On April 8, 1995, Chiara received the honorary citizenship of Rocca di Papa, where the International Centre of the Focolare Movement is located, founded in 1963. Chiara received 17 honorary citizenships, including Palermo, Genoa, Turin, Milan and Buenos Aires in Argentina. On January 1, 1995 , she was given the highest ecclesial and civic awards of Trent, her birthplace: the gold medal of St. Vigilius by Archbishop Giovanni Maria Sartori, "Because no Trentino woman has achieved as much as she has, internationally and in the ecumenical field, for the unity of the Church and for solidarity among peoples" ; and also the Eagle of St. Wenceslas, awarded by the President of the Autonomous Province. On that occasion Lorenzo Dellai, the mayor, acknowledged that "The Focolare Movement has brought a small piece of Trent to the whole world.” On 9 June 2001 she received the Trentino dell’anno award. In June 2003, Chiara received the Cavaliere di Gran Croce insignia from the President of the Italian Republic.

Against the background of the collapse of everything, in the hatred and violence of war, in 1943 Chiara made the "dazzling discovery" of the One who remains: God, who she experienced as Love. “A fact. I was teaching. A visiting priest […] asked to speak to me. He asked me to offer an hour of my day for his intentions. I answered: why not the whole day? Impressed by this youthful generosity […] he said, «remember that God loves you immensely». It was like a bolt of lightning. "God loves me immensely". "God loves me immensely". I said it, I repeated it to my companions: God loves you immensely. God loves us immensely. From that moment I saw God present everywhere with his love: in my days, in my nights, in my impulses, in my resolutions, in sad, harsh and difficult situations. He was always there, in every place, explaining things to me. What did he explain to me? That everything is love: what I am and what happens to me:

Having gained her elementary teacher’s diploma, from her nineteenth to her twenty-third year she taught. Her students have always remembered her as “la maestra Silvia”. Benito Cont recalled, "We will never forget those lessons [...] One October evening she took us outdoors – she had a woollen jacket – to study and contemplate together the eclipse of the moon. I also remember her leading the Rosary in the church of the Opera Serafica with 90 children. Her voice was interrupted by the sound of the siren that warned of bombings on Trent". A colleague, Pierita Folgheraiter, recalls: "From the beginning she was at my side with many valuable suggestions, always ready, whatever I asked, without imposing: on the contrary! I saw her as a diligent worker, precise and attentive, always calm, optimistic. […] If I wasn't able to do something, I would ask her and she helped me with everything. "

In the harsh winter of 1943, the streets of Trent froze over. Her mother first asked the younger daughters to get milk a couple of kilometres from home, in the Madonna Bianca district, but Silvia decided to offer to go in their place. On the way she sensed within, with the senses of the heart, Someone calling her: "Give yourself completely to me" and she responded promptly. She took a paper and pencil and in a letter asked her confessor’s permission to make an act of total consecration to God. She obtained it after a conversation with him.