of Carla Gambacorta
Eo te portai nillu meu ventre/ Quando te beio moro presente/ Nillu teu regnu àgime a mmente.
[I carried you in my womb. When I see you die before me. Remember me in your kingdom.] Some time ago Ignazio Baldelli pointed out the close connection between the Montecassino Benedictine culture and the Franciscan culture of the Spirituals of the Marche and Umbria (including Jacopone), realised through the Benedictine monks of Abruzzo of Pietro da Morrone (who was to become pope in 1294 with the name of Celestine V). In fact, in the three verses in the vernacular that we can read in the last of the four surviving papers of a Passion play, dating back to the 12th century, belonging to, and still conserved in, the monastery of Montecassino (founded by St. Benedict of Norcia), we can identify the origin of the Franciscan laud. Before the advent of Franciscanism, and in particular before the commendam, there were numerous Benedictine monasteries (male and female) in the diocesan territory of Assisi, of which let us mention the best known: the foundation of San Benedetto, situated on the hillside of Mount Subasio (originally dependent on the famous abbey of S. Maria di Farfa and since 1945 property of the monks of S. Pietro), and that of S. Pietro. However, monasticism in Assisi never succeeded in establishing particularly powerful foundations. Today, the monks of S. Pietro (who in the 12th century accepted the Cluniac reform, in the 13th century the Cistercian one) are the only legacy of the Benedictine male monastic tradition in Assisi. In fact, even though they left the abbey in 1577 on account of the commendam, in 1613, after a period in which the parish was assigned to secular priests, the monks returned to San Pietro where they still live today (whilst all the other male monasteries were abandoned). In a few words the commendam was the power to administer (and enjoy) the income of an ecclesiastical benefice that was entrusted to an ecclesiastic or even lay (physical or juridical) person. In our case the monks found themselves having to provide a certain income to the commendator who, however, most of the time was unaware of the actual state of the property he was administrating and who, as a result, could demand too high a prebend. The abbey of S. Pietro, dedicated to the Prince of the Apostles, originally built outside the walls and then annexed to the town in 1316 with the widening of the boundary walls, is documented as of 1029. The present-day construction, consecrated by Innocent IV in 1253, is ascribed to the 12th-13th centuries, whilst the upper part of the facade is from 1268, the epoch to which the Latin inscription engraved on the cornice of the small arches dates back (in the final part of the latter we read Mille ducenteni sunt octo sexque deni. Tempore abbatis Rustici). Setting aside the singularity of the monastic order in question, the relations between Benedictines and Franciscans appear to be numerous and specialised. In Assisi, in particular, precise and revealing events took place, and still do, some of which may briefly be mentioned here. When Franciscanism was founded, seven centuries after the birth of St. Benedict, Benedictine monasticism was experiencing a deep crisis, also documented by the numerous reforms underway for some centuries. In Assisi, the main cause of the multitude of controversies of monasteries with one another or of individual monasteries with the bishop, was related to issues connected with assets, lands, boundaries and ownership. It is precisely for this reason that it is particularly significant that the first Franciscan establishment, the Chapel of S. Maria della Porziuncola, belonging to the monastery on Monte Subasio, was donated by the chapter of Benedictine monks to St. Francis (who, in his search for a place where he could celebrate liturgical offices, had previously addressed himself both to the bishop, and to the canons of S. Rufino). In reality St. Francis never accepted ownership of the Porziuncola, which he restored - the primary aspiration of the mendicant order was poverty -, and in order to thank the abbot, and to highlight the relationship of dependence, each year he sent them a basket of fish as "payment of rent". This mutual helpfulness between Franciscans and Benedictines can be summed up in the custom of repayment with this traditional "basket of fish", initially carried out with the monks of the monastery of Monte Subasio. Then, after a forced suspension following the decline of that monastery, at the end of the 18th century the tradition was revived with the Benedictines of S. Pietro. It should be remembered, moreover, that the clothing of St. Clare also took place at the Porziuncola, where as a result the order of Poor Clares originated. Last but not least, this Saint was originally taken in at the female Benedictine monastery of S. Paolo in Bastia. The links between Franciscans and the Benedictine world do not finish here. The indulgence of the Porziuncola was requested by St. Francis at the Benedictine abbey of S. Pietro in Perugia (where Pope Honorius III was staying). It would also be opportune at this point to remember that one of the most important figures in the history of our town, Mons. Giuseppe Placido Nicolini, a Benedictine, bishop of Assisi from 1928 to 1973, supported at the Holy See (first with Pius XI and then with Pius XII) the request of the Friars Minor to proclaim St. Francis Patron Saint of Italy (1939) and St. Clare Patron Saint of Television (1958). No confrontation therefore. No antagonism. The benevolence shown by the Benedictines to the Franciscans is startlingly clear. The Benedictines of Assisi, the legacy of an extraordinary past - the 1500th anniversary of the birth of St. Benedict has recently been celebrated - and today industriously involved in the pastoral activity of the diocese, have their seat in an abbey of rare beauty (situated, moreover, near the Basilica of St. Francesco), which we hope will be restored to them and to us as soon as possible, after the damage caused by the earthquake of some three years ago.