Dragons, wizards and fairy queens, mystic monks and hermit saints

Part 1: Holy places, saints and fairy legends of Umbria

I have been taking some down time from writing, and managed to visit some interesting places where I got a few photos and video clips. One of them was the Abbey of San Felice and Mauro in the Valnerina, an ancient holy place with a small but beautiful Romanesque church. And I remembered this article from a few years ago on the secret holy and mystic places of central Italy. The original article is ridiculously long, and will be even longer with the images I’m adding, but we can cut it into parts.

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Holy places; legends of saints and fairy myths

(First published by The Remnant, March, 2019)

Maglor, son of Feanor, sorrowing by the sea. One of the best Tolkien illustrators out there, St. Petersburg-trained Elena Kukanova.

“The place on which you are standing is holy ground”

I’m finally getting around to reading the Silmarillion; it’s only been 40 years. I always loved about Tolkien’s legendarium the idea that holiness rubs off on certain things, particularly on places. In Middle Earth the “memory” of the presence of the High elves is held for a long time by the lands they lived in, and not only by the people who shared Middle Earth with them. The land itself “remembers” and the mystical presence especially of High Elves – those who lived in Valinor and loved and followed the Valar, the servants of Eru-Iluvatar – lingers in a place for a long time after they are gone.

In real life it seems true that a place is somehow physically hallowed or sanctified by the presence of God and by the prayers of those who adore Him, and it is easy to imagine that this presence in some sense sinks into the very stones.

It is found again and again in Scripture, most prominently: “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here am I.’ Then he said, ‘Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’” It is the reason we build churches and monasteries on important sites and over the graves of saints. The concept of holy ground makes sense to us at a visceral level, this sacramentality of objects and places set apart for consecrated purposes.

Sacred places are still here

The crypt church under the Basilica of San Benedetto, Norcia, before the 2016 earthquake. Tradition holds it was the family home of Saints Benedict and Scolastica, the children of a local Patrician Roman official. It included a tiny side chapel – where there was a little hidden bench to sit for quiet moments – that was believed by the Nursini to be part of the very room in which the twins were born in AD 480.

As Catholics we know that things and places are “hallowed” by the presence of the saints. When I lived in Norcia, visitors to the Basilica of San Benedetto would often say they felt the urge to touch the big stones of Roman masonry in the ancient crypt church downstairs in the Basilica of San Benedetto. The Basilica was built in the 14th century to replace a much older, smaller church that possibly dated to the 10th century, that had been built inside the much older Roman domestic structure.

The crypt church was buried under hundreds of tons of masonry in the 2016 earthquake that destroyed the Basilica - and very nearly every other church in the neighbourhood - but until that day it was one of those places of pilgrimage for the faithful that had about it that almost palpable aura of sanctity. For centuries Masses and liturgical prayers, the chanting of the Psalms, had been offered in that little space “as an evening sacrifice” rising to God like a sweet odour.

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Abbey of San Felice and Mauro in the Valnerina

In the next post for paid members, we’ll explore the little Romanesque monastery of San Felice and Mauro in photos and videos I took visiting there a couple of weeks ago. You’ll hear all about the two Syrian hermit monks who came to Italy and rid the villagers of a dragon.

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The mountain of the Sybil: an Umbrian fairy myth

The “crown” of Monte Sibilla - the mountain of the Sybil, the legendary “fairy queen” for whom the Sibilline mountain range is named. The legends are ancient folklore the origins of which are unknown, but it is still possible to visit the place where, until the 19th century, there was a cave entrance. A geological survey using ground penetrating radar was undertaken about 20 years ago, and found there was an enormous system of caves stretching about 150 meters, under the “crown” structure you can see in this photo.

Many who visit the town say that they feel… something special… the moment they walk through the city gates. I know I did. The Valnerina, the mystical valley of the river Nera, is sometimes described as the “Shangri-la of Italy” and has been alive with legends and fables from ancient times. These include the old and strange mythology of the Sybil of the Apennines.

Variously described in the literature as a fairy queen or a sorceress the Sybil was said to live in a magical hidden realm of caves in the highest mountains above Norcia and, with her fairy maidens, would visit the people who lived there to teach the women crafts like embroidery and fine weaving.

The Appenine Sybil is a fascinating subject. No one has any idea how old the legend is but there are literary references going back to early Imperial times, and stories about knights being lost in the Sybil’s realm continued to be told as late as the 17th century.

Monte Sibilla in winter, from Montemonaco on the valley floor.

