In the town of Subiaco, home of the papacy's former summer residence, the ruins of Nero's giant villa, and the monasteries of Benedict and Scholastica, and ten others, we came upon this unexpected place of worship. The headquarters (or maybe midquarters or footquarters) of the Communist Party. I think the party's office workers were slightly taken aback at the evident glee this find caused our entire group of thirty students.
Walking the steps that lead from the bottom of the mountain up to the monastery of St. Scholastica, and then, a couple thousand steps beyond this first place of meditation, that monastery named after her famous brother, St. Benedict. At the head of this group is our beloved Dublin-native chaplain, Fr. Mark.
Halfway up the mountain. Subiaco is laid out before us, built at the base of, and all the way up a mountain, the whole amazing thing culminates in the fortress of the papacy's ancient and now abandoned summer residence.
Leaving the monastery of St. Scholastica.
The monastery of St. Benedict. The whole fortress-like building is built on the edge of a cliff that houses the famous network of caves, and especially the one cave, where Benedict spent three completely solitary years in meditation and prayer, unknown to anyone but for one man who every day lowered a basket of bread into his cave. The network of caves has since been turned into a intricate series of chapels and frescoes that wind down four or five levels.
Monastery of St. Benedict.
The cave where Benedict spent those three years.
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