Vallumbrosan Order
Encyclopedia
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...
congregation, which derives its name from the motherhouse, Vallombrosa
Vallombrosa
Vallombrosa is a Benedictine abbey in the comune of Reggello , c. 30 km south-east of Florence, in the Apennines, surrounded by forests of beech and firs. It was founded by Giovanni Gualberto, a Florentine noble, in 1038 and became the mother house of the Vallumbrosan Order.It was extended...
(Latin Vallis umbrosa, 'shady valley'), situated c. 30 km from Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
on the northwest slope of Monte Secchieta in the Pratomagno chain.
Foundation
The founder, a Florentine named Gualberto Visdomini, was born in the year 985 or 995, and died at Passignano in the year 1073, on 12 July, (his feast day is still celebrated on this day); he was canonized in 1193. Because one of his relatives was murdered, his duty was to avenge the deceased. He met the murderer in a narrow lane and was about to slay him, but when the man threw himself upon the ground with arms outstretched in the form of a cross, John forgave him through the love of Christ. On his way home, he entered the Benedictine Church at San MiniatoSan Miniato
San Miniato is a town and comune in the province of Pisa, in the region of Tuscany, Italy.San Miniato sits at an historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno valley between the valleys of Egola and Elsa...
to pray, and the figure on the crucifix bowed its head to him in recognition of his generosity. This story forms the subject of Burne-Jones's picture "The Merciful Knight", and has been adapted by Shorthouse in "John Inglesant".
John Gualbert became a Benedictine monk at San Miniato, but left that monastery to lead a more perfect life. His attraction was for the cenobitic
Cenobitic
Cenobitic monasticism is a monastic tradition that stresses community life. Often in the West, the community belongs to a religious order and the life of the cenobitic monk is regulated by a religious rule, a collection of precepts...
, and not eremitic life, so after staying for some time with the monks at Camaldoli
Camaldoli
Camaldoli is a frazione of the comune of Poppi, in Tuscany, Italy. It is mostly known as the ancestral seat of the Camaldolese monastic order, originated in the eponymous hermitage, which can still be visited....
, he settled at Vallombrosa, where he founded his monastery. Mabillon estimates its foundation at a little before 1038. Here, it is said, he and his first companions lived for some years as hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
s, but this is rejected by Martène as inconsistent with the reason for leaving Camaldoli. The chronology of the early days of Vallombrosa has been much disputed. The dates given for the founder's conversion varying between 1004 and 1039, and a recent Vallumbrosan writer places his arrival at Vallombrosa as early as 1008. We reach surer ground with the consecration of the church by Rotho
Rotho
Rotho von Büren was from 1036 to 1051 Bishop of Paderborn. He was from a noble family, of the Counts of Werl, Westphalia....
, Bishop of Paderborn, in 1038, and the donation by Itta, abbess of the neighbouring monastery of Sant' Ellero, of the site of the new foundation in 1039. The abbess retained the privilege of nominating the superiors, but this right was granted to the monks by pope Victor II
Pope Victor II
Pope Victor II , born Gebhard, Count of Calw, Tollenstein, and Hirschberg, was Pope from 1055 to 1057. He was one of a series of German reform Popes.-Life:...
, who confirmed the order in 1056. Two centuries later, in the time of Alexander IV, the nunnery was united with Vallombrosa in spite of the protests of the nuns.
Postulant
A postulant was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a monastery or a convent, both before actual admission and for the length of time preceding their admission into the novitiate...
s, since few could endure the extraordinary austerity of the rule. Thus only one other monastery, that of San Salvi
San Salvi
San Salvi, also known as San Michele a San Salvi, is a church in Florence, Italy.The church was built in the 11th century by the Vallombrosans as part of an abbey complex. During the 1529 Siege of Florence, the church was partially destroyed. It was reconstructed in accordance with its original...
at Florence, was founded during this period. But when the founder had mitigated his rule somewhat, three more monasteries were founded and three others reformed and united with the order during his lifetime. The early Vallombrosans took a considerable part in the struggle of the popes against simony , of which the most famous incident was the ordeal by fire undertaken successfully by St. Peter Igneus in 1068 (Delarc, op. cit.). Shortly before this the monastery of S. Salvi had been burned and the monks ill-treated by the anti-reform party. These events still further increased the reputation of Vallombrosa.
Development
After the founder's death the order spread rapidly. A papal bullPapal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
of Urban II in 1090, which took Vallombrosa under the protection of the Holy See, enumerated fifteen monasteries aside from the motherhouse. Twelve more are mentioned in a bull of Paschal II in 1115, and twenty-four others in those of Anastasius IV (1153) and Adrian IV (1156). By the time of Innocent III they numbered over sixty. All were situated in Italy, except two monasteries in Sardinia (now part of Italy).
