Santa Maria di Grottaferrata, Greek Abbey of

SANTA MARIA DI GROTTAFERRATA, GREEK ABBEY OF. - It rises among the Tusculan and Alban hills at the foot of Monte Cavo, about 18 km. from Rome on the ancient Via Latina.

Its foundation dates back to 1004, through the work of St. Nilus of Rossano, who, after having organized the Eastern cenobitic life in his native Calabria, went back up into Campania and then came into Latium, welcomed by Count Gregory of Tusculum, who granted him that vast tract of land that had formed Cicero's Tusculanum. There existed there, and in part still exist, grandiose remains of a Roman villa of the Republican era. The most important for the history of the abbey is a double chamber in opus quadratum, which originally constituted a sepulchral cella of the villa. Transformed into a Christian oratory from the early Middle Ages for the use of the few inhabitants of the area, as is evident from traces of decorations and Greek graffiti, it took on the characteristic name of « Crypta ferrata » because of the Roman windows with double iron grilles, still existing, on every wall. The oldest document that reports this name is a bull of Benedict IX of 1037. Around that modest country oratory, and making use of the remains of other Roman buildings, the cenobium and the church arose, which was brought to completion by St. Bartholomew, third successor of St. Nilus, and consecrated by Pope John XIX of the Counts of Tusculum on 17 Dec. 1024; it is dedicated to the Virgin S. ma under the title of S. M. di G., whose ancient icon reigns in the temple, where it draws numerous faithful. The supreme pontiffs granted the abbey privileges and donations, always regarding with benevolence this Greek monastic institution, arisen at the gates of Rome pre-

S. MARIA DI GROTTAFERRATA

cisely in the period in which Byzantium was spiritually drawing away from it.

The first two centuries of the abbey's life, despite the Tusculan-Roman struggles, were marked by an intense liturgical and literary activity, as is attested by the numerous and precious manuscripts still existing. In imitation of the founders, the monks copied and composed, keeping alive the Italo-Greek iconographic tradition and that of calligraphy begun by St. Nilus himself. But the intensifying of the struggles, which later culminated in the destruction of the ancient city of Tusculum (1191) by the Romans, had forced the community of Grottaferrata to find temporary hospitality in the monastery of the Sacro Speco at Subiaco. On their return the activities were resumed and the church was given new splendor both inside with mosaics, such as that of the triumphal arch, still in excellent preservation (representing the twelve Apostles at the sides of an empty throne in whose lower part is depicted the apocalyptic lamb) and with fresco paintings on the walls, of which only a small part was spared by time and men; and outside with the opening of bifora windows on the sides and of the rose window on the front, as well as with the construction of the massive bell tower, accentuating the Romanesque character of the building over the Byzantine motifs of the first period. Later the abbey was troubled by the turmoils of the Avignon period of the papacy and of the Western Schism, suffering moreover several devastations during the baronial struggles of the first half of the fifteenth century, until Eugene IV entrusted its government to the energetic abbot Pietro Vitali, who also took part in the Council of Florence for the union of the Greeks with the Catholic Church.

With Bessarion begins the series of cardinal commendatory abbots, who succeeded one another until the post-Napoleonic period. Cardinal Bessarion reorganized the abbey materially and morally and promoted there studies and the Greek liturgy. His successor Giuliano della Rovere (later Julius II) surrounded it with moats, crenellated walls and towers, by the work, it seems, of Sangallo or of Baccio Pontelli, giving it the characteristic appearance that it still preserves of a vast medieval fortress. Of the abbatial palace he managed to bring to completion only one side, in whose inner front one admires the portico called that of Sangallo. Then successively three members of the Colonna family held Grottaferrata in commendam, succeeded by the Farnese. For over a century, from 1626 to 1738, the Barberini held the abbey, leaving of themselves a single worthy memory in the so-called «Berninian machine», built in 1665 to support the miraculous icon of the Virgin and subsequently adapted as a Greek iconostasis. Cardinal Giannantonio Guadagni, who succeeded them, transformed and decorated with stuccoes the interior of the church, with irreparable damage to the marble columns and the paintings of the Duecento and almost entirely removing its Romanesque-Byzantine character. In the same period the monastic community provided for the new spacious dwelling building for the monks and for that of the monumental Library. The last cardinal commendatory abbot was Ercole Consalvi; Leo XII suppressed the commendam.

The Napoleonic storm, even in the almost total dispersion of the monks, had spared the abbey, declared a national monument. The same designation was given it by the Italian government after 1870, it remaining entrusted to the Basilian monks, who were thus able to avoid the complete suppression of the Order. From then on the history of the abbey of S. M. di G. is identified with that of the Basilian Congregation of Italy (v. BASILIANI D'ITALIA). Benedict XIV with the apostolic constitution Inter multa of 24 Apr. 1747 and Leo XII with the apostolic letter Inter coeterae of 12 Nov. 1824 had already established that the Latin rite be followed for the care of souls by one of the monks and by a coadjutor. Pope Leo XIII, with a decree dated 12 Apr. 1882 of the S. Congregation of Propaganda for the affairs of the Eastern rite, recalled the Greek rite to new life in the abbey. The same S. Congregation with the decree Zamudum of the same date established that the Latin parish be entrusted to a priest of the Latin rite, and with the decree Quanta Romanorum of 19 May 1929 separated the Greek parish from the Latin one (AAS, 22 [1930], pp. 134-137). Pius XI with the apostolic constitution Pervetustum Cryptaeferratae coenobium of 26 Sept. 1937 created the abbey nullius detaching its territory from the suburban diocese of Frascati, established that the ordinary be the archimandrite «pro tempore» of the Congregation of Italy of the Basilian Monks (AAS, 30 [1938], pp. 183-85). In these last decades, with the renewal of the moral direction of the abbey, directed with special regard to Eastern studies and apostolate, important restorations have also been carried out on the bell tower and the church, giving it back on the outside all its primitive splendor, and the narthex has been rebuilt, where the ancient marble baptismal font has been placed, much admired for the bas-reliefs and the symbolism of the sculptures of the year 1000. Besides the church, the attention of scholars has always been, as also at present, directed to the Library, for its precious collection of Greek manuscripts, especially liturgical and of Byzantine music, from which the monks draw the chants for the divine offices. Particular interest is moreover aroused by the illuminated codices, the autograph manuscripts of St. Nilus with the tachygraphic writing proper to the Saint, which was then followed by his disciples, the Euchologion used by the Fathers of the Council of Florence, the codex of Manuel Palaiologos bound in blue velvet with the Byzantine double-headed eagle and the monogram of the Palaiologoi embroidered in silver, the collection of the poems of Christopher of Mytilene, the epic poem Digenis Akritas, etc. Connected with the Library is the restoration workshop for ancient books, established in 1930.

Important, moreover, for the ancient and medieval history of the area are the collections of inscriptions, boundary stones, sculptures, and architectural and decorative elements from the Roman and Christian eras, arranged in the ground-floor rooms of the Roverian Palace; and, for the origin of Christianity in the Tusculan area, the 4th-century catacombs at the tenth mile of the ancient Via Latina, excavated in 1912-13 under the care of the monks and in 1918-19 by the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology.

Teodoro Minisci

ART

The building is a work of Romanesque-Roman architecture, permeated with evident elements, among other things in the external decoration of small arches, with motifs of Byzantine taste, as in the beautiful reliefs of the marble framing of the Porta Aurea. The interior, except for its structural framework, has undergone a complete transformation. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese built the wooden coffered ceiling (1575), and around 1610 Cardinal Odoardo Farnese completely transformed the Chapel of Sts. Nilus and Bartholomew. But the most disastrous remodelling occurred in 1754, when Cardinal Guadagni enclosed the columns within piers and covered the ancient paintings with medallions and stucco ornaments. Finally in 1843 Cardinal Mattei added the Latin church against the atrium. The bell tower, of the type of Roman Romanesque campaniles, rises above a small room that is perhaps that oratory of the 5th-6th centuries, remembered as the primitive nucleus of the Sanctuary; erected in the 12th century, it was radically restored in 1910-1913. Notable works are in the narthex: the baptismal urn with reliefs of fishing scenes (11th-12th centuries); the already mentioned Porta Aurea with wooden doors (11th-12th centuries) and, on the tympanum, the mosaic with Christ enthroned, the Virgin, St. John and an offerer (the abbot Bartholomew) dated to the 11th century; in the interior, within the marble cathedra of Berninian school (1665), is the Madonna di Grottaferrata, a panel of rather late Byzantine forms (13th century). On the triumphal arch, the mosaic of Pentecost, Byzantine in style and iconography, probably executed by mosaicists who came from Venice at the beginning of the 13th century (Toesca). Above it, the fresco with the Trinity discovered beneath the coffered ceiling in 1904, together with the few relics of the Stories of Moses on the side walls (late 13th century). Finally the Chapel of Sts. Nilus and Bartholomew with stories of the lives of the two saints, executed in fresco by the young Domenichino (1610) and restored in 1819 by G. Candida under the guidance of V. Camuccini. On the altar, the Madonna between Sts. Nilus and Bartholomew, a late work by Annibale Carracci.

The church of S. Maria, the nucleus of the Abbey of S. Nilus, is at the center of a powerful bastioned enclosure erected on behalf of Giuliano della Rovere, commendatory abbot, said to be by Bramante, but more probably by Sangallo or by Baccio Pontelli. From the same period are the beautiful cloister and the abbatial Palace, completed at the beginning of the 16th century with frescoes, in the interior, of the school of the Zuccari. - See pl. CXIX.

Luciana Ferrara