in the rain (no coat-still recovering
from Lucifero!).
from Lucifero!).
Yet just over a week ago I wasn't cycling
at all. Lucifero's brother paid a brief visit. Yes my Russian readers know him well! We even had the Beast From the East! Spring turned to winter. The fresh green landscape suddenly disappeared. Everyone stayed at home. Snow days off work here? You're joking? Right? No: rare but very beautiful- see video at the end of the post.
We watched the sun set between snow covered mountains- tramonto as its aptly named in Italian.I was glad of the time off work.
The myriad of events swirl in my mind like corinadoli leftover from carnival. So much has happened since I wrote my first post a year and a half ago. Talk about only looking forward. Well I've scarcely been able to look up from my computer!
So many things have happened since I tentatively put my roots down into this rich Campanian clay. Rich volcanic earth scorched by Mediterranean sun but sustained by abundant
underground streams. Neapolitan soil that can nourish endless varieties of seed and produce rich and abundant fruit. A land I have toiled in these many months. Land in which I have done much ploughing and scattering of seed.
However even in such rich land life is not always easy! Nor has it been so for its local heroes -some of whom I've written about in my blogs. Let's take another example who lived less than an hour's drive from here. He built his home on a rocky hill about 130 kilometres (81 mi) southeast of Rome and 520 m (1,706.04 ft) altitude. This was the site of the Roman town of Casinum. It it is best known for its historic abbey. Yes you've guessed it! It's Monte Cassino. The hilltop sanctuary
was the site of the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944, where the building was destroyed by Allied bombing but spectacularly rebuilt after the war. Exactly as it had been!
So who was this hero who had built the original abbey in 530 AD ? He is the patron of Europe no less: Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-543/7 AD)
Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco Lazio (about 40 miles (64 km) to the east of Rome), before moving to Monte Cassino.
Benedict was born into a wealthy family in Norcia (Perugia) about 480 AD. He went to Rome as a young adult to further his education. However he was disgusted by the corruption and vice, he left the capital to live as a hermit in the rocks in Subiaco. Some monks living in this area were impressed by his example begged him to lead their order. Yet when he tried to correct their dissolute way of life, they tried to poison him. Clearly he had been marked out for greatness and not only did he realise that the goblet was full of poison but making the sign of the cross over it, the goblet shattered!
His troubles did not end there however.! In the neighborhood there was a priest called Florentius who, through jealousy, tried to ruin him. He tried to poison him with poisoned bread. When he prayed a blessing over the bread, a raven swept in and took the loaf away. From this time his miracles seem to have become frequent, and many people,
Having failed by sending him poisonous bread, Florentius tried to seduce his monks with some prostitutes. Undeterred he ploughed on, founding 12 small convents in the area before moving southwards!
On arriving at Monte Cassino, he adapted the existing temple of Apollo to become a chapel for his monks, using the other buildings on the site to house monks and pilgrims. From there Benedict spread the Christian faith to the valley below.
Pope Gregory I's biography of Benedict claims that the devil tried to prevent the monks turning the pagan site into a Christian place of worship. In one story he sits on a rock making it too heavy to move until Benedict drove him off. In another story Satan taunts Benedict before collapsing a wall on a young monk, who Benedict brings back to life.
At Montecassino he also completed the writing of his Regula Monachorum; i.e. the Order Rule,
which has been described as a compendium of the Gospel.
During the invasion of Italy, Totila, King of the Goths, ordered a general to wear his kingly robes and to see whether Benedict would discover the truth. Immediately the Saint detected the impersonation, and Totila came to pay him due respect.Saint Benedict contributed more than anyone else to the rise of monasticism in the West. His Rule was the foundational document for thousands of religious communities in the Middle Ages. To this day, The Rule of St. Benedict is the most common and influential Rule used by monasteries and monks, more than 1,400 years after its writing. Today the Benedictine family is represented by two branches: the
Benedictine Federation and the Cistercians.
During World War Two, in December 1943, some 1,400 irreplaceable manuscript , in addition to a vast number of documents relating to the history of the abbey and the collections of the Keats-Shelley Memorial House in Rome, had been sent to the abbey archives for safekeeping. Fortunately, German officers Lt. Col. Julius Schlegel (a Roman Catholic) and Capt. Maximilian Becker (a Protestant), both from the Panzer- Division , Hermann Goring had them transferred to the Vatican at the beginning of the battle.
The influence of Saint Benedict produced "a true spiritual ferment" in Europe, and over the coming decades his followers spread across the continent to establish a new cultural unity based on Christian faith.
The early Middle Ages have been called "the Benedictine centuries." In April 2008, Pope Benedict XV1 discussed the influence St Benedict had on Western Europe. The pope said that "with his life and work St Benedict exercised a fundamental influence on the development of European civilization and culture" and helped Europe to emerge from the "dark night of history" that followed the fall of the Roman Empire.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/monks-rebuilding-monte-cassino
Ploughing and sowing that has indeed borne much fruit.
Back on the motorway a long distance off. The monastery can still be seen. Proudly it stands out on the hill. Te
stament to Saint Benedict's own dictum that prayer and work can achieve a great deal. Indeed the stones still speak. To me they say: Get on with it. There's still fields to plough
stament to Saint Benedict's own dictum that prayer and work can achieve a great deal. Indeed the stones still speak. To me they say: Get on with it. There's still fields to plough
Back in Capua a few days later. Much pink and white blossom can still be seen. But now, mid April (yes this post has taken a season to write!) the first fruits are forming on the trees. To me the words of Meghan Hoffman come to mind:
Only then, will they become all that you have hoped for'
See below for appendix
A local organization who have followed Saint Benedict's teaching to pray and labour is New Hope. The seeds they have planted have been fruitful. It began in 1995, when three Orsoline Nuns, order of Mary's Holy Heart, arrived from Vicenza and set up in Caserta, to a hospitality centre called “Casa Rut”
, with the purpose to help women in
difficulty. They were mostly immigrants, alone or with children, who lived in
invisibility condition and social and human precariousness.
CREATED
Job opportunities, in legality and
justice, in a territory dominated by illegal work, for many women, victims of
trafficking or in difficult situations.
PROMOTED
Freeing processes through formation to
responsibility and work ethic, which both brought these women
to regain their right to take active part to the social life of the territory.
- GAVE
These women the opportunity to take out
their talents and creativity, typical of their culture, through the manufacture
of ethnic unique and original products
Cooperativa sociale newhope
via J.F. Kennedy 19/21 – Caserta
tel. 0823 458465
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