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Mickey_Finn
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ROME - Before a series of devastating earthquakes destroyed the famed monastery and Basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia in October 2016, it was God and beer that helped sustain the 16-monk community in the cradle of Western monasticism.
Faithful to the Benedictine dictum of ora et labora (pray and work), the men are now set on rebuilding from scratch … once again, through praying and brewing.
Though the August 24, 2016, earthquake that killed 299 people affected Norcia severely, it was another, on October 30th, that determined the fate of the 12th century Basilica of St. Benedict, where the monks of Norcia dwelt.
Miraculously, their brewery, where they produce Birra Nursia, was mostly left intact.
Images of only the façade of the Church left standing circulated on social media, and it still remains as one of the emblematic pictures of those dreadful days. The European Union and the Italian government have promised to restore the historic basilica and monastery, a titanic job that might take at least a decade.
Since all the other churches in town were also destroyed, the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia, which owns the buildings, has decided that the spaces will have to be used by the diocese.
“For us, the only hope is in God,” said Father Benedict Nivakoff, prior of the community. He took over when his predecessor, who’d founded the community in Rome back in 2000, stepped down after the last earthquake, alleging he didn’t have the strength for what came next.
The monks arrived in Norcia invited by the local archbishop, residents and town officials, who wanted them to populate a priory that had been abandoned since 1810, when Napoleon suppressed monastic orders.
“We see that the earthquake, more than anything that can happen, reminds us as monks that we’re powerless, that we’re not in charge,” Nivakoff told Crux over the phone on Wednesday. “And it’s very freeing when you realize you’re not in charge, God is in charge, and if we trust in him, we prepare ourselves for eternity with him.”
Despite their heavenly aspirations, however, life in the monastery has to continue in a new location, just outside Norcia, and that’s a challenge the prior has accepted.
cruxnow.com/global-church/2017/08/26/beer-producing-monks-set-rebuilding-praying-brewing/
The Benedictine Monks of Norcia (Italian: Monastero di San Benedetto di Norcia) are members of the Order of St. Benedict and are located in Nursia, Italy, in the extreme southeast tip of Umbria beneath the slopes of the Sibylline mountains. The current monastery is physically located above the 5th century ruins of the house of St. Benedict and his twin sister St. Scholastica, and has been the location of monastic communities since the tenth century AD. The Basilica of St. Benedict was located on the traditional birthplace of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica. Today the Monks of Norcia care for the spiritual, pastoral, and temporal needs of approximately 50,000 pilgrims from around the world who annually visit the birthplace of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_St.Benedict(Norcia)
Like the Church itself, these monks have a history of rebuilding and carrying on. Their plans to rebuild their Monastery (a top an old capuchin monastery) include an earthquake resistant structure.
Adapt, and overcome.
Faithful to the Benedictine dictum of ora et labora (pray and work), the men are now set on rebuilding from scratch … once again, through praying and brewing.
Though the August 24, 2016, earthquake that killed 299 people affected Norcia severely, it was another, on October 30th, that determined the fate of the 12th century Basilica of St. Benedict, where the monks of Norcia dwelt.
Miraculously, their brewery, where they produce Birra Nursia, was mostly left intact.
Images of only the façade of the Church left standing circulated on social media, and it still remains as one of the emblematic pictures of those dreadful days. The European Union and the Italian government have promised to restore the historic basilica and monastery, a titanic job that might take at least a decade.
Since all the other churches in town were also destroyed, the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia, which owns the buildings, has decided that the spaces will have to be used by the diocese.
“For us, the only hope is in God,” said Father Benedict Nivakoff, prior of the community. He took over when his predecessor, who’d founded the community in Rome back in 2000, stepped down after the last earthquake, alleging he didn’t have the strength for what came next.
The monks arrived in Norcia invited by the local archbishop, residents and town officials, who wanted them to populate a priory that had been abandoned since 1810, when Napoleon suppressed monastic orders.
“We see that the earthquake, more than anything that can happen, reminds us as monks that we’re powerless, that we’re not in charge,” Nivakoff told Crux over the phone on Wednesday. “And it’s very freeing when you realize you’re not in charge, God is in charge, and if we trust in him, we prepare ourselves for eternity with him.”
Despite their heavenly aspirations, however, life in the monastery has to continue in a new location, just outside Norcia, and that’s a challenge the prior has accepted.
cruxnow.com/global-church/2017/08/26/beer-producing-monks-set-rebuilding-praying-brewing/
The Benedictine Monks of Norcia (Italian: Monastero di San Benedetto di Norcia) are members of the Order of St. Benedict and are located in Nursia, Italy, in the extreme southeast tip of Umbria beneath the slopes of the Sibylline mountains. The current monastery is physically located above the 5th century ruins of the house of St. Benedict and his twin sister St. Scholastica, and has been the location of monastic communities since the tenth century AD. The Basilica of St. Benedict was located on the traditional birthplace of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica. Today the Monks of Norcia care for the spiritual, pastoral, and temporal needs of approximately 50,000 pilgrims from around the world who annually visit the birthplace of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_St.Benedict(Norcia)
Like the Church itself, these monks have a history of rebuilding and carrying on. Their plans to rebuild their Monastery (a top an old capuchin monastery) include an earthquake resistant structure.
Adapt, and overcome.