It is composed of practising Catholics following a lifestyle inspired by the Acts of the Apostles, i.e. an attempted return to the early church.
According to the Catholic Church, Nomadelfia is a parish of married families and lay people, and to the Italian state it is a private association of citizens.
Nomadelfia does not use money, and those who do obtain income from outside the community pay into a central pot which helps provide for everyone.
After World War II, he turned a former concentration camp (the Fossoli di Carpi near Modena, Emilia-Romagna) into a refuge for orphaned children.
Saltini also set up a satellite community on the present site of Nomadelfia, in Maremma, Tuscany.