Pictures of Montecassino Abbey

Following up on yesterday’s post of pictures of the crypt of Montecassino Abbey, here are some of the main church and some of the things around it, starting with the most important part of it, the burial site of St Benedict and his sister St Scholastica, behind the high altar.

As I am sure our readers know, Montecassino Abbey was heavily bombed during World War II, and painstakingly restored afterwards. The magnificent baroque architectural decorations were very well restored, but the fresco work within parts of it is new - not ugly, and not exactly incongruous with the style of the rest of the building, but somehow lacking.  

The abbatial cathedra. Many abbeys have very nice thrones for the abbot, but in this case, it is set up like that of a bishop because until quite recently, Montecassino was a territorial abbey, meaning that the abbot functioned as the ordinary of the region around it. (For things that only a bishop can do, such as priestly ordinations, a bishop would visit from elsewhere.)

A very nice marble intarsia of the stem of Pope Benedict XVI, recently added to the base of one of the pillars.

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The Crypt of Montecassino Abbey

For the feast of St Benedict, here are some pictures of the crypt of the abbey of Montecassino, the site where he ended his days. The crypt was built in the early 16th century, and originally decorated with frescoes, but by the end of the 19th century, these had deteriorated so badly from the humidity that they were deemed unsalvageable. The decision was therefore made to replace them with mosaics designed and executed by monks of the famous artistic school of the German abbey of Beuron; this project was completed after 12 years of work. When the abbey was bombed in February of 1944, part of the central vault was destroyed (subsequently repaired), but the rest of it remained almost completely intact.

The relics of Ss Benedict and Scholastica are not in this chapel, but behind it, under the altar of the main church. (I will share some pictures of the latter tomorrow.)

The monuments to either side of the chapel which show them lying in effigy are cenotaphs, i.e., monuments made to look something like sarcophagi, but empty. 

On the proscenium arch just outside the sanctuary, an Angel stands in front of the kneeling figures of the titular abbot, and actual abbot, and Fr Desiderius Lenz, the monk of Beauron who led the project. I am not quite sure which scene is represented in the relief image below it.

On the opposite side, Popes Leo XIII and St Pius X, during whose reigns the project was executed.

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A Visit to the Abbey of Montecassino

For the feast of St Benedict, we are happy to publish some photos of the abbey of Montecassino taken by our friend Jordan Hainsey, who has shared a lot of beautiful images with us over the years, and was there recently during the Italian pilgrimage of St Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

The courtyard leading into the abbey church, which, like any good monastic foundation, has its own well.

The high altar.

The place in front of the main sanctuary where St Benedict was originally buried; there is still a debate as to whether his relics are still there, or were translated after the abbey was destroyed in the early Middle Ages to the French Abbey of Fleury, also known as Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire.

More decorations in the Neapolitan Baroque style, beautifully reconstructed after the church was destroyed during World War II.

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The Feast of St Benedict

Nihil operi Dei praeponatur - Let nothing be put before the Work of God. (The Rule of St Benedict, chapter 43. The “work of God” is here used to refer the Divine Office.)

The Funeral of St Benedict, by Spinello Aretino, 1388, in the sacristy of San Miniato in Florence.

St Benedict died on March 21 in the year 543 or 547, and this was the date on which his principal feast was traditionally kept, and is still kept by Benedictines; it is sometimes referred to on the calendars of Benedictine liturgical books as the “Transitus - Passing” There was also a second feast to honor the translation of his relics, which was kept on July 11. The location to which the relics were translated is still a matter of dispute, with the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy, founded by the Saint himself, and the French Abbey of Fleury, also known as Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, both claiming to possess them. This second feast is found in many medieval missals and breviaries, even in places not served by monastic communities. (It was not, however, observed by either the Cistercians or Carthusians.). The second feast was in a certain sense the more solemn in the traditional use of the Benedictines; March 21 always falls in Lent, and the celebration of octaves in Lent was prohibited, but most monastic missals have the July 11 feast with an octave. In the post-Conciliar reform of the Calendar, many Saints, including St Benedict, were moved out of Lent; in his case, to the day of this second feast in the Benedictine Calendar.

From Solesmes: A Beautiful Facsimile of a Montecassino Manuscript and a Flying Drone

Solesmes has published the latest volume in the Paléographie Musicale series. This beautiful volume is the 23rd in the series which began in 1889 and is the first to be published in colour. It is a facsimile of Montecassino MS 542, a 12th century antiphonary and a beautiful example of the distinctive Beneventan Chant which originated in the south of Italy. The book has an introduction and explanation (in French) of the notation by the scholar and musician Katarina Livljanić as well as a comprehensive index.

The photograph below shows the original manuscript and the first antiphon from Lauds on the Feast of the Holy Innocents: Herodes iratus occidit multos pueros in Bethlehem Judae civitate David. The damage sustained in a fire can be seen at the top.

The new edition can be purchased directly from Solesmes.

The video of Solesmes below was recently filmed by a drone and shows parts of the monastery usually hidden out of sight. The opening shot starts in the French Garden, the Abbey Church visible to the right, and moves towards the Maurist Priory building which contains both the Atelier of the Paléographie Musicale as well as Dom Gueranger's cell, exactly as he left it. The charming garden of the smaller Maurist Cloister can be seen, as well as the Great Cloister, in the corner of which is the small building (with turret roof) where the Abbot washes the hands of guests before they enter the refectory. The Abbot's octagonal cell juts out at first floor level over a small internal courtyard (1:30) next to the library at the heart of the complex. The classic view of Solesmes which ends the short video is taken from a little further upstream on the River Sarthe.