Congregation of Cistercians of Casamari

CONGREGATION OF CISTERCIANS OF CASAMARI. - Cistercian abbey, in the diocese of Veroli, at a place called Cerate, the birthplace, according to tradition, of Gaius Marius, whence the name Casa Marii. Its origin goes back to 1005, through the work of four priests of Veroli, who had withdrawn there to a life of penance. After about thirty years of common life they received the Benedictine habit in the nearby monastery of Sora, founded by the holy abbot Dominic. They introduced a regular monastic life at C. and around the church, dedicated to Sts. John and Paul, they gave suitable order to the monastery, of which Benedict, one of the four, was elected abbot. He enlarged the building and increased the lands of the nascent abbey; his successors built churches in various places and increased its possessions. The abbot John, given the freedom and progress by then achieved, obtained from Nicholas II (1059-61) the praeceptum libertatis monasterii for himself and for his successors, a privilege confirmed by several pontiffs, and lastly by Honorius III with a bull of 21 April 1222.

Meanwhile, in 1152, the Benedictine monks, having fallen into decline, were succeeded by the Cistercians, who came from Fossanova, on the initiative of Eugene III. C. is the 29th daughter of Clairvaux. In 1203 Cardinal Cencio Savelli built the present monumental basilica in the Cistercian Gothic style, under the direction of Brother William, one of the many magistri operis who came out of the school of Fossanova. After 14 years the same Savelli, having become Pope Honorius III, consecrated it. The community grew and prospered until it became one of the principal monastic centers of central Italy. With the commenda came decline. In 1717 C. partly accepted the reform of La Trappe. Pius IX, on 7 Dec. 1864, erected it into an autonomous Congregation and on 25 Feb. approved its constitutions. Thereafter the abbey took on new vigor, the regular life flourished there again, and new daughter houses arose. In 1935 C. was chosen as the seat for the Work of the formation of the native monasticism for Ethiopia, which lasted until

1943. In 1929 Pius XI erected C. into a Congregation sui iuris with all its daughter houses. Finally Pius XII, with a brief of 13 July 1943, definitively approved its constitutions. Today the Congregation of C. numbers 12 houses with about 60 monks. The very rich archive of C. is for the most part preserved in the Vatican, the rest has been dispersed.

Angelo Savastano

ART

The abbey church is preceded by a portico with pillars and three arches, of which the side ones are pointed. The interior has three naves divided by cruciform pillars with the ribs of the ribbed vaults resting on hanging conical corbels turned upside down; the naves are all covered with vaulting and the arches are all pointed. At the crossing of the central nave and the transept rises a tiburium-bell tower. Conceived in the forms of Burgundian Gothic, the church lacks flying buttresses and other complex systems for balancing the thrust of the vaults; compared with the nearly contemporary abbey of Fossanova it represents a slightly more evolved stage of the style; in some decorative details, especially in the portal, the hand of local artists is not absent. The cloister is rather simple, with groups of mullioned windows; the chapter house is most elegant, as are other rooms of various purposes, all covered with vaulting on a complex system of supports. It shares with Fossanova the merit of having been one of the centers for the diffusion of the elements proper to the Gothic style. - See Pl. LV.

Guglielmo Matthiae