Subiaco

After a late night return to Roma, it was difficult to concentrate today. I kept feeling as though I was on the ferry, swaying. Our lectures, however, focused on very interesting topics, such as, Laudato Si, a social document and the “best kept secret” of the Catholic Church. we learnt about the many popes and the documents they issued in reaction to the social issues of the time.

After lunch we caught a bus to Subiaco, around an hour to the east of Roma.

We had a tour of the Benedictine Abbey dating back to the beginnings of the VI century, when Saint Benedict was a hermit in a cave. Benedict of Nursia was born approx 480 AD, educated in Rome lived as a hermit in Subiaco, then at Monte Cassino as an abbot. He died in 547.
The monastery clung precariously to the cliff face, surrounded by a beautiful beech forest, which is now a national park. After bullying by jealous priests and surviving attempts to poison Benedict because the other monks did not like his strict rules, Benedict moved to Montesassino and devoted his life to a monastery he built there. We had a tour of the Benedictine Abbey dating back to the beginnings of the VI century, when Saint Benedict was a hermit in a cave. The monastery clung precariously to the cliff face, surrounded by a beautiful beech forest, which is now a national park. After attempts to poison Benedict because the other monks did not like his strict rules, Benedict moved to Montesassino and devoted his life to a monastery he built there.

Of the thirteen monasteries founded by St Benedict, only the current monastery of St Scolastica, known as Sacro Speco or “Holy Cave” referring to its beginnings, remains.

The frescoes were amazing, particularly a portrait of St Francis of Assisi, painted from a live St Francis himself.