Though impassable in winter, summer hikers can easily find the traditional location of the entrance to the Sybil’s realm on the crown of Monte Sibilla; it can be seen easily in satellite photos and is even marked as a place of interest on Google Earth. In the 15th century a French explorer, Antoine de la Sale, entered the cave and drew a precise topographical plan of the vestibule that he described as a large circular space with stone seats dug out of the rock, like a waiting room.

The entrance to the Sybil’s cave as it looks today. In May 1420, Antoine de la Sale climbed the top of Monte Sibilla, walking from Montemonaco. He reported on the cave as it looked then, a kind of “room” with carved stone seats. He recounted his experience in his Le Paradis de la Reine Sibylle ( The Paradise of Queen Sibyl) contained in the book "La Salade" describing the life and habits of the valley dwellers of the 15th century Apennines .

 As late as the mid-20th century it still opened onto this small antechamber cave. Ill-conceived attempts to use dynamite to open a way to the Sybil’s realm resulted in the destruction of the cave in a landslide leaving the heap of rubble visible today. Most extraordinary were the discoveries in 2000 made by a team of geologists sponsored by the Archaeological Survey of Marche and the University of Camerino. They brought ground-penetrating radar to the site and discovered a large complex of tunnels and caverns – that they describe as “labyrinthine” – about 15 meters below the surface, up to 150 meters long.

Though the origin of the legend remains obscure, the entire sub-range of the Sibilline Mountains is riddled through with caves and underground watercourses, and archaeologists have discovered human remains and man-made artifacts there that they believe date to the neolithic period.

Some good mood music for the ancient history of monasticism

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True Legends: Syrian hermit refugees bring Christ to Umbria

The Romanesque Benedictine abbey - now abandoned - in the place thought to be the home of St. Isaac of Spoleto, the 6th century Syrian hermit monk who founded a community of hermits on the mountain above the city.

But more important than these obscure fairy tales are the very real histories of monasticism, of monks and hermits, mystics and saints of Umbria that –though not widely known – are among the most important in Christendom. Umbria seems to be especially endowed with saints. Every little village has its miracle-working hermit or anchoress, foundress or visionary. But how did this come about? How is Umbria so particularly saturated in sanctity?

Students of monastic history know that the earliest monks started to appear in Egypt in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries after the legalisation of Christianity throughout the Empire. These Desert Fathers laid down the beginnings of Christian ascetical and mystical practice that remains strongest in the Eastern Churches today, a tried and true path to holiness.

But what is not well known is that the monasticism of the West comes from the same source. And even of those who know about St. Benedict’s influences for the Rule coming out of this great eastern tradition, most are not aware of just how immediate this is.

A story spanning centuries links these saints in a direct line from Syria to Rome to Spoleto to ancient Nursia, deep in the pagan lands of the Valnerina and the Sibilline mountains, the home of St. Benedict.

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Where did St. Benedict learn his monastic trade? - monastic refugees flee persecution in Syria and Rome

The Romanesque (12th c) sarcophagus of St. Isaac of Spoleto. This 6th c. hermit saint and wonderworker was a native of Syria who fled the Monophysite persecution and became a recluse for about 50 years in the caves of Monteluco above Spoleto, Umbria. After spending some years in the eremitical life, he had a vision of Our Lady, who bade him to gather followers and to train them in asceticism. A descendent of his laura, or colony of hermits, survives to this day in the form of a Franciscan monastery on the site. It is thought that his colony was the start of the monastic life in Italy.

The monastic idea spread around the Mediterranean basin, including a large colony in Syria from the 4th century onward. It grew until, by the time the Arab Muslims arrived to put them to the sword, there were probably tens of thousands of desert monks praying and fasting in their uncomfortable solitudes.

But trouble didn’t wait for the followers of the false prophet. The oldest records of the Cathedral of Spoleto, the Leggendari del Duomo, “Cathedral Legendaries,” speak of a great influx, between the 4^th and 6^th centuries, of saintly men, monks tried in the twin crucibles of the early desert eremitical life and of persecution, who began arriving in the region of Umbria, the centre of Italy, called the “green heart”.

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The Syrian saints of Spoleto and the great monastic quest

A 16th century map of Spoleto in Rome. It shows the hermitage colony on the mountain behind and above the town. Many of these cave hermitages still exist but are now in private ownership. This was a place that had been held sacred even in pagan antiquity, where to this day you can visit the ancient “sacred forest,” next to the Franciscan monastery.

