Places of Worship

Convent of St.Cosimo in Vicovaro

Eremitism: leaving behind a solitary existence for coenobitic life

Following the trail of the spiritual experience of St. Benedict, the Benedictine Way leads to Vicovaro, situated in the Valley of the Aniene 45 km from Rome. This is the site of the Convent of St. Cosimo, an oasis of calm immersed in the splendid natural setting of the National Park of Monti Lucretili, with numerous Caves once inhabited by hermits.

Having abandoned Rome and his literary studies, St. Benedict chose this area as a place of retreat. He stayed there, hidden in one of the caves for three years, helped by a monk called Romano, who from the high up on the cliff lowered bread down to him on the end of a long rope, to which he had attached a bell: the man of God would hear the bell, come out of the cave and take the bread. St. Benedict stayed here for a number of years, experiencing the extreme isolation of the life of a hermit, an existence that he would subsequently give up for good in favour of a coenobitic life in Subiaco.

In this same place, in the VI century the saint’s followers built a church and a monastery, dedicating them to the patron saints of medicine Cosmas and Damian. The buildings were destroyed on a number of occasions by Barbarians (VI century) and Saracens (IX) and over the centuries passed first from the monks of the Ordo Cluniacensis (X century) to the  Cistercian order (XIII), who remained there until 1407, the year in which the abbey at Vicovaro was given by Gregory XII to the Ambrosian Friars of St. Clement in Rome, who carried out extensive restoration works from the end of the XV to the beginning of the XVI century. From 1648 the monastery was entrusted to the Franciscan friars of the Third Order Regular, but has been managed for the last few years by a service cooperative.

Guided tour

At the end of a wide avenue with chapels from the Via Crucis, stands the portico of the church, decorated inside with frescoes from the Umbrian school and with a wooden crucifix from the sixteenth century by the altar. Around the convent numerous caves have been dug into the rock, high above the river that flows below, in a very picturesque setting, accessible via a small door to the right of the entrance to the church. More hermits’ caves can be seen in the garden behind the convents, which can be reached through a narrow trap door.