About 1087 Andrew of Vallombrosa (d. 1112) founded the monastery of Cornilly in the Diocese of Orléans, and in 1093 the Abbey of Chezal-Benoît
Chezal-Benoît
Chezal-Benoît is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre region of France.-Geography:An area of lakes and streams, farming and forestry comprising a village and a couple of hamlets situated in the valley of the small river Mouzet, some southwest of Bourges at the junction of the D18 with...
, which later became the head of a considerable Benedictine congregation. There are no grounds for the legend given by some writers of the order of a great Vallombrosan Congregation in France with an abbey near Paris, founded by king St. Louis.
The Vallombrosan Congregation was reformed in the middle of the fifteenth century by Cassinese Benedictines, and again by John Leonardi
John Leonardi
Saint John Leonardi was founder of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca. He was born in the City-state of Lucca, Tuscany, in the year 1541. He was ordained as a priest in 1572. He first dedicated himself to the Christian formation of young people in his parish...
at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
In 1485, certain abbeys with that of San Salvi at Florence at their head, which had formed a separate congregation, were reunited to the motherhouse by Innocent VIII. At the beginning of the sixteenth century an attempt was made by Abbot-General Milanesi to found a house of studies on university lines at Vallombrosa; but in 1527 the monastery was burned by the troops of Emperor Charles V. It was rebuilt by Abbot Nicolini in 1637, and in 1634 an observatory was established.
From 1662–1680 the order was united to the Sylvestrines
Sylvestrines
The Sylvestrines are an order of monks under the Benedictine rule forming the Sylvestrine Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation. The order was founded in 1231 by Saint Sylvester Gozzolini....
.
In 1808 Napoleon I
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's troops plundered Vallombrosa, and the monastery lay deserted till 1815. It was finally suppressed by the Italian Government in 1866. A few monks still remain to look after the church and meteorological station, but the abbey buildings have become a school of forestry that was founded in 1870 on the German model, the only one of its kind in Italy. Vallombrosa is also a health resort.
The decline of the order may be ascribed to the hard fate of the motherhouse, to commendams, and to the perpetual wars which ravaged Italy. Practically all the surviving monasteries were suppressed during the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The present Vallombrosan monasteries, besides Vallombrosa itself, are: Passignano, where St. John Gualbert is buried; Santa Trinita
Santa Trinita
Santa Trinita is a church in central Florence, Italy. It is the mother church of the Vallumbrosan Order of monks, founded in 1092 by a Florentine nobleman...
at Florence, where the abbot-general resides; Sta Prassede, in Rome; ; and the celebrated sanctuary of Montenero near Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
.
The genaral abbot in charge is Rev. Dom. Giuseppe Casetta OSB. Padre Pierdamiano Spotorno is the Archivist and Librarian of Congregation. Professor Francesco Salvestrini of University of Florence is now the major studious of the congregation.
Rule and functioning
St. John adopted the Rule of St. Benedict but added greatly to its austerity and penitential character. His idea was to unite the ascetic advantages of the eremitic life to a life in community, while avoiding the dangers of the former.Severe scourging was inflicted for any breach of rule, silence was perpetual, poverty most severely enforced. The rule of enclosure was so strict that the monks might not go out even on an errand of mercy.
The main point of divergence lay in the prohibition of the manual work, which is prescribed by St. Benedict. St. John's choir monks were to be pure contemplatives and to this end he introduced the system of lay-brothers who were to attend to the secular business. He was among the first to systematize this institution, and it is probable that it was largely popularized by the Vallumbrosans. The term conversi (lay brother
Lay brother
In the most common usage, lay brothers are those members of Catholic religious orders, particularly of monastic orders, occupied primarily with manual labour and with the secular affairs of a monastery or friary, in contrast to the choir monks of the same monastery who are devoted mainly to the...
s) occurs for the first time in Abbot Andrew of Strumi's Life of St. John, written at the beginning of the twelfth century.
The Vallumbrosans do not, strictly speaking, form a separate order, but a Benedictine congregation, though they are not united to the confederated congregations of the Black Monks. The oldest extant manuscript of the customs of Vallombrosa shows a close relationship with those of Cluny. The Vallumbrosans should be regarded only as Benedictines who followed the customs observed at that time by the Black Benedictines throughout Europe. "Horror of simony was a special bond between them and Cluny, and it was only special circumstances which caused them later to be looked upon as a peculiar institute within the Benedictine order" (Albers, op. cit. infra).
The habit, originally grey, then tawny coloured, is now that of the Black Monks.
The abbots were originally elected for life but are now elected at the general chapter, held every four years. The Abbot of Vallombrosa, the superior of the whole order, had formerly a seat in the Florentine Senate and bore the additional title of Count of Monte Verde and Gualdo.
