Abbazia di Santa Scolastica cronologia storica

Ultimo aggiornamento il 9 ottobre 2026

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Santa Scolastica è benedettina senza interruzioni da circa quindici secoli, con una sola parentesi. La sua storia si divide netta in due: cinquecento anni di crescita fino a diventare uno dei feudi più potenti dello Stato pontificio, e poi quattrocento in cui fu sfruttata per le sue rendite da famiglie che spesso non ci misero mai piede. Gli edifici registrano entrambe le metà.

Cronologia

520 ca. Benedetto da Norcia, di famiglia agiata ed educato a Roma, si ritira in una grotta presso una villa romana sopra Subiaco. Lo seguono discepoli e attorno a lui nascono dodici monasteri; quello che diventerà Santa Scolastica è fondato attorno a quest'anno, probabilmente ricavato da edifici della villa di Nerone, ed è il più antico monastero benedettino del mondo. Benedetto partirà poi per Montecassino in cerca di maggiore solitudine.
800 Sorto con il titolo di San Silvestro, il monastero aggiunge presto quelli di San Benedetto e Santa Scolastica; il Liber pontificalis di Leone IV lo ricorda sotto tutti e tre. Solo dopo il XV secolo sarà chiamato Santa Scolastica e basta.
828-829 I saraceni distruggono l'abbazia. Tornano e la distruggono una seconda volta nell'876-877. Sarà restaurata grazie al sostegno dei papi Gregorio IV e Leone IV.
980 La terza chiesa sul sito, romanica, è consacrata da papa Benedetto VII il 4 dicembre.
1052-1053 L'abate francese Umberto fa innalzare il campanile a cinque piani, probabilmente sulla torre campanaria della chiesa del 980, che stava a sua volta sul nartece di quella del IX secolo.
1000-1200 L'età dell'oro. L'abbazia possiede vasti beni, una comunità numerosa e una liturgia sontuosa, e le donazioni di sovrani ed ecclesiastici ne fanno uno dei feudi più potenti dello Stato pontificio. Con il potere economico arriva quello politico.
prima del 1210 Il marmoraro romano Jacopo il Vecchio inizia il chiostro cosmatesco e firma l'archivolto del lato meridionale: Magister Jacobus Romanus fecit hoc opus.
1240 ca. Jacopo muore e il figlio Cosma — l'artefice da cui prende nome lo stile cosmatesco — completa il chiostro con i propri figli Luca e Jacopo. Il committente è l'abate Lando.
1200 Si erige, a qualche chilometro, un santuario sopra la grotta in cui aveva vissuto Benedetto: il Sacro Speco. Il chiostro gotico di Santa Scolastica è costruito tra la fine di questo secolo e l'inizio del successivo.
1276 La Santa Sede si riserva il diritto di eleggere gli abati di Subiaco.
1300 La chiesa è rifatta in forme gotico-cistercensi nelle stesse identiche dimensioni. Il rosone originario sopravvive nel transetto.
1456 Callisto III lascia cadere l'abbazia nel regime della commenda e fa abate commendatario Juan de Torquemada, zio dell'inquisitore. Comincia la decadenza.
1467 Rodrigo Borgia, poi Alessandro VI, tiene l'abbaziato commendatario e fa riedificare la rocca abbaziale. Seguono i Colonna nel 1492, i Borghese nel 1608 e i Barberini nel 1633. Qualcuno prende sul serio l'incarico e tenta di restaurare; i più si accontentano di incassare le rendite, talvolta senza mai visitare il monastero.
1514 L'abbazia entra nella congregazione cassinese.
1580 Si inizia il chiostro rinascimentale sotto l'abate Cirillo di Montefiascone.
1689 È finito, 109 anni dopo, sotto l'abate Michelangelo Inurea, fratello del doge Luca Maria.
1753 Benedetto XIV toglie agli abati commendatari il potere sulla gestione quotidiana dei monasteri, lasciando loro solo la dignità spirituale ed ecclesiastica. La rotta comincia a invertirsi.
1769 Giacomo Quarenghi rifà la chiesa in stile neoclassico, seguendo la struttura gotica sottostante e modellando la decorazione sul Redentore palladiano alla Giudecca. I lavori proseguono negli anni Settanta del secolo.
1790 I francesi occupano lo Stato pontificio e l'abbazia è soppressa. Pio VII la ripristina appena riacquista l'indipendenza.
1850 L'abbazia è assegnata all'abate Pietro Francesco Casaretto, la cui riforma dà origine alla congregazione poi detta Sublacense, oggi Sublacense Cassinese.
1915 Benedetto XV concede a Subiaco lo status di abbazia territoriale, dando all'abate giurisdizione su 29 parrocchie vicine, come l'avrebbe un vescovo.
1944 Il monastero è bombardato il 23 maggio e poi restaurato. