ZOBOR

ZOBOR. - A monastic centre in Slovakia, on the mountain of the same name, near Nitra.

Over the centuries, monastic life on Z. underwent three periods: in the first, according to the ancient tradition mentioned by Cosma da Praga in his Chronica, the Benedictine abbey of S. Ippolito at Z. was founded in the 9th century, at the time of Great Moravia, around the year 880. The first historical information, however, dates from around the year 1000, in the time of ss. Andrea Svorad (Zoerardus) and Benedetto, martyred in 1012 at Skalka. The abbey flourished until 1468, when it was occupied by the bishopric of Nitra and the monks were dispersed. The second period began in 1691,

(photo Enc. Catt.)
ZODIACO - The zodiacal wheel. Drawing with figures in red from MS Vat. lat. 643, f. 98² (12th cent.), containing the De natura rerum and the Astronomica complura of the Venerable Beda. A zodiac of the 6th cent. A.D. is reproduced at V. SINAGOGA, vol. XI, col. 655 - Vatican Library.

when the bishop began to restore the dilapidated abbey and transformed it into a Camaldolese hermitage. The monks lived there until 1782, the year in which they were suppressed by Giuseppe II. The third period began in 1936, when the bishop of Nitra, K. KMETKO, KAROL (v.), rebuilt the monastery and entrusted it to the Missionaries of the Divine Word for their novitiate; they added a retreat house. In 1950 religious life on Z. was once again cut short, with the imprisonment of the religious by the communist government.