The shield of the order shows the founder's arm in a tawny-coloured cowl grasping a golden crutch-shaped crozier on a blue ground.
The services rendered by the order have been mostly in the field of asceticism. Besides the Vallumbrosan saints alluded to in other parts of this article there may also be mentioned: St. Veridiana, anchoress (1208–42); Giovanni Dalle Celle (feast, 10 March); the lay brother Melior (1 August). By the middle of the seventeenth century the order had supplied twelve cardinals and more than 30 bishops. F. E. Hugford (1696–1771, brother of the painter Ignazio Hugford
Ignazio Hugford
Ignazio Hugford, or Ignatius Heckford , was an Italian painter active mostly in Tuscany in an early Neoclassic style.- Life and work :...
), is well known as one of the chief promoters of the art of scagliola
Scagliola
Scagliola , is a technique for producing stucco columns, sculptures, and other architectural elements that resemble inlays in marble and semi-precious stones...
(imitation of marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
in plaster). Abbot-General Tamburini's works on canon law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
are well known. Galileo was for a time a novice at Vallombrosa and received part of his education there.
Nuns
Shortly after the founder's death we find attached to the monastery of Vallombrosa lay sisters who, under the charge of an aged lay brother, lived in a separate house and performed various household duties. This institute survived for less than a century, but when they ceased to be attached to the monasteries of monks, these sisters probably continued to lead a conventual life. Blessed Bertha d'Alberti (d. 1163) entered the Vallumbrosan Order at Florence and reformed the convent of CavrigliaCavriglia
Cavriglia is a comune in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 35 km southeast of Florence and about 35 km west of Arezzo...
in 1153.
St. Umiltà is usually regarded as the foundress of the Vallumbrosan Nuns. She was born at Faenza
Faenza
Faenza is an Italian city and comune, in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated 50 km southeast of Bologna.Faenza is noted for its manufacture of majolica ware glazed earthenware pottery, known from the name of the town as "faience"....
about 1226, was married, but with the consent of her husband, who became a monk, entered a monastery of canonesses and afterwards became an anchoress
Anchoress
Anchoress is a Canadian hardcore punk band that was formed in 2010.The band released their debut EP, Set Sail, via Bandcamp on 4 March 2011.-Members:* Rob Hoover – vocals* Keenan Federico – guitar* Chris Lennox-Aasen – drums* Ricky Castanedo – bass...
in a cell attached to the Vallumbrosan church of Faenza, where she lived for twelve years. At the request of the abbot-general she then founded a monastery outside Faenza and became its abbess. In 1282, she founded a second convent at Florence, where she died in 1310. She left a number of mystical writings.
In 1524, the nuns obtained the Abbey of S. Salvi, Florence. There are still Vallumbrosan nunneries at Faenza
Faenza
Faenza is an Italian city and comune, in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated 50 km southeast of Bologna.Faenza is noted for its manufacture of majolica ware glazed earthenware pottery, known from the name of the town as "faience"....
and San Gimignano
San Gimignano
San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. It is mainly famous for its medieval architecture, especially its towers, which may be seen from several kilometres outside the town....
, besides two at Florence. The relics of Bl. Umiltà and her disciple Bl. Margherita are venerated at the convent of Spirito Santo at Varlungo. The habit is similar to that of the Benedictine Nuns.
Notable Vallombrosans
- John Gualbert
- Bernard degli UbertiBernard degli UbertiSaint Bernard degli Uberti was an abbot of Vallombrosa, a bishop of Parma, papal legate, and a cardinal. A member of the noble Uberti family of Florence, he became a Vallumbrosan monk. He became abbot of San Salvi and was eventually elected the general-superior of the congregation...
- Peter Igneus
- VerdianaVerdianaSaint Verdiana is an Italian saint.Born at Castelfiorentino, Tuscany, of a noble family, somewhat impoverished but still prestigious, Verdiana was noted from an early age for her generosity and sense of charity. She made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela...
- Saint HumilitySaint HumilitySaint Humility was a founder of Vallumbrosan convents, and considered the founder of the Vallumbrosan Nuns....
Source
- I Vallombrosani in Lombardia (XI-XVIII secolo), A cura di F. Salvestrini, Milano-Lecco: ERSAF, 2011.
- F. Salvestrini, I vallombrosani in Liguria, Roma, Viella, 2010.
- F. Salvestrini, Disciplina Caritatis, Il monachesimo vallombrosano tra medioevo e prima età moderna, Roma, Viella, 2008.
- F. Salvestrini, Santa Maria di Vallombrosa. Patrimonio e vita economica di un grande monastero medievale, Firenze, Olschki,1998.