Sunday visits to The Holy Grotto and St. Scholastica Monasteries

On Sunday, March 6, we visited the town of Subiaco, about 2 hours east of Rome in the Appenine Mountains, which run down the entire center of the Italian peninsula. The shrine of the Holy Grotto is the location of the cave in the mountainside which St. Benedict moved to in order to life the hermit's life. A monastery was eventually built around this grotto. The monastery has been built in stages. The 12th and 13th century frescoes are in magnificent condition. There has been little damage, (other than grafitti) from water, dampness, or wars or fires. The frescoes tell amazing stories of the life of Benedict and his twin sister, Scholastica; and the life of the Benedictine community and of the early church.

The entrance to the Monastery of the Santo Speco, (the Holy Grotto). The narrow gate was easily defended and permitted entrance by pedestrians and small animal-drawn carts. Today, small automobiles can enter.

The stairway leading the lower terraces of the monastery.

The Monastery of the Holy Grotto clinging to the side of the mountain. In the 1st Century AD, the emperor Nero had built a lavish villa at the entrance of this valley. He damned the river and dreated lakes for his recreation. The lakes are gone, but a large amount of the stone used to build the monastery was salvaged from the ruins of the Nero villa.

Another view of the monastery on the hillside.

Our group after Mass in the lower church. Priests from left to right. Fr. Richard Antall, Cleveland OH; Msgr. Anthony Sherman, Brooklyn NY; Your's truly; Fr. Luis van Than, New York NY; Fr. Anthony Nguyen, San Jose CA; Fr. John Clark, Owensboro KY; Fr. Daniel Carter, San Francisco CA; Msgr. Robert Lawrence, Harrisburg PA; Fr. Michael Oenbrink, Charleston SC; Fr. Frank Schuster, Jr., Bismark, ND; Fr. Steven Barber, S.J.

The lower church is a maze of passages built into the side of the mountain. Frescoes decorate the wall, ceilings, and even places where the rock cliff protrudes into the space, it was covered with plaster and frescoes painted on that surface as well. The view in this picture shows the multi level area. The central door above lead up a short stairway directly to the front of the main altar in the upper church.

The cave where St. Benedict lived for nearly 20 years spending his time in prayer contemplating the cross. He is depicted here as a young man. He was in his late 20's and 30's when he lived here. The basket, also carved in marble was how he was served his meals. A brother would lower his food to him by basket everyday.

A fresco depicting one of the miracles attributed to Benedict. The brother on the left known as the "goth" holds a broken tool. The metal part has fallen deep into the lake. Benedict takes the wooden pole and dips it into the lake and metal part is miraculously re-attached to the handle. The square light blue area with the fish depicts the lake.

St Benedict rescues a monk who has fallen into the lake.

A vault fresco of Christ the teacher.

A fresco of St. Francis when he visited the monastery. This fresco can be dated because Francis is protrayed before he receives the stigmata in the year 1224.

Death is a popular theme in the medeival frescoes. Death and the depiction of death in sacred art is not considered morbid in the middle ages. Death was seen as a glorious moment in one's life as eternal life was a possibility. In this depiction, death on horseback is shown as a skeleton weilding the sword and scythe. Horses were considered a great power in the middle ages. The soldier on horseback was a formidable, almost unbeatable oponent, therefore a symbol of the unbeatable power of death. Death is taking the life of a young nobleman holding a falcon, a sport of the rich. The dead under the horse are men and women dressed in the finest clothes. This is to depict that death does not care about age, gender, status or wealth. 

The maze of passages and stairs in the lower church are covered in some of the best preserved 12th and 13th century frescoes in Europe.

Fresco showin the nativity of Jesus

The main abbey church. Note how the top of the altar is below the level of the floor of the nave.

A mosaic greeting pilgrims into the cloister of the monastery. The mountains rising above the river with the cross are the center of the coat of arms os this monastery.

The cloister of the monastery with the cliffs rising above. There is no colonade as in most other cloisters because there was not the room to build one.





A view from the Monastery of the Holy Grotto looking below to the Monastery of St. Scholastica and the city of Subiaco in the distance.

The entrance into the Monastery of St. Scholastica with the campanile (bell tower)

The 11th century church was remodeled and dedicated in 1776 in the neo-classical syle. The frescoes which adorned the gothic vaults of the original church are still intact above the new ceiling.

The cloister of St. Scholastica is famous for its simplicity and elegance.

The columns are designed as symbols of Christ. The double columns are for the two natures of Christ, human and divine; the twisted single columns say that those two natures are unified into an inseparable truth.  

The elegant detail of the capitals.

The Benedictine order remains today as one of the most important religious communities in the world. There are several houses of Benedictine monks in New England; St. Anselm's College in NH, St Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, MA, and the Monks of Weston Priory in Weston VT. This was a great two days and the opportunity to see and experience some of the most important spiritual centers in the world.

This coming week is another fast-paced week of study and spiritual activities.

Monday morning, March 7 we begin a three day course on the theology and writing of St. Paul with Fr. Scott Brodeur, SJ. Monday evening, the priests and the institute are invited for cocktails and dinner as guests of the Paulist Fathers who staff the basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome.

Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. We begin with the celebration of Mass at the first of the 40 stational churches in Rome. There will be more about this each day as we participate in this devotion which goes back to the earliest days of Christian Rome when Christianity was decriminalized in the 5th Century.