[citation needed] A western disciple of Mohandas K. Gandhi, he worked for inter-religious dialogue, spiritual renewal, ecological activism and nonviolence.

[citation needed] His father, Don Luigi Giuseppe Lanza di Trabia-Branciforte, was Sicilian and his mother, Anne-Marie Henriette Nauts-Oedenkoven,[1] was born in Antwerp, in Belgium.

He spent six months with the Mahatma, then in June 1937, went to the sources of the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers in the Himalayas, a famous pilgrimage site.

In 1962, the Community of the Ark settled in Haut-Languedoc, in the south of France, at "La Borie Noble", near Lodève, in a deserted village.

[2] In 1957, during the Algerian War, del Vasto started with other well-known people (General de Bollardière, François Mauriac, Robert Barrat, etc.)

In 1963, he fasted for 40 days in Rome during the Second Vatican Council, asking Pope John XXIII to stand against war - "Pour demander au Pape de prendre position contre la guerre."