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PIRTH, WEDNESDAY, liglIBITAILY 23, 1944.
NO. 3,116.
PR= THRIVPINOZ.
SIVENTY-FIRST YZAR.
The Glory That Was Monte Cassino Where Religion
I Art flourished for 1400 gears
*Cradle of Western Monasticism and Source of Civilisation Utterly Destroyed
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Stirring History of Benedictine Mother-House If the Saints in heaven could be af- ,was first pillaged and destroyed by the fected by the calamities that afflict us, Lombards about the year 589, some 40 beacon of holiness and learning in Eupoor mortals, we could well imagine St. years after St. Benedict's prediction rope. Many of its monks were called upon to rule dioceses and to teach in Benedict, at the present time, incon- of the event. those schools whence the European A restoration was effected by Abbot solable over the destruction of his beDesiderius' imUniversities sprang. loved Abbey of Monte Cassino. While Petronax in 718, and a new church was by mediate predecessor as Abbot had begreat solemnity with still on earth, the Patriarch of the consecrated Desiderius, Monks of the West was found one day Pope Zachary in 748. At this period come Pope Stephen IX. shedding bitter tears, the cause of the Abbey gained great renown, and we saw, occupied the Papal chair as 30 years Some men Victor III, in 1087. which he revealed, was that God had among its monks were celebrated made known to him that his Monas- like Paul the Deacon-monk, writer, later another monk of Monte Cassino tery, the first Abbey of Monte Cassino, poet and historian-who wrote the ruled the Church as Pope-Gelavius II. The Abbots of Monte Cassino bewhich he had built with his own hands, "History of the Lombards." Towards the middle of the 9th. cen- came very powerful lords both in would in the near future be plundered This barbarian spiritual and temporal matters. Saracens-another from the tury, barbarians the by and destroyed race --overran this part of Italy, and factor, coupled with the great strategiLombardy. the satinvolved its position, cal value of And yet, what was there in the primi- did not spare Monte Cassino Not Abbey in the constant political strugtive Monte Cassino, as a building, com- isfied with killing the Abbot and as parable to the majestic pile which the many of the monks as they could lay gles of the period, greatly to the detriworld admired until yesterday, where hands on, they set fire to the buildings. ment of the Monastic observance and The damage, how- activities of its monks. Religion and Art had vied with each This was in 884. At the end of the 13th. century, other for centuries to make it a worthy ever, was not irreparable, and the year monument to the memory of the great- 949 saw the Abbey thriving once more. the great Abbey was not in a flourishWorse still, in 1349, an been ing state. The 11th. century has rightly est Monk of all times? Forgetting for a few moments that looked upon as the Golden Age of earthquake reduced to an immense it has ceased to exist, let us recall Monte Cassino. The great Abbey be- heap of debris the grandiose work of briefly the history of this, the most came at this time not only the purest Abbot Desiderius. Reconstruction began immediately. fountain of Benedictine life tut also celebrated of all Benedictine Abbeys. Monte Cassino has rightly been called a cultural centre of intense activity. Popes and Kings took personal interest the cradle of the Benedictine Order. This was particularly so under Abbot in the work, as they had done in preDesiderius, who ruled from 1058 to vious centuries, and the result was a For, although it was at Subiaco that set of buildings excelling even those 1087, when he relinquished office to beSt. Benedict inaugurated his monastic Abbot Desiderius-the come Pope under the title of Victor erected by life and founded his first Monastery. He has always been regarded as buildings over whose ruins we mourn it was here, whither he migrated in III. of no less an archiCassino The name to -day. Monte of the greatest Abbot 529, that he fully developed his ideas tect than Bramante is associated with He caused the after St. Benedict. of a large monastic family and wrote Abbey buildings, and especially the this reconstruction. his wonderful Rule for the guidance But the Abbey continued to labour Monte Cassino has ever church, to be reconstructed on a scale of monks. under serious difficulties from within Some of the the of of great magnificence. since been the Alma Mater Benedictines, the source of Monachism artists he employed were monks of his and from without. Among the latter and in the West, and the foremost agent Community, which now numbered 200; were the wars between the French dominion over Italy of civilisation for the Slavonic and others he brought from Amalfii, Lom- the Spaniards for bardy and even Constantinople. The in the latter part of the 15th. century. Teutonic races. In the course of these wars, the French It has been remarked that the for- church was consecrated by Pope AlexThe school of entrenched themselves in Monte Castunes of Monte Cassino have been ander II in 1071. which painters sino, thus endangering the lives of the miniature and copyists Rome of closely connected with those Capitan (Gonthroughout the centuries. The Abbey was formed under this Abbot became monks. But El Gran lost a being only about 80 miles south of the famous throughout Europe. The good zalo de Cordoba), who never to vicsoldiers his and led endured, battle, Desiderius Abbot work of Eternal City, whenever the latter was It Monte Cassino continued long to be a tory here also. He conquered the invaded the former also suffered.
Abbey. The Community suffered not a little from this feat of arms, but from that time the Spanish leader was the Abbey's greatest benefactor. His memory was kept alive in the Community until the other day by a series of paintings on one of the aisles of the Abbey Church. (Continued on Back Cover.)
Monte Cassino
"Evacuated" The Germans say that the Abbey of Monte (1,.ssino, the cradle of the Benedictine Order, has been evacuated, and that only the Abbot remains there. The other monks "were taken to Rome by the German authorities' (according to D.N.B,) and are there lodged in the Abbey of San Paolo Puori le Mum and on the Aventine. "The treasures have been removed to a place of safety with the help of the German military authorities Those so removed include
approximately 40,000 parchments and codices, of which the oldest dates from the sixth century, a Hebrew bible of the ninth century, a "Liber Morallum" with notes by St. Thomas Aquinas, the chronicle of Monte Cassino by Leo of Ostia, a "Divina Commedia" of the fourteenth century, and many others." We find an ominous note in these references to the help of the German authorities in all these operations. German assistance in Ihe evacuation of We the Vatican itself is pogaible. hardly suppose that the monks of Monte Cassino themselves took the decision to go away.-"The Tablet," November 13th,)
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