teaching the many illiterate people who approached the Church. In 1934 he
was sent to the Waldensian Valleys to be Riesi’s representative to a Conference
of the young people’s groups. He also attended Synod and, once there, he felt
he was in his real homeland. He sent a letter to the Church reporting on the
meeting and the Synod and one to his family telling them that he would not
come back.
He then spent the next 59 years between Turin and the Valleys. He en-
rolled in Turin University to study Italian Literature and was very active in all
aspects of Church life: Sunday School, music, plays, youth groups … Despite
his increased activity as a painter, in 1939 he asked to enrol at the Faculty of
Theology. After a good first year he was recalled to the Army and eventually
gave up his Theological studies.
After the war he was very active in organising and promoting Art events,
became Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, took part in the Bien-
nale of Venice four times, and
was also an art critic! In 1949
a tutor of Collegio Valdese in
Torre Pellice asked him to ex-
plain contemporary art to the
students; Filippo opted for an
improvised show with the lat-
est avant-garde production, and
carried on with these Contem-
porary Art exhibitions in Torre
Pellice during Synod time for
the next 40 years! He also had a
private school and his generous
attitude towards his neighbour,
especially young new artists,
made the Art critic of La Stampa
call him ‘the Pastor of Arts’.
Two of his self-portraits are in
the Corridoio Vasariano at the
Uffizi. On his tomb he designed an ascendant abstract arrow with the inscrip-
tion: IN TENEBRIS LUX (in the darkness light).
ES
From the 2017 Waldensian Synod
Delegate’s Report
The 2017 Synod marked the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.
The opening Sermon from the Dean of the Theological College in Rome,
Fulvio Ferrario, took Luther’s first Thesis as his text from Mark 1: verses 14
& 15: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the
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