San Vincenzo al Volturno
Encyclopedia
San Vincenzo al Volturno is an historic Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
located in the territories of the Comune of Castel San Vincenzo
Castel San Vincenzo
Castel San Vincenzo is a comune in the Province of Isernia in the Italian region Molise, located about 50 km west of Campobasso and about 15 km northwest of Isernia...
, in the Province of Isernia
Province of Isernia
The Province of Isernia is a province in the Molise region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Isernia....
, near the source of the river Volturno
Volturno
The Volturno is a river in south-central Italy.-Geography:It rises in the Abruzzese central Apennines of Samnium near Rocchetta a Volturno and flows southeast as far as its junction with the Calore River near Caiazzo and runs south as far as Venafro, and then turns southwest, past Capua, to...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The current monastery, housing a group of American nuns, is located to the east of the river, while the archaeological monastery of the early Middle Ages was located on the west.
The medieval history of the monastery appears in the Chronicon Vulturnense, an illuminated manuscript. A monk of the monastery, Iohannes, composed the Chronicle in circa 1130, using sources from the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries which were available him, probably in the monastery archives, as well as hagiographic inclusions about some of the historic figures. The aims of the Chronicle may have been to codify the memory of the community and its history in the face of Norman expansion in southern Italy
Norman conquest of southern Italy
The Norman conquest of southern Italy spanned the late eleventh and much of the twelfth centuries, involving many battles and many independent players conquering territories of their own...
. The manuscript, written in a Beneventan hand and including numerous images, is presently housed at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, BAV Barb. lat. 2724.
The monastery has been the subject of long-running archaeological investigation, which took place in a number of campaigns. In the 1970s Dom Angelo Pantoni, a monk from Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...
excavated the area to the east of the river, where the later medieval monastery was built. The San Vincenzo Project began in 1980, led by Richard Hodges, then of the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
, and the Soprintendenza archaeologica del Molise
Molise
Molise is a region of Southern Italy, the second smallest of the regions. It was formerly part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise and now a separate entity...
. Excavation continued between 1980-1986, in the area around the so-called Crypt of Epiphanius and the monastery on the west side of the river Volturno. These scientific excavations continued through the 1980s and 1990s under the direction of Hodges and with the support of the British School at Rome
British School at Rome
The British School at Rome was established in 1901 and granted a Royal Charter in 1912 as an educational institute in the fields of archaeology, literature, music, and history of Rome and Italy of every period, and for the study of the fine arts and architecture...
, the abbey of Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...
, and the Soprintendenza archaeologica del Molise. From 1999, the project has been directed by Federico Marazzi, of the Istituto Universitario Suor Orsola Benincasa, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
.
History
The monastery was founded on a site which had been occupied in the pre-Roman period by SamniteSamnium
Samnium is a Latin exonym for a region of south or south and central Italy in Roman times. The name survives in Italian today, but today's territory comprising it is only a small portion of what it once was. The populations of Samnium were called Samnites by the Romans...
peoples, and which had a villa or estate in the early to mid-fifth century. The late-antique fortified estate was abandoned in the fifth century, then in the mid-fifth century, a funerary church was constructed.
According to the Chronicon Vulturnense, the monastery was founded by three noblemen from Benevento
Benevento
Benevento is a town and comune of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, 50 km northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 m above sea-level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino and Sabato...
named Paldo, Tato and Taso, in 731. The story goes that they were advised to found the monastery on the banks of the Volturno by the abbot of the powerful Abbey of Farfa
Abbey of Farfa
Farfa Abbey is a territorial abbey in northern Lazio, central Italy. It is one of the most famous abbeys of Europe. It belongs to the Benedictine Order and is located about 60 km from Rome, in the commune of Fara Sabina, not far from the Fara Sabina railway station.-History:A legend in the...
, north of Rome. Thomas of Maurienne, the abbot of Farfa, suggested the site because, according to the Chronicle, it was home to an oratory founded by Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
. The Chronicle's emphasis on the Beneventan origin of the founders suggests that the early monastery enjoyed the patronage of the dukes of Benevento.
