Pope Benedict XVI meets with Priests from Rome.

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The following Article can be found on ROME REPORTS at http://www.romereports.com

Benedict XVI meets with priests from Rome

Minor Basilica of Santa Sabina, Rome. (Part Two).

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

The Minor Basilica of Santa Sabina is the Lenten Station for next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, will be in attendance.

English: Basilica of Saint Sabina, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Français : Basilique Sainte-Sabine, Rome, Latium, Italie.

Photo: September 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Tango7174

(Wikimedia Commons)

With the departure of Aquinas for Paris in 1268, and the passage of time, the pedagogical activities of the Studium Provinciale at Santa Sabina were divided between two campuses. A new Convent of the Order at the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva had a modest beginning in 1255 as a community for women converts, but grew rapidly in size and importance after being given to the Dominicans in 1275.

In 1288, the theology component of the Provincial curriculum was relocated from the Santa Sabina Studium Provinciale to the Studium Conventuale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which was redesignated as a Studium Particularis Theologiae.

Thus, the Studium at Santa Sabina was the forerunner of the Studium Generale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The latter would be transformed in the 16th-Century into the College of Saint Thomas (Latin: Collegium Divi Thomæ), and then, in the 20th-Century, into the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, sited at the Convent of Saints Dominic and Sixtus.

English: Santa Sabina, Roma.

Česky: Interiér baziliky Santa Sabina, Řím.

Photo: February 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Rumburak

(Wikimedia Commons)

Following the curriculum of studies laid out in the Capitular Acts of 1291, the Santa Sabina Studium was re-designated as one of three Studia Nove Logice, intended to offer courses of advanced logic covering the Logica Nova, the Aristotelian texts recovered in the West only in the second half of the 12th-Century, the Topics, Sophistical Refutations, and the First and Second Analytics of Aristotle. 

This was an advance over the Logica Antiqua, which treated the Isagoge of Porphyry, Divisions and Topics of Boethius, the Categories and On Interpretation of Aristotle, and the Summule Logicales of Peter of Spain. Milone da Velletri was Lector at the Santa Sabina Studium in 1293.

In 1310, the Florentine, Giovanni dei Tornaquinci, was Lector at Santa Sabina. In 1331, at the Santa Sabina Studium, Nerius de Tertia was Lector, and Giovanni Zocco da Spoleto was a student of Logic.

The exterior of the Church, with its large windows made of selenite, not glass, looks much as it did when it was built in the 5th-Century.

English: Interior of Santa Sabina.

Français : Interieur de l'église de Santa Sabina, Aventin, Rome.

Photo: 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ursus

(Wikimedia Commons)

The wooden door of the Basilica is generally agreed to be the original door from 430 A.D. - 432 A.D., although it was apparently not constructed for this doorway. Eighteen of its wooden panels survive, all but one depicting scenes from the Bible. Most famous among these is one of the earliest certain depictions of Christ's Crucifixion, although other panels have also been the subject of extensive analysis because of their importance for the study of Christian iconography.

Above the doorway, the interior preserves an original dedication in Latin hexameters.

The Campanile (bell tower) dates from the 10th-Century.

The original 5th-Century Apse mosaic was replaced in 1559 by a very similar fresco by Taddeo Zuccari. The composition probably remained unchanged: Christ is flanked by a good thief and a bad thief, seated on a hill, while lambs drink from a stream at its base. The iconography of the mosaic was very similar to another 5th-Century mosaic, destroyed in the 17th-Century, in Sant'Andrea in Catabarbara. An interesting feature of the interior is a framed hole in the floor, exposing a Roman-era temple column that pre-dates Santa Sabina.

Italiano: Santa Sabina all'Aventino: dettaglio del portone intagliato del VI sec.

English: Basilica of Santa Sabina all'Aventino. 

Detail from the carved Portal dating back to the 6th-Century.

