VERGINIANI, CONGREGAZIONE BENEDETTINA dei. – MONTEVERGINE, ABBAZIA DI (v.) by s. Guglielmo da Vercelli (v.), between 1114 and 1126.
At the death of the founder (25 June 1142), the monasteries of the Congregation of Montevergine were scattered throughout the Kingdom of the Normans. The most famous were: S. Maria a Tuenda, near Salerno; S. Lorenzo at Salerno; S. Giovanni at Marcopio (Cubante, Benevento); S. Salvatore at Goleto, later called S. Guglielmo al Goleto, founded by s. Guglielmo di Vercelli; and also S. Giovanni at Avellino (1125), S. Maria del Perno at Atella (1125), S. Gennaro at Terranova (1133), S. Maria del Plesco, later S.ma Annunziata, at Casamarciano (1134), S. Maria di Montevergine at Aversa (1134), S. Giovanni del Palco at Nocera de' Pagani (1134), S. Giovanni d'Acquara at Castelbaronia (1136). The Congregation also possessed extensive territories with temporal jurisdiction, which later became one of the most powerful in the region. The work of s. Guglielmo flourished during the first two centuries in the Kingdom of the Normans, where its monasteries were governed by men of holy life, such as the b. Alberto at Montevergine, s. Giovanni, first abbot of S. Giovanni degli Eremiti at Palermo, the b. Giovanni I, fourth abbot of Montevergine, the b. Pascasio, abbot of S. Onofrio di Massa in Lucania, and s. Donato, tenth abbot of Montevergine. In 1181, Abbot Giovanni obtained from Alexander III recognition of the new Institute, already operating under the Rule of s. Benedetto. This was the golden age of the mother house and of the other monasteries of the Congregation, which lasted until the middle of the 14th century. A period of religious decline followed, causing the V. years of bitterness and bewilderment until 1588, when Sisto V, freeing Montevergine from the disastrous commendam that Abbot D. Palamede dell'Anno had imposed upon it, restored the Congregation's former splendor: new monasteries arose, and devotion to the Madonna in the Sanctuary of Montevergine intensified. During the suppressions of the 19th century, it found a path to salvation in union with the Cassinese Benedictine Congregation of the primitive observance, which made it possible to save Montevergine from the common ruin (1879).