Tre Fontane Abbey
Encyclopedia
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, currently held by the Trappist
TRAPPIST
TRAPPIST is Belgian robotic telescope in Chile which came online in 2010, and is an acronym for TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, so named in homage to Trappist beer produced in the Belgian region. Situated high in the Chilean mountains at La Silla Observatory, it is actually...
Fathers of the Cistercian Order. It is known for raising the lambs whose wool is used to weave the pallia
Pallium
The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has always remained unambiguously...
of new metropolitan archbishops. The Pope blesses the lambs on the Feast of Saint Agnes
Saint Agnes
Agnes of Rome is a virgin–martyr, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism. She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass...
on January 21. The wool is prepared, and he gives the pallia to the new archbishops on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the Holy Apostles.
History
Belonging to the monastery are three separate churches. The first, the Church of St. Paul of Three FountainsSan Paolo alle Tre Fontane
San Paolo alle Tre Fontane , in English, St Paul at the Three Fountains is a church dedicated to St Paul the Apostle, at the presumed site of his martyrdom in Rome...
, was raised on the spot where St. Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
was beheaded by order of Emperor Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
. Legend says that when severed from the body, the head bounced and struck the earth in three different places, from which fountains sprang up. These still flow and are located in the sanctuary.
The second, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title "Our Lady of Martyrs", is built over the relics of Saint Zeno and his 10,203 legionaries, who were martyred at the order of Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
in 299. In this church is the altar Scala Coeli ("ladder to heaven"), from which the church receives its present name.
Third are the church and monastery dedicated to saints Vincent
Vincent of Saragossa
Saint Vincent of Saragossa, also known as Vincent Martyr, Vincent of Huesca or Vincent the Deacon, is the patron saint of Lisbon. His feast day is 22 January in the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Communion and 11 November in the Eastern Orthodox Churches...
and Anastasius
Anastasius of Persia
Saint Anastasius of Persia , once a member of the Zoroastrian Magi caste, became a convert of the Holy Cross and was martyred in 628....
, built by Pope Honorius I
Pope Honorius I
Pope Honorius I was pope from 625 to 638.Honorius, according to the Liber Pontificalis, came from Campania and was the son of the consul Petronius. He became pope on October 27, 625, two days after the death of his predecessor, Boniface V...
in 626 and given to the Benedictines. They were to care for the two older sanctuaries, as well as their own church.
Toward the middle of the seventh century, the persecutions inflicted on the Eastern monks by the Monothelites obliged many of them to seek shelter in Rome. The pope committed this abbey to them as a refuge. The abbey was richly endowed, particularly by 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...
, who bestowed on it Orbetello
Orbetello
Orbetello is a town and comune in the province of Grosseto , Italy. It is located c. 35 km south of Grosseto, on the eponymous lagoon, which is home to an important Natural Reserve.-History:...
and eleven other towns with a considerable territory. Its abbot exercises ordinary jurisdiction (abbatia nullius) over this area.
In the tenth century, it was given to the Cluniacs. In 1140 Pope Innocent II withdrew the abbey from them, and entrusted it to St. Bernard
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...
. He assigned a Cistercian colony from Clairvaux
Clairvaux Abbey
Clairvaux Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in Ville-sous-la-Ferté, 15 km from Bar-sur-Aube, in the Aube département in northeastern France. The original building, founded in 1115 by St. Bernard, is now in ruins; a high-security prison, the Clairvaux Prison, now occupies the grounds...
to the abbey, with Peter Bernard of Paganelli as their abbot, who five years later became Pope Eugene III.
When Innocent granted the monastery to the Cistercians, he had the church repaired and the monastic quarters rebuilt according to the usages of the order. Of the fourteen regular abbots who governed the abbey, several besides Blessed Eugene III became cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
s, legates, or bishops. Pope Honorius III restored the Church of Saints Vincent and Anastasius and personally consecrated it in 1221. At the same service, seven cardinals consecrated the seven altars within.
Cardinal Branda da Castiglione
Branda da Castiglione
Branda da Castiglione was an early Italian humanist, a papal diplomat and a Roman Catholic cardinal, or pseudo-Cardinal, as he was raised to the cardinalate by John XXIII, later declared an anti-pope.-Early career:He was born to a Milanese noble family related to Goffredo Castiglioni, Pope...
became the first commendatory abbot
Commendatory abbot
A commendatory abbot is an ecclesiastic, or sometimes a layman, who holds an abbey in commendam, drawing its revenues but not exercising any authority over its inner monastic discipline...
in 1419. Subsequently, this office was often filled by a cardinal. The cardinals and future popes Clement VII and Clement VIII held this position. In 1519 Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X , born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses...
authorized the religious to elect their own regular superior, a claustral prior independent of the commendatory abbot, who from this time forward was always to be a cardinal.
From 1625, when the abbey was affiliated to the Cistercian Congregation of St. Bernard in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
, until its suppression at the Napoleonic invasion in 1812, the local superior was a regular abbot, but without prejudice to the commendatory abbot. The best known of this series of regular abbots was the second, Dom Ferdinand Ughelli, who was one of the foremost literary men of his age, the author of "Italia Sacra" and numerous other works.
From 1812 the sanctuaries were deserted, until Leo XII removed them from the nominal care of the Cistercians in 1826, and transferred them to the Friars Minor of the Strict Observance. The purpose of the pontiff was not accomplished: the surroundings were so unhealthy that no community could live there.
In 1867 Pius IX appointed as commendatory abbot of Tre Fontane his cousin Cardinal Milesi-Ferretti, who worked to improve the physical surroundings. To ensure the sanctuaries were cared for, he committed the monastery to the Cistercians. A community was sent there in 1868 from La Grande Trappe to institute the regular life and to try to improve the healthiness of the lands. From long neglect they had been called the tomba (graveyard) of the Roman Campagna.
When 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...
were incorporated in the Italian kingdom in 1870, the friars remained at Tre Fontane. They first rented and then purchased it from the government in 1886, including an additional tract of 1234 acres (5 km²). They inaugurated modern methods to eliminate conditions that allowed the prevalence of chronic malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
, which had adversely affected local health. They planted numerous eucalyptus
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...
and other trees, an experiment insisted upon by the government in the contract of sale. The trial proved a success, so that the vicinity became nearly as healthful as Rome.