Today we gather in Assisi, in the church of Santa Maria delle Rose, to remember Guido and celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the conception of a work destined to warm our hearts and accompany us along the winding paths of life.

Maria, by Guido Dettoni della Grazia, is a sculpture of extraordinary aesthetic quality, capable of conveying an essential and imperishable beauty. At the same time, it is a profoundly and radically spiritual work, inviting us to venerate Mary, the Mother of God, not through a distant sentiment or conventional devotion, but through an intense and primordial emotion, as we come to feel her within us, through our eyes and our hands.

In his book, Guido tells us that rather than creating Maria, he found her in his hands as he modelled a piece of wax he had purchased during a journey to Mexico. The way he describes this makes me think of the wonderful tradition of Madonnas discovered in remote places high in the mountains, such as the Virgin of Núria in Catalonia or Our Lady of Meritxell in Andorra.

True art transcends the centuries and connects generations of human beings. Only a few people, endowed with exceptional talent and sensitivity, are capable of interpreting that which transcends us. Guido Dettoni achieved this masterfully. He did so in several of his creations, but none has attained such a wide international presence and such unanimous recognition as this Maria, which wisely resists the temptation to reproduce a tangible human body. So many of us wish to have her beside us, to pray with her.

The extraordinary journey undertaken by Maria, and the richness of the many forms this fascinating sculpture has taken over the years — with the infant Jesus, holding a vessel in her hands, with the dove of peace, kneeling in prayer — are explored in the book we present today. Guido Dettoni completed it himself, in an act of remembrance and gratitude that we cherish all the more now that his heart — so luminous! — has ceased to beat. As we turn the pages, we can understand the origins and meaning of this magnificent work of art and spirituality, while also retracing the history of the places that have welcomed it and the wooden, marble and resin garments it has worn.

Our esteemed and deeply missed Guido is more alive and present among us than ever, thanks to his brilliant insights. With a humility that makes him an even more unique and extraordinary artist, Guido Dettoni speaks of Maria as a Madonna he found, as though creating her had been a gift bestowed upon him. A gift he wished to share with all of us, and with those who will have the opportunity to discover her for the first time from now on.

Yet we have gathered here in Assisi also because we are brought together by the pain of absence, by the sudden loss we feel as an open wound. We miss Guido Dettoni’s always lucid and inspiring words, and it saddens us that we can no longer embrace him as we always did.

This is why we recognise, more than ever, the importance of the hours we spent with him in friendship, and of the lessons he left us — a force that bound us together so powerfully. Guido lives on in our memories and in his artistic creations. And from now on, he will also live on in this book, which he has left us as a testament that makes us feel his presence and helps us to understand and appreciate even more deeply his life and his legacy.

Many of us consider Guido Dettoni della Grazia indispensable to understanding who we are and how we make sense of our experience of living in community with others. Today, some of us are here in Assisi representing a veritable multitude of people scattered across the world.

This gathering would not have been possible without the love and thoughtful, enthusiastic commitment of his daughter Ida, who, as she did when Guido was alive, has devoted herself with discernment and generosity to her father’s work — and now also to preserving his memory.

To her and to her brothers, Axel and Pax, we offer our immense gratitude and our commitment to stand by their side in defending, upholding and promoting the legacy Guido Dettoni has left to all humanity — a legacy whose beauty and light remain undiminished.