Congregation of Cistercian Monks of Casamari

CONGREGAZIONE CISTERCENSE DI CASAMARI: V. CASAMARI.

CONGREGAZIONE CISTERCENSE D'ITALIA. — In 1497, Alessandro VI established the union of the Cistercian monasteries of Upper Italy into a Congregation called St. Bernard; but it became effective only through a new intervention by Julius II (1501). It was also called the Lombard Congregation. In 1631, Urban VIII approved its statutes, and the abbot president of the Congregation received the first place in the General Chapter of Cîteaux, after the four primatial abbots. The Congregation included, among others, the celebrated monastery of Tre Fontane in Rome and, from 1560 onward, that of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The residence of the abbot president was at Chiaravalle Marche.

Meanwhile, in 1613, the General Chapter of the Order decreed the union of the Cistercian monasteries in central Italy and in the Kingdom of Naples that had not joined the Lombard Congregation, and in 1623 Gregory XV made this decision effective; thus the Roman Congregation came into being.

Finally, in 1632, Urban VIII, in accordance with a decision of the General Chapter of the Order of 1605, made effective the union of the Cistercian monasteries of Calabria and Lucania, establishing the Congregation of Our Lady of Calabria, or of Flori, or Florense.

Meanwhile, in France, through the work of Giovanni de la Barrière, a particular Cistercian reform was initiated, based at the abbey of N.-D. de Feuillant, approved by Sixtus V in 1586 and by Clement VIII in 1592, and erected into a Congregation. The founder obtained a site in Rome near the Baths of Diocletian (1598), where the church of S. Bernardo alle Terme was subsequently built. In 1630, Urban VIII divided this new Congregation into two independent branches: the Cistercians of Notre-Dame-de-Feuillant in France and the Reformed of St. Bernard in Italy (43 monasteries), popularly called « Bernardoni », who had in Rome, besides the church of S. Bernardo, the general procuration at S. Vito and the church of S. Pudenziana.

The French Revolution and the grave political upheavals that followed caused the almost complete ruin of the Lombard Congregation and led to the closure of many other monasteries. For this reason, in 1802, Pius VII united the surviving Italian houses with the Roman Congregation, today called the Italian Cistercian Congregation, dedicated to St. Bernard. The residence of the abbot president is at S. Croce in Gerusalemme.

CISTERCIAN ARCHITECTURE — The sense of austerity underlying the Cistercian reform is deeply reflected in the appearance of the churches erected by the Order. Indeed, the rules contain numerous provisions in this regard: every sculptural decoration and every symbolic representation was to be excluded; vertical development was to be limited; the entire construction was to be marked by the greatest economy; even the bells were reduced in number and size. The coincidence of the first developments of the Gothic style in France was a decisive factor for the architecture of the new churches, which derived their structural forms from it, such as the pointed arch, adopted as early as at Cîteaux. More particularly, the monks adhered to the Burgundian style as the simpler and more unadorned, while in their general layout they harked back to the ancient Benedictine models, beginning with S. Gallo.

The first Cistercian churches thus display great simplicity in their organization, in the form of a Latin cross or, more often, an Egyptian cross, with three naves covered by groined vaults supported by clustered piers, in which the half-columns on the side of the central nave continue up to the springing imposts of the vaults themselves. At the intersection of the nave and transept rises the tiburium, serving as a bell tower so that the officiating monks themselves could ring the bells, since the choir is situated in front of the high altar. The apse generally has a square ground plan.

To the left of the church and in direct communication with it stands the great cloister, which provides access between all the areas of the convent: chapter house, refectory, study rooms, etc.

Chiaravalle Milanese, Fossanova, S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane, etc., follow this scheme.

Given the great diffusion of the reform of Cîteaux, the Cistercians influenced all European religious architecture of the 12th century, also as disseminators of these forms not only in the countries bordering their native land, but also in those across the Channel and even in Scandinavia.

At the beginning of the 13th century, various architectural currents began to emerge within the Order itself, as other local forms were superimposed upon the traditional ones, at times resulting in further structural simplifications, as in southern Latium.

In Burgundy, by contrast, the monks followed the developments of the stylistic evolution of the Gothic taste, not only in the structural forms—which they in fact perfected with technical skill—but also in the decorative motifs, some of which they accepted. A new wave of Gothicism thus spread through northern and central Italy, as attested by the abbey churches of S. Galgano and S. Martino al Cimino, where it is combined with greater sobriety and a more refined sense of decoration, and by that of S. Andrea at Vercelli, in which the flying buttress also appears.

(fot. Riehomme)