Our Story & Founders
Welcoming pilgrims to Assisi since 1986
The Story of Assisi Retreats
A life devoted to contemplation
From Assisi to California
The journey continues
After twelve years of living and teaching in Assisi, Ruth and Bruce returned to California, where they created Silent Stay Meditation & Retreat Center in the hills of Vacaville. For a decade, the center offered a sanctuary for silent meditation and contemplative retreat.
In 2020, Silent Stay was destroyed by wildfire. The loss was an experience of profound spiritual surrender, and Ruth likens it to releasing an intricate sand mandala to the inevitable flow of the ocean. Although the physical sanctuary was gone, the heart of the practice remained. The peace discovered in silence is an inner sanctuary that cannot be taken away.
Today, Ruth and Bruce live in Montecito, California, where they continue to teach and lead Silent Stay Retreats, while remaining closely connected to the Assisi retreats and the community that has grown around them.
Bruce Davis, PhD
Bruce Davis is a spiritual psychologist, author, and international retreat leader whose work explores the meeting place of psychology, contemplative spirituality, and the heart.
His spiritual search began as a graduate student, when an apprenticeship with a shaman introduced him to ways of understanding consciousness beyond conventional Western psychology. He later received his doctorate from Saybrook University and devoted his work to exploring the shared contemplative essence within the world's spiritual traditions.
Bruce has written extensively about inner life, sacred silence, Saint Francis and Saint Clare, and the possibility of discovering sanctuary within everyday life. His books include The Magical Child Within You, Monastery Without Walls, and his newest work, Love Letters of St. Francis and St. Clare.
Ruth Davis
Ruth Davis is a spiritual teacher, author, and retreat leader whose path has been shaped by a lifelong relationship with movement, meditation, and devotional practice.
Her spiritual life began in childhood through dance, which she experienced as a form of devotion. Over the decades, her studies have included Surat Shabd Yoga, Yoga and Chi Gung, Vedic and Tantric wisdom, and Mystic Catholicism.
Her study of the MahaVidyas, the Wisdom Mothers of Yoga Tantra, inspired the development of Sacred Movement Ritual and Standing as the Universe, contemplative movement practices that bring meditation into the body. She is the author of Sacred Movement Ritual: Yoga Philosophy in Movement and Journeying up the Mountain with the Tantric Goddesses.
Together with Bruce, Ruth has spent more than three decades creating retreat environments where people of diverse backgrounds can slow down, listen deeply, and reconnect with the quiet heart.
For more than four decades, Assisi Retreats has grown from a simple desire to share the simple peace of Assisi and the universal teachings of simplicity, devotion, and joy.
Bruce Davis began leading retreats in Assisi in 1986, drawn to the contemplative spirit of Saint Francis and Saint Clare. His early work explored the meeting place of psychology, spirituality, silence, and everyday life.
In 1990, Bruce published Monastery Without Walls, an invitation to discover sacred silence and inner reflection within ordinary life. Its central vision, that we can live fully in the world while cultivating an inner sanctuary, would become an enduring thread in the retreats that followed.
Ruth & Bruce Davis
Two paths become one…
Ruth and Bruce began leading spiritual retreats together in 1993, bringing two distinct contemplative paths into a shared life of teaching and service.
Their work eventually brought them to live full time in Assisi, where in 2001 they founded the Assisi East-West Retreat Center as a temple to the world religions, welcoming people of many faiths and spiritual traditions. The ecumenical work of the center received international recognition and a blessing from Pope John Paul II,
They lived in Assisi for twelve years, sharing meditation, contemplation, and pilgrimage with guests from around the world.
Today, Ruth and Bruce continue this work through Assisi Retreats and their retreats in California, carrying forward a contemplative path shaped by decades of meditation, spiritual study, teaching, and shared service.
When the heart longs for peace, Assisi calls…
Join us for a sacred journey into your heart, in the heart of Assisi