Luis Fernando Figari (LFF), the Founder of the Christian Life Movement, was born in Lima,  Peru, on July 8, 1947. His parents were Alberto Figari Ríos (1902-1990) and Blanca Rosa Rodrigo de Figari (1909-1995), both Peruvians.  LFF studied in the Immaculate Heart of Mary School until he was 10 years of age and then in Holy Mary High School, both in Lima.  When he was 7 years old, he simultaneously received the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Communion, and Confirmation from the hands of the Archbishop of Lima, Juan Landázuri, O.F.M., who would later have an important role in the approval of the societies that LFF established.

After finishing High School, LFF studied Humanities and Law in the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Later he studied Theology in the "Facultad de Teología Pontificia y Civil" in Lima, Peru. After participating in politics and searching answers in philosophy, he began to walk through the path of the faith.

His conversion process, in the company of other Peruvian lay men and priests, led him in 1971 to the foundation of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae; moment that he called “the baptism of a search”.  Soon after, in 1974, he begun a similar association for single and married women: the "Association of Mary Immaculate," whose members are now know as AMIs.  After having participated in the first World Youth's Day in 1984, and having pronounced the “Catechesis on Love” at the external walls of Saint Paul's Basilica, he founded in 1985 the Christian Life Movement (CLM), and in 1991 he founded the Marian Community of Reconciliation.  The former, one of the largest ecclesial movements post-Vatican-II, and the later a fraternity for lay women who have discovered in their lives the call to a consecrated life. In 1995, he founded the confraternity "Our Lady of Reconciliation" and a few years later, in 1998, he founded the religious association for women "Servants of God's Plan."

Thousands of men and women of all ages are members of these institutions, sharing common goals and a single spirit:  The Sodalite Family.  This spiritual Family is extended throughout the Americas, and in some countries of Europe, Africa and Asia. In 1997, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae was approved by Pope John Paul II as a Society of Apostolic Life for laymen and priests. In 1994, the Holy See approved the CLM as an "International Lay Association of Faithful of Pontifical Right," also known as ecclesial movement. In 2002, Pope John Paul II named LFF as Consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

LFF has published several articles and books, and he is considered one of the main Catholic thinkers in the Americas. He has strongly backed the ideal of reconciliation, as well as the organization of congresses on the issue of reconciliation. He is fully convinced that "... the lay members of the Church, flowing from their rebirth in the Lord Jesus, must answer the gift of Baptism and, according to their condition, actively assume their specific role in the mission of the Church and strive in their lives towards sanctity."