 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2023) |
Abbazia Santa Maria del Monte | |
 | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Order | Order of St. Benedict |
| Established | 1001 |
| Diocese | Cesena-Sarsina |
| Site | |
| Coordinates | 44°07′55″N12°15′18″E / 44.1319°N 12.2551°E |
The Abbey of Santa Maria del Monte (St. Mary of the Mountain) is a Benedictine monastery in Cesena, Italy. This imposing building stands on the Colle Spaziano (Spaziano Hill).
The abbey was founded about the year 1001 and completed by 1026, in connection with a small church which housed the remains of St. Mauro, a Benedictine monk who had been the Bishop of Cesena in the first half of the 10th century, and who had the custom of climbing the hill on which the abbey stands in order to pray. His vita was written by the Camaldolese monk and cardinal, Peter Damian. The abbey was confirmed in 1059 by a papal bull of Pope Nicholas II. [1]
The abbey benefited greatly when it received the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa as a guest in 1177. The emperor gave the abbey his protection and bestowed a large grant of land to the community. In 1317, Robert of Anjou donated two columns lying on the grounds of the monastery to the monastery of Santa Chiara he and his wife were building in Naples. [2] It is supposed that the columns were brought from Jerusalem by Barbarossa. [3] [4]
In 1356, however, the ruler of Forlì, Francesco II Ordelaffi, seized the monastery and used it as a barracks for his troops. The monks fled for over a year. Upon their return, they found the abbey in ruins. The reconstruction lasted for over a century. [1]
Between 1536 and 1548, the abbey church assumed its present-day appearance on the basis of a design by Domenico Gravini of Brisighella, who used an original design by Bramante. As the centre of the artistic life of Cesena, the Basilica del Monte also benefited from the work of major artists in the region: Scipione Sacco, and Girolamo Longhi. Important works are also attributable to Francesco Morandi, known as the Terribilia, to whom built the dome (decorated by Francesco Masini between 1568 and 1571) and original stone staircase, and to Alessandro Corsi who in 1588 was the creator of the monumental well of the Great Cloister. The church also houses a wooden choir completed in 1575 by Giuseppe d’Alberto di Scalva.
In August 1758, Barnabas Chiaramonti, later Pope Pius VII was professed as a novice at the monastery. [5] The earthquake of 1768 destroyed the dome of the basilica. The dome was reconstructed by Pietro Carlo Borboni [6] and decorated by Giuseppe Milani between 1773 and 1774.
The abbey was suppressed in 1796 during the occupation of Italy by the French Revolutionary Army, under Napoleon Bonaparte. The monks were expelled and the contents of the abbey were sold off. The basilica was transferred to the care of the Conventual Franciscans until they too were suppressed in 1810, at which time it was administered by secular clergy. After the restoration of Italian rule, the abbey grounds were returned in 1814 by their current owner, Count Semprini, to Pope Pius VII, who was a native of the city. The pope re-established the abbey in 1819 and made it a part of the Congregation of Santa Giustina, part of a reform movement of monastic life which was headquartered in the Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua. [1]
One notable member of the community in this period was a young man who was received into the Order in 1827 under the name of Pietro Casaretto. He was later to institute a major reform of the Cassinese Congregation. [7]
The abbey was again suppressed in 1866. The monks were not able to return to resume their lives until 1874. [1] During World War II, the grounds were crowded with evacuees. The church sustained considerable damage from bombing. [8]
The abbey is also known for housing one of Europe's richest collection of ex-votos (votive tables that date back more than five centuries) During a visit in 1986, Pope John Paul II followed this custom and left one of his own. [1] The abbey is also known for a workshop for antique book restoration that continues to operate today.
Cesena is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about 15 kilometres from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137.
The Camaldolese Hermits of Mount Corona, commonly called Camaldolese is a monastic order of Pontifical Right for men founded by Saint Romuald. Its name is derived from the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli, high in the mountains of central Italy, near the city of Arezzo. Its members add the nominal letters E.C.M.C. after their names to indicate their membership in the congregation. Apart from the Roman Catholic monasteries, in recent times ecumenical Christian hermitages with a Camaldolese spirituality have arisen as well.
The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict.
Nonantola Abbey, dedicated to Saint Sylvester, is a former Benedictine monastery and prelature nullius in the commune of Nonantola, c. 10 km north-east of Modena, in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. The abbey church remains as a basilica and is the co-cathedral of the diocese of Modena-Nonantola.
Pomposa Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in the comune of Codigoro on the Adriatic coast near Ferrara, Italy. It was one of the most important in northern Italy, famous for the Carolingian manuscripts preserved in its rich library, one of the wealthiest of Carolingian repositories, and for the Romanesque buildings.
Casamari Abbey is a Cistercian abbey in the Province of Frosinone, Lazio, Italy, about 10 kilometers east-south-east of Veroli.
Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino is a complex located on the Piazza Cavalieri di Malta Square on the Aventine Hill in Rome's Ripa rione and overseen by the Benedictine Confederation and the Abbot Primate. The Sant'Anselmo complex, also known as the "Primatial Abbey of Sant'Anselmo" because it is the residence of the Abbot Primate, consists of: an ecclesiastical residential college known as the "College of Sant'Anselmo" ; a university known as the "Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm" ; the "Church of Sant'Anselmo" ; and the curial headquarters of the "Benedictine Confederation" and Abbot Primate. The complex and associated institutions are named in honor of the Benedictine monk Saint Anselm of Canterbury.
The Abbey of Sant'Antimo, Italian: Abbazia di Sant'Antimo, is a former Benedictine monastery located in Castelnuovo dell'Abate, in the comune of Montalcino, Tuscany, central Italy. It is approximately 10 km from Montalcino about 9 km from the Via Francigena, the pilgrim route to Rome. After many years of disuse, the abbey was reoccupied in 1992 by a small community of Premonstratensian Canons Regular. Since January 2016, the occupants are a community of monks of the Olivetan Benedictine order.
The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro Casaretto, O.S.B., as a reform of the way of life of monasteries of the Cassinese Congregation, formed in 1408, toward a stricter contemplative observance, and received final approval in 1872 by Pope Pius IX. After discussions between the two congregations at the start of the 21st century, approval was given by Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 for the incorporation of the Cassinese Congregation into its offshoot, the Subiaco Congregation. The expanded congregation was given this new name.
The Abbey of Saint Scholastica, also known as Subiaco Abbey, is located just outside the town of Subiaco in the Province of Rome, Region of Lazio, Italy; and is still an active Benedictine abbey, territorial abbey, first founded in the 6th century AD by Saint Benedict of Nursia. It was in one of the Subiaco caves that Benedict made his first hermitage. The monastery today gives its name to the Subiaco Congregation, a grouping of monasteries worldwide that makes up part of the Order of Saint Benedict.
San Giovanni Evangelista is a church in Parma, northern Italy, part of a complex also including a Benedictine convent and the San Giovanni Old pharmacy.
Ludovico Barbo, O.S.B. (1381–1443), also referred to as Luigi Barbo, was a significant figure in the movement to reform monastic life in northern Italy during the 15th century. Originally a canon of the community which became the Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga, he died a Benedictine abbot and Bishop of Treviso (1437–1443).
The Abbey of Santa Giustina is a 10th-century Benedictine abbey complex located in front of the Prato della Valle in central Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. Adjacent to the former monastery is the basilica church of Santa Giustina, initially built in the 6th century, but whose present form derives from a 17th-century reconstruction.
The Palazzo Ghini is a palace of the aristocratic Ghini family in Cesena, Italy. Located in Corso Sozzi, it is the best known of the five palaces of the same family. Its location in the old center of Cesena has been the site of many archeological finds indicating that several Roman buildings stood there in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC.
The Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga were a congregation of canons regular which was influential in the reform movement of monastic life in northern Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries.
Pietro Casaretto, O.S.B. (1810-1878) was an Italian Benedictine monk who established the Subiaco Congregation, an international federation of Benedictine monasteries, now part of the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation.
Praglia Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in the frazione of Bresseo in Teolo, Province of Padua, Italy. It is located at the foot of the Euganean Hills, some 12 kilometers southwest of Padua, and four kilometers from Abano Terme.
The Abbey of San Pietro al Monte is an small medieval monastic complex mostly dating to the 11th century, in Lombard Romanesque style, on a hill outside the town of Civate, province of Lecco, in northern Italy.
The Basilica of Santissimo Salvatore is a Roman Catholic church in Pavia, region of Lombardy, Italy. It was founded in 657 by the Lombard king Aripert I and became a mausoleum for many of the Lombard kings.
The abbey of Leno, or Badia leonense, was an ancient Benedictine monastic complex founded in 758 by the Lombard king Desiderius in the territory of the present-day town of Leno, in the Lower Brescian region. Demolished at the behest of the Venetian Republic in 1783, today only stone fragments of the ancient abbey remain, largely preserved in the Brescian museum of Santa Giulia, while burial mounds were found on site as a result of archaeological excavations held in 2003 by the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Lombardy.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
