The Fraternity of Jesus began in 1972, when Father Tarcisio Benvenuti (Founder and present Abbot General) decided, together with two other friends, to construct a clearly Christian experience amidst the challenges, contradictions and hopes of the modern world.

Established following the Second Vatican Council, the spirituality of the community is firmly rooted upon the Word of God and aspires to live out a loving and sincere fraternal life.

The regular reading of the Bible and, in particular, the New Testament opens one up to an awareness of what St. Paul calls a "Trustworthy Saying". It is upon this rock that the life of the Fraternity of Jesus has been built: "Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them" (1 Tm 1, 15).

The community has received official canonical approval on several occasions since 1979 (the most recent being in 1999 by the Ordinary of the Archdiocese of L'Aquila).

Several great witnesses to faith of the 20th Century have inspired the spiritual life of the community. Their lives reflect a church prophetically faithful to Christ even in the light of new challenges. One can see through their lives, words and actions the importance of the "anonymous" thirty years of Jesus in Nazareth; the need for fraternity as a life structure; the need of humanity, often lost in the craziness of the world, for salvation; the need for a clearly biblical theology, both evangelical and mystical; and the need for a new style of monasticism meeting the needs of the present day.

Over time, the community has become increasing aware of the calling of God to the 'conversatio' monastica (the monastic conversion of each individual to the life of the Gospel). Each brother and sister must take responsibility for his or her own 'personal conversion' in order to walk in ever greater communion with God. In this way the Fraternity of Jesus is like a school - St. Benedict calls the monastery "a school for learning divine service" ( RB 4, 21) while St. Bernard of Clairvaux sees the monastery as a "school of charity".

In essence, the Monastic Family Fraternity of Jesus lives out the monastic ideal in accordance with the Rule of St. Benedict, the Carta Caritatis (Cistercian tradition) and its own constitutions.