Sr. Sandra (left) and Sr. Lynne traveled to Rome this past summer. |
Sr. Lynne and Sr. Sandra's This month, we’re continuing a series of articles on our website to share with you highlights from the Benedictine pilgrimage and renewal experience in which Sr. Sandra and I participated in June and July 2006.
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Rome Pilgrimage II—Norcia
At the beginning of the fourth week of the pilgrimage we made a pilgrimage to Norcia seventy miles northeast of Rome in Umbria. Benedict and Scholastica were born there around 480. Modern-day Norcia called Nursia in the fifth century, still has its ancient walls in tact. Inhabited before the time of the Etruscans (8th century BCE), the city was named in honor of the Etruscan goddess Nortia. The lion is the city’s insignia representing the fierce resistance residents of the city put up when the Lombards conquered them.
During our pilgrimage this day we prayed at various points along the way. Our first prayer time was on the bus on the way to Norcia. We kept a half hour of silence for reflection and then had a time of prayer together.
Norcia’s streets are too narrow for a bus, so our driver dropped us off at the gate of the city and we walked to the center of town to the Piazza San Benedetto. Here you can see Sr. Sandra standing by the statue of Saint Benedict in the middle of the plaza. The church of St. Benedict which faces the plaza is built on the site where tradition says Benedict and Scholastica were born. On either side of the front door are small statues of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica. Note the lions at the base of the columns on either side of the statues.  |
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Our second prayer station was in the upper church of St. Benedict after we had had time to look at the art in the church. Here you can see the ambo and altar of the church. The sculptures were commissioned for the jubilee of 2000. From there we moved to the lower church over the site of the twins’ birth. |  |
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In this lower chapel we held our third time of prayer on this day of pilgrimage. Here there are excavations showing portions of the walls of a Roman house from the first or second century CE. A small chapel in the lower church is venerated as the birth place of the twins. |
After visiting St. Benedict’s church we had free time to visit other sites in Norcia. I spent time in the Museum that houses Etruscan artifacts. I also visited some of the other churches in Norcia. At noon we met at the Abbey of St. Antonio Abate, founded in 1406. Here is a picture of me between Australian sisters in our group Maureen and Helen at the entrance to the abbey. The abbey is home to a Benedictine women’s community of 14 members whose principle works are hospitality and book binding. They served us a wonderful meal of pasta, salad, fresh bread and fruit. Four of the sisters in the community are Philippina. One of the sisters in our group was Philippine-American. So they enjoyed visiting with one another.
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After lunch, we returned to the bus and traveled three kilometers outside of Norcia to the site of Benedict and Scholastica’s family’s country home. It is thought to be the site where Scholastica gathered other women to live the monastic life with her until they moved to Cassino. In the seventh century a church was built here in memory of that tradition. You can see a picture of the exterior of the current structure of the church that dates from the 15th century. |
This was our fourth prayer station of the day’s pilgrimage. In this cradle of women’s Benedictine monasticism, we renewed our vows. It was quite a moving experience. The interior of the church is decorated with a series of frescos from St. Benedict’s life which were discovered during the restoration in 1977 following an earthquake. The church is still in a state of disrepair. Of great interest to us were the faces of St. Scholastica that were visible as part of an earlier layer of frescos under those of Benedict’s life. Those frescos of St. Scholastica were done 20-30 years before those of Benedict. I’ve included a picture here in which you can see St. Scholastica’s face in a fresco of Benedict. Here also is a picture of one of the frescos of Benedict’s life. This one shows a jealous priest (the small figure on the right) bringing Benedict a poison loaf of bread. |
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I think the feelings I had on this day were shared by others. We left St. Scholastica’s Church with hearts overflowing with love for the monastic vocation God had given us and for our foremother in this life.
Next month I'll share the story and pictures from our day trip to Subiaco which is the monastery built around the cave where Saint Benedict spent three years after leaving his studies in Rome.