In the 4th to 6th centuries Syrian Christians came to Italy fleeing persecution by Monophysite heretics. They begged the pope¹ for a place they could continue to live their ascetical lives in peace. The holy father sent them north, giving them the caves and craggy fastnesses of the Sibilline mountains. Sparsely populated, as they are today, and at that time still largely pagan, it is an area still dotted all over with hermitages and monasteries and sacred places, though since the 19th and 20th centuries these are nearly all abandoned.

The so-called “Legend of the 12 Syrians,” taken from an ancient record called “St. Anastasius² and 11 brothers who left Syria,” tells the story of an extended family of Syrian monastic saints - fathers and sons³ - who came to Umbria after being forced to flee Rome. After dangerously evangelising Roman pagans under Julian the Apostate – the short-lived emperor who tried to restore classical paganism - most of the family moved to Spoleto, a major town of central Italy since ancient times. According to the document, Saint Anastasius was arrested and beheaded on the orders of the emperor, but not before four of the family were ordained priests and deacons by the pope.

The 1st Bishop of Spoleto; mystically consecrated by St. Peter

Romanesque Church of San Brizio – Spoleto, with its typical raised sanctuary under which is found the much older crypt church. Masonry fragments, including some capitals and carved crosses, have been dated to the 6th century in this church.

After Anastasius’ death, the remaining family members went north. Two stopped along the way and settled as hermits, leaving one of their number, St. Brictius, to lead the rest to Spoleto. The legend says that St. Peter appeared to St. Brictius, consecrated him bishop of Spoleto⁴, and conferred on him authority to appoint bishops. A number of his Syrian companions were ordained for the Umbrian towns they settled in, including some names that we know today: Narni, Perugia, Bevagna and Bettona.

St. Brictius was imprisoned and tortured in Spoleto by a pagan judge called Martius. During his imprisonment, St. Peter visited and encouraged him and, with an angel along for company, led him out of prison. Brictius carried on his work building up the Church, ordaining priests and consecrating bishops, converting the Umbrian pagans, and died peacefully at Civitate Martulana, thought to be on the site of the modern day town Massa Martana⁵, a little north of Terni. The legend says that at the time of his death his soul was observed in the form of a dove flying up to heaven, a story similar to that told of St. Scholastica⁶.

Tradition holds that this Roman-era sarcophagus - pre-6th c. - in the crypt church, held the remains of San Brizio, though it is now empty.

The relics of St. Brictius, or San Brizio as he is known in Italian, may have been laid to rest in a village named after him, about 7 km north of Spoleto. The 12th century Romanesque church of the same name there contains a pre-6^th century sarcophagus believed to hold his remains, probably translated there by the faithful who fled the town he died in when it was attacked by the Goths and subsequent barbarian invaders.

Pieta, a fresco of the Chapel of San Brizio at the Orvieto Duomo

San Brizio is well remembered in Umbria, and is commemorated in the magnificent Orvieto Duomo by a chapel dedicated to him, decorated with frescos by Fra Angelico, Luca Signorelli and Benozzo Gozzoli.

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Stay tuned for our next thrilling episode of how Italy - and western Christianity - got monks, tomorrow!

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Thanks for reading to the end. I hope you enjoyed this exploration of the early history of monasticism. Since starting this work in earnest in November last year, it has blossomed into a full time job and the more I do it the more excited I get about it.

Unfortunately, it isn’t yet at the level with subscriptions of full time pay. I want to continue to explore this fascinating aspect of our faith, but I need your help.

If you’d like to become a patron with a monthly donation or make a one-time donation, you can click on my studio blog, Hilary White; Sacred Art. Everyone who sets up a recurring donation of $9/month or more will receive a complimentary subscription here.

1. Exactly which popes were petitioned is unclear. Among those named in the Leggendari is Pope Urban I. Historians posit several waves of Syrian refugees, and a consequent mix-up of dates.

2. His precise identity is debated. Three candidates fit the description and the approximate dates, with some discrepancies.

3. Monasticism was often a family trade in ancient Christian Syria, with husbands and wives separating to pursue the monastic struggle - the combat of the desert - and their adult children often following suit.

4. He is named on the diocesan website of Spoleto as the first bishop.

5. Though this is uncertain since the town of Civitate Martulana was completely destroyed by barbarian invaders in the 5th century.

6. A similar tale was told of St. Spes, whom we will meet shortly. It is possible that the image of the saint’s soul as a dove ascending to heaven is nothing more than a popular metaphor, a hagiographical device. But with saints performing miracles and converting entire regions to Christ, it is perhaps unwise to dismiss it so easily.