With the rise of the Franks
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
and the development of the Papal states
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
, the monastery's location on the border of Lombard and papal/Frankish territory became increasingly strategic. The abbots of the monastery in the late eighth century alternated between Franks and Lombards
Lombards
The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...
: Ambrosius Aupertus, elected 777, was a Frank; Poto, elected 781, was a Lombard. He was accused of disloyalty to the Franks for refusing to chant a hymn in honour of the Frankish family. The rest of the monks were obliged to swear an oath of loyalty. Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
conceded fiscal and jurisdictional privileges to the community, making it one of the most independent and powerful abbeys of Europe. The abbots Iosue, Talaricus and Epiphanius in the early ninth century increased the numbers of monks to over 300 and expanded the territories and possessions all over central and southern Italy.
The Chronicle reports that 848 the abbey was damaged by an earthquake. In 860, Sawdan, emir of Bari, was paid a handsome tribute not to sack the monastery. In 881, however, Saracens paid by the Duke of Naples, Athanasius
Athanasius of Naples
Athanasius was the Bishop and Duke of Naples from 878 to his death. He was the son of Gregory III and brother of Sergius II, whom he blinded and deposed in order to seize the throne while he was already bishop....
, burned and raided the monastery. Surviving monks fled to Capua
Capua
Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...
. They returned in 914 to reconstruct a monastery, but only at the end of the tenth century were they able to reestablish the community in a permanent way, and then with the aid of the emperors Otto II and Otto III. The location of the monastery was transferred to a new, more defensible position on the east side of the river. In 1115 Pope Paschal II
Pope Paschal II
Pope Paschal II , born Ranierius, was Pope from August 13, 1099, until his death. A monk of the Cluniac order, he was created cardinal priest of the Titulus S...
consecrated the new abbey church. The twelfth-century Norman conquest of Abruzzo
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
eventually led to the break-down of the monastery's power. In 1349 a schism split the monastery and left the area open to the expansion of the abbey of Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...
. The monastery was occupied by increasingly fewer monks, and from the fifteenth century it was governed externally. In 1669 the monastery and all its remaining properties were awarded to Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...
.
The monastery was bombed in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and severely damaged. In 1989 San Vincenzo al Volturno became home to a new monastic community, the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
nuns of Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
Regina Laudis.
Further reading
- Topografia e strutture degli insediamenti monastici dall'età carolingia all'età della riforma (secoli VIII - XI), Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Castel San Vincenzo 22-24 settembre 2004, ed. Flavia De Rubeis e Federico Marazzi (Rome, 2008).
- San Vincenzo al Volturno. Guida allo scavo, ed. Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise (Campobasso, 2006).
- San Vincenzo al Volturno. Vita quotidiana di un monastero attraverso i suoi reperti’’, ed. Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise (Campobasso, 2006).
- La "terra" di San Vincenzo al Volturno, ed. Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise (Campobasso, 2006).
- Marazzi, Federico and K. Strutt. "San Vincenzo al Volturno 1999-2000. Interventi di diagnostica preliminare suil campo", inScavi Medievali in Italia 1996-199, ed. S. Patitucci Uggeri (Atti della II Conferenza Italiana di Archeologia Medievale)(Rome, 2001), pp. 325-344.
- Hodges, Richard. Light in the Dark Ages. The Rise and Fall of San Vincenzo al Volturno (London / Ithaca: Duckworth / Cornell University Press, 1997)
- Hodges, Richard and Federico Marazzi, C. Coutts and W. Bowden. "Excavations at San Vincenzo al Volturno: 1995", in Archeologia Medievale, XXIII (1996), pp. 467-476.
- Hodges, Richard with John Mitchell, La basilica di Giosue a San Vincenzo al Volturno (Montecassino, 1997). Revised English edition published in 1996 as The Abbey of Abbot Joshua at San Vincenzo al Volturno.
- Hodges, Richard with John Mitchell, San Vincenzo al Volturno: the archaeology, art and territory of an early medieval monastery (Oxford, 1985).