On Thursday, we went to Subiaco, which is the place where St Benedict began his monastic life and had his first monasteries. This is about 100 miles south of Rome, again in the midst of mountains. The cold wet weather made the trip and the walks there very atmospheric - and also made us cold. There are two monasteries. The top one Sacre Speco the sacred site contains the cave in which Benedict lived for three years. Around it is built the most extraordinary structure. A whole monastery, clinging to the mountainside. In one cloister is a statue of St Benedict with his had thrown up towards the rocks, telling them to leave his monks alone - a necessary call as earthquakes. strong earthquakes, are a feature of life in this part of Italy.
Around the cave is a series of small churches and chapels piled one on top of the other, or rather interlocking each other. I counted about 7 levels that these rooms were across. Ah the calves of my legs after a day viewing the frescoes that cover every place on walls and ceilings. - of the lives of the saints, especially Benedict - and scenes from the Bible. In one 'loft' chapel is a almost full size frescoe of St Francis of Assisi, done in his lifetime - a sign of how highly he was venerated in his own day. Remember that the walls and ceilings in many places are the mountains itself and the pictures take into account the uneven, even rolling, places formed of the mountian itself.
In the middle of the day we had a couple of hours for silent prayer and I prayed especially for my own community and for all the Benedictines of Australia.
After 3 pm we went down the mountain to San Scholastica, another monastery, larger, where we were to have a guided tour. Before that though, we knocked on the wrong door, and the marvellous Marcia, our fearless leader, talked a monk into giving us access to the library/archive dsiplay (I think he hesitated because we were coming out of the rain) The library that had been built up at San Scholastica was sacked twice, first by the Sarcens and then by Napoleon's troops. In spite of that they have built up an impressive number of ancient manuscripts. Also on display was the first book printed in Italy - printed at that monstery, which had the first printing press. In fact when Gutenberg's men came to Subicao, they we so impressed with the script that the monks used in the Scriptorium that they used that for their type font. Mary Bevis, I thought of you when in this room.
Then we had the tour of the monastery proper. We had booked an English tour for ourselves and along with our group had collected two Tutzing sisters, German and Korean, and a German couple - friends of theirs, then up the mountain we found monk of St John Collegeville and invited him to join our group. Then when our tour began, all these others, who couldn't get an Italian tour joined out group. IT was like the United Nations. I think we ended up with about 55 people. I worked out we had some from every continent except Antartica and South AMerica and the later could have been there.
The tour was excellent. One feature of Italian tours is that the guide will always tell you who the artist was of a particular work. This is so important to them. The artist deserves to be acknowledged. YEs!! YEs!!