyone drawn to a contemplative Easter in the Franciscan town, with no belief required. Stephan Pende Wormland, a meditation teacher with eleven years as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, leads the retreat.

Assisi is a place of constant prayer. From dawn until night, monks and nuns chant, walk and pray in a rhythm centuries old. This silent meditation retreat attunes itself to that rhythm and to the tender awakening of spring in the Umbrian hills.

What to Expect

The days are set against the daily chant, walking and prayer of Assisi's monastic communities, and the retreat lives in the contrast between that devotion and your own quiet. Silence is the ground of the week. Meditation and devotional practice are rooted in the Franciscan setting, with no required belief, so people from any background, religious or not, can take part.

The timing places the retreat within Holy Week. Spring does much of the teaching here: the hills turn green, wildflowers emerge, birdsong fills the morning air, and soft light touches the ancient stones of the town. Saint Francis and Saint Clare, who gave their lives to serving from the heart, are the spiritual companions of the place. The group is small, which suits the quiet nature of the days.

The retreat is held in the Franciscan and Christian contemplative tradition, and the language of instruction is English.

About Stephan Pende Wormland

Stephan Pende Wormland is a meditation and mindfulness teacher who draws on both Eastern philosophy and Western psychology. His work centres on what he calls going beyond mindfulness: effortless being, the warmth of the heart, and awakening through mindfulness, meditation and self-inquiry. His approach rests on Radiant Mind and on gradual and sudden methods of awakening from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, grounded in Buddhist and Western psychology, psychodynamic understanding and mindful communication.

Born in Germany in 1965, he earned a master's degree in clinical psychology, trained in Gestalt therapy and worked for six years at a psychiatric hospital. He was an ordained monk in the Tibetan tradition for eleven years, spent five of those years in group and solitary retreats, and served as director of Nalanda Monastery in the south of France.

The Setting

Assisi, in the province of Perugia, is a hill town of old stone where monastic life still sets the pace of the day. The retreat takes its tone from that living tradition rather than from a quiet apart from it.

Before You Go

No particular level of experience is required, and the retreat does not ask you to hold any belief. It suits those new to silent retreats as well as people with an established meditation practice, and anyone curious about a Franciscan Easter. The retreat is taught in English.