A REMARKABLE ABBEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13722, 11 April 1908, Page 5 (Supplement)

A REMARKABLE ABBEY.

The Nation contains an interesting account of a visit to the famous Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino. "Darkness had set in," says the writer, " when at last we reached the base of the mountain and braced ourselves for the 1500 ft climb. Mist filled the valley, shrouding the lights of the town below. Scarce a sound came up to stir the lonely silence into life. The rocky footpath jarred our tired feet; its windings seemed endless. And then, quite unexpectedly, •it turned into a bit of straight road leading into the still open door of the monastery. . . . Northerners accustomed to Gothic architecture's restful lines may at first be disconcerted by the elaborate barocco of Monte Cassino. Excepting the frescoed ceiling and doorway, every available inch of the churcheven to the chancel steps —is covered with mosaics. You stand as in a casket of , innumerable gems. "But the spaciousness of the building and the harmony of its colours prevent it from being overpowering, and so perfect is the work that you can hardly see the joining 01 the stones; but it seems as if Nature had happily designed the veimngsof her marbles to* run into that intricate yet or.derly pattern. "St. .Benedict's body, with that of his sister, Santa Scholastic*, lies buried under the high altar of what is the fourth church (founded in 1637 and consecrated in 1729) since the one that St. Benedict built when he came front Subiaco to Monte Cassino in 529. Some "of its outer pillars are said— though with what truth cannot be toldto have belonged to the very temple of Apollo, whose worship St. Benedict rooted out from the mountain, though much opposed by our ghostly enemy, who, says legend, threw (town a wall upon a, monkish builder. But the monk was extricated, miraculously unharmed. The only authentic relics 01 antiquity in the. building of the church are its bronze doors, engraved in silver letters with all the possessions of the house, which were made in Constantinople in 1066 for the Abbot Desiderins, afterwards Pope Victor in. But near the gate of the- monastery the monks can show you some old wall with a Byzantine window or two which are at least near St. Benedict's time; and what is believed to have been the Saint's own cell, which German Benedictines decorated a fewyears ago with some rather indifferent frescoes. . "It is surprising that there should be even so much, for after St. Benedict's death the house underwent many vicissitudes. It was pillaged by Lombards and lay waste for 150 years, while the monks sheltered in Rome. It was raided by the Saracens, the monks fleeing to Tea-no, 'where— grievous of all, perhaps—St. Benedict's own rule was accidentally burned. Every passing invader made it "the object of his unwelcome attentions. In St. Thomas Aquinas' day it had degenerated into a" mere weapon factory; but this was put a stop to by Pope Alexander IV. Still, between recurring peril and exile, the monks enjoyed the greatest glory. Charlemagne visited it and gave the title of Chaplains of the Empire. Ecclesiastics intrigued against- each other for the wealthy headship of the house'; and abbots fared like princes and dressed their servants in silk and cloth of gold. How different from such storms and barbaric brilliance is the studious repose of to-day! In 1865 Monte Cassino was declared a national monument' for the sake of its splendid library; and the monks now keep a school of 200 pupils, among whom are the sons of several Italian deputies, and even members of the Government.