Crottaferrata Roma italy - The Exarchic Monastery of Santa Maria in Grottaferrata, also known as the Greek Abbey of Saint Nilus, was founded in 1004 by a group of monks from Calabria led by St. Nilus of Rossano, a charismatic leader and a very important figure of his time. At that time Calabria was under the Byzantine rule and was Greek in language, culture, and spiritual and liturgical tradition. Nilus had founded several monasteries in Calabria and in Campania.

Though a humble saint, he was held in high esteem by Princes, Emperors and Popes. Having flown from place to place to avoid all honours, he finally wanted to reach Rome to end his days in peace.

St. Nilus died shortly after. St. Bartholomaeus with other monks worked for 20 years building the Church, utilizing the material which had been abandoned in the Roman villa: pillars and pieces of marble, sculptured eaves and peperino blocks. In 1024 the church was completed, beautifully decorated with marble and paintings, enriched by sacred vestments and vessels admired by all. On December 17th of that same yearPope John XIX with a public ceremony consecrated the temple, dedicating it to the Mother of God, while the monks sang Greek hymns which St. Bartholomaeus himself had composed for the occasion.

The Byzantine liturgical rite properly belongs to the Church of Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium, the Second Episcopal See of the Christian world, called the 'New Rome'.

The nucleus of this rite comes from the customs of the Church of Antioch: St. John Crysostom (died in 407), before to becoming a bishop of Constantinople, was a priest in Antioch and at the same time introduced into the byzantine rite the antiochean eucharistic prayer (anàphora), which still in our days keep his name. In the IX Century the Byzantine rite assumes more and more a monastic face. It is a roman sepulchre cell of the Republican era, probably the tomb of Tulliola, daughter of Cicero. It had been adapted as a Christian chapel since the V century and presented to st. Nilus by the count of Tuscolo.

The cell windows still preserve the original Roman iron bars, whence the building takes its name (‘Crypta’ = cell; ‘ferrata’ = ironmade). The inside garden leads to the Cryptoporticus, a magnificent portico in “opus reticulatum” which was part of the antique Roman Villa on whose site the Abbey was built. In 1140 Tolomeo II, count of Tuscolo, deprived the Church of many precious objects among which was maybe the icon of the Virgin. A well-grounded tradition says that this icon was worshipped for many years in a Church in Tuscolo. In 1191 Tuscolo was destroyed by the Romans and the icon was brought to Rome. In 1230 it was given back by Pope Gregory IX to the monks of the Abbey and solemnly enthroned. For a long time it was placed on the side-altar. In the second half of the seventeenth century it was placed on the main altar, a work of Bernini. In 1687 the Vatican Chapter ordained its coronation.

This consecrated icon has granted many graces from heaven and it has gathered a multitude of faithful and pilgrims, among which were many saints and popes. Among them, was Pope Pius IX who often came to pray before its altar; Pope John XXIII came in 1960 and Pope Paul VI on the 19th of August 1963 made a sad appeal to the separated brothers of the christian East.

Pope John Paul II visited the Monastery twice (on 1979 and 1987). St. Nilus was a skilful calligrapher and practised his art with ability and elegance: he was also the inventor of a special abbreviation system (tachygraphy) and gave rise to a peculiar writing school, the 'nilian' school. Three manuscripts written personally by St. Nilus are preserved: they contain some monastic writings of the patristic age. Some of the disciples of Nilus were scribes too: the nilian monks went on copying manuscripts until the end of the XIIIth century; they wrote chiefly liturgical and, in a lesser extent, ascetical manuscripts. With the addition of both purchased and inherited manuscripts the most ancient nucleus of the library was formed.

During the centuries the library had to suffer from various vicissitudes. Many manuscripts were transferred to Roman libraries such as the Vatican or the Angelica, but many others were bought too: among the latter a precious copy of the Byzantine epic Digenis Akritas (Xth cent.). In the second half of the XVIth century a new period of manuscript writing began.

The Catacomb is placed now not far from the branching-off of the Via Anagnina; it shows about 1000 tombs dating back to the 2nd/5th century a.C., and it is spread out for about 250 meters.

The catacombs proper may be reached, beyond an iron gate, coming down for the 27 steps, in ancient times covered with marble slabs, which are protected now by a recent brick building. In the inside the galleries were directly digged into a peperine bank and they exhibit two sky-lights, one of which, placed just after the second gallery, is very high; on its side is a deep well: according to the scholars, it could be either a cistern on a water-pipe supplying water to the villas all around.

kind concession by Sant Nilo's Abby Grottaferrata italy-