From Assisi to Bedford Corner
A saint who treated every person as someone worth knowing, a painting with two Latin words, and years of caring for people in pain. These are the beginnings of Omnia.
A different approach to healing
Omnia takes its inspiration from St Francis of Assisi. In his life of the saint, G. K. Chesterton describes a man who honoured everyone he met, from the Pope to the poorest beggar. Nobody left his company without feeling truly valued and taken seriously.
That is the care we want every person to feel at Omnia: attention to the whole of you, not only to your symptoms.
Omnia rerum principia parva sunt
The beginnings of all things are small. Our founder recalled Cicero's line while looking at a painting by Paolo Grimaldi. In it, a dove stands for the heavens and a toad for the earth, and where the two come together St Francis receives a flower, the symbol of perfection. The inscription reads Omnia Rerum: all together.
It gave us our name and our purpose. Start humbly, then bring everything together, body, mind and the way you live, to find balance in a busy world.
What should I do? What can I do?
Like St Francis, I was searching for a way to help others.
For some years we had been caring for dying, sick, elderly and vulnerable people through our parent company, San Damiano Corporation. A common and unfortunate theme in their lives was pain and suffering. We did our best to make them comfortable, but most of the options for relieving their pain were short-lived or unsatisfactory. So I decided to help people in pain, in whatever shape or form it showed itself.
My instinct told me that the answer should pair pain relief therapies with tailored pain management programmes, within a holistic approach that respects each person's lifestyle and choices. That is how Omnia Lifestyle was born.