Photo: April 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Talmoryair

(Wikimedia Commons)

This appears to be the remnant of the Temple of Juno, erected on the hilltop site during Roman times, which was likely razed to allow construction of Santa Sabina. The tall, spacious Nave has 24 Columns of Proconnesian marble with perfectly-matched Corinthian Columns and Bases, which were re-used from the Temple of Juno.

Saint Dominic, Pope Saint Pius V, Saint Celsus, Saint Hyacinth and Saint Thomas Aquinas are among those who have lived in the Monastery adjacent to the Church. The interior Cells, for the Dominican Friars, are little changed since the earliest days of the Order of Preachers. The Cell of Saint Dominic is still identified, though it has since been enlarged and converted to a Chapel. Also, the original dining room still remains, in which Saint Thomas Aquinas would dine when he came to Rome.

THIS ENDS THE ARTICLE ON THE MINOR BASILICA OF SANTA SABINA.

The Feast of The Holy Family.

This Article can be found on ROME REPORTS at http://www.romereports.com/


The Feast of the Holy Family, according to Benedict XVI

The Teutonic Cemetery, a cemetery within the Vatican

The Teutonic Cemetery, a cemetery within the Vatican

A most interesting Article, found on ROME REPORTS, which I commend to you.

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Seven)

Text and illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise stated.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, extended the liturgical cult of Saint Hildegard to the universal Church in 2012.

Hildegard's name was, nonetheless, taken up in the Roman Martyrology at the end of the 16th-Century. Her Feast Day is 17 September. Numerous Popes have referred to Hildegard as a Saint, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of St. Hildegard to the universal Church in a process known as "equivalent canonisation". Hildegard’s parish and pilgrimage Church in Eibingen, near Rüdesheim, houses her relics.

Hildegard of Bingen also appears in the calendar of saints of various Anglican churches, such as that of the Church of England, in which she is commemorated on 17 September.

Hildegard has also become a figure of reverence within the contemporary New Age movement, mostly due to her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as a mystic. She was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's "Hildegard-Medicine", and is the namesake for June Boyce-Tillman's Hildegard Network, a healing centre that focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings together people interested in exploring the links between spirituality, the arts, and healing.

German Emperor, Friedrich Barbarossa, mit seinen Söhnen König Heinrich und Herzog Friedrich. Miniatur aus der Welfenchronik (Kloster Weingarten, 1179-1191). Heute Landesbibliothek Fulda.

Frederic I Barbarossa and his sons King Henry VI and Duke Frederick VI. Medieval illustration from the Chronicle of the Guelphs (Weingarten Abbey, 1179-1191).

In recent years, Hildegard has become of particular interest to feminist scholars. Her reference to herself as a member of the "weaker sex" and her rather constant belittling of women, though at first seemingly problematic, must be considered within the context of the patriarchal Church hierarchy. Hildegard frequently referred to herself as an unlearned woman, completely incapable of Biblical exegesis. 

Such a statement on her part, however, worked to her advantage, because it made her statements that all of her writings and music came from visions of the Divine more believable, therefore giving Hildegard the authority to speak in a time and place where few women were permitted a voice. Hildegard used her voice to condemn Church practices she disagreed with, in particular simony.

In space, she is commemorated by the asteroid 898 Hildegard.

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON HILDEGARD VON BINGEN.

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Six)

Text and illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Hildegardis-Codex, sogenannter Scivias-Codex, Szene:
Der mystische Leib
(The Mystical Body).
circa 1165 A.D.
From: Wikimedia Commons.

Due to Church limitation on public, discursive rhetoric, the mediaeval rhetorical arts included: preaching, letter writing, poetry, and the encyclopedic tradition. Hildegard’s participation in these arts speaks to her significance as a female rhetorician, transcending bans on women’s social participation and interpretation of Scripture.

The acceptance of public preaching by a woman, even a well-connected Abbess and acknowledged Prophet. does not fit the usual stereotype of this time. Her preaching was not limited to the Monasteries; she even preached publicly in 1160 in Germany. She conducted four preaching tours throughout Germany, speaking to both clergy and laity in Chapter Houses and in public, mainly denouncing clerical corruption and calling for reform.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who advanced the work of Hildegard von Bingen at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148.

Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist (1090 – August 20, 1153) was a French Abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.

After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new Abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 km southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. 

According to tradition, Bernard founded the Monastery on 25 June 1115, naming it Claire Vallée, which evolved into Clairvaux. There, Bernard would preach an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary.

 In the year 1128, Bernard assisted at the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar, who soon became the ideal of Christian nobility.

Many Abbots and Abbesses asked Hildegard for prayers and opinions on various matters. She travelled widely during her four preaching tours. She had several rather fanatic followers, including Guibert of Gembloux, who wrote frequently to her and eventually became her secretary, after Volmar died in 1173. In addition, Hildegard influenced several monastic women of her time and the centuries that followed; in particular, she engaged in correspondence with another nearby visionary, Elisabeth of Schönau.

Hildegard von Bingen corresponded with another visionary, 

Elisabeth of Schönau. This photo is of the Altar of St. Elizabeth of Schönau (with the reliquary in which Elizabeth's skull is kept) in the Monastery Church of St. Florin, Kloster Schönau-im-Taunus.

Hildegard communicated with Popes, such as Eugene III and Anastasius IV, statesmen, such as Abbot Suger, German Emperors, such as Frederick I Barbarossa, and other notable figures, such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who advanced her work, at the behest of her Abbot, Kuno, at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148.

Hildegard of Bingen’s correspondence with many people is an important element of her literary work because this is where we can see her speaking most directly to us.


Beatification and Canonisation

Hildegard was one of the first persons for whom the Roman canonisation process was officially applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonisation were not completed, and she remained at the level of her beatification.

PART SEVEN FOLLOWS

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Five)

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise accredited.

Benediktinerinnenkloster Eibingen

(Eibingen Abbey)

Author: Moguntiner

Photo: October 2006.

Web-Site: http://www.abtei-st-hildegard.de

Eibingen Abbey (in German, Abtei St. Hildegard, full name, Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard) is a community of Benedictine nuns in Eibingen, near Rüdesheim, in Hesse, Germany.

The original community was founded in 1165 by Hildegard von Bingen. It was dissolved at the beginning of the 19th-Century during the secularisation of this part of Germany.

The present community was established by Charles, 6th Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg in 1904 and re-settled from St. Gabriel's Abbey, Bertholdstein. The nunnery belongs to the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation.

In 1941, the nuns were expelled by the Nazis; they were not able to return until 1945.

Abtei St. Hildegard in Eibingen,

Ortsteil von Rüdesheim am Rhein.

Innenansicht der Abteikirche.

Interior of the Abbey Church of Eibingen.

Author: Haffitt.

Photo: May 2012.

From: Wikimedia Commons.

In 1988, the sisters founded Marienrode Priory at Hildesheim, which became independent of Eibingen Abbey in 1998.

The nuns work in the vineyard and in the craft workshops, besides undertaking the traditional duties of hospitality. They can be heard (but not seen) singing their regular services.

The abbey is a Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site. The church has been used for concerts of the Rheingau Musik Festival, such as a "BachTrompetenGala" with Edgar Krapp, organ.

Eibingen Abbey: A Benedictine Abbey, full of the contemplative life.

It is claimed by some that it is likely Hildegard learned simple Latin, and the tenets of the Christian faith, but was not instructed in the Seven Liberal Arts, which formed the basis of all education for the learned classes in the Middle Ages: the Trivium of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, plus the Quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

The correspondence she kept with the outside world, both spiritual and social, transgressed the Cloister as a space of female confinement, and served to document Hildegard’s grand style and strict formatting of mediaeval letter writing.

Contributing to Christian European rhetorical traditions, Hildegard “authorised herself as a theologian” through alternative rhetorical arts. Hildegard was creative in her interpretation of theology. She believed that her monastery should not allow novices who were from a different class than nobility because it put them in an inferior position. She also stated that ‘woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a woman.'

PART SIX FOLLOWS