Monastery of Saint Benedict

Saint Benedict's grotto

una delle nostre immagini

In the lower church is the entrance to the Holy Cave (Sacro Speco), called also "Grotto of Prayers", which is the main point of reference of all the shrine.

It is the tortous ravine of Talèo Mount where; as St. Gregory the Great wrote in the II book of the "Dialogues", St. Benedict retired to hermitic life for three years without anyone knowing it, a part from God and monk Romanus, who let him down some food from the edge of the overtopping rock by a long rope.

After Florentius' attempt to poison him, St. Benedict left the grotto, which remained only a place to pray in for the monks of St. Scholastica's monastery. The cave's altar-piece is a Cosmatan construction of the XIIIth century. In the light of twelve lamps, one sees the white statue of Antonio Raggi (1657) disciple of Bernini, which represents St. Benedict as a young man who hid arms on his breast and his eyes fixed on the Cross.

The bare rock is an invitation to reflection and recollection; the remembrance of an heroic penance conceivable only to him who sees the world in the light of God is very moving and in the shadow of this cave prayer spontaneously burst forth from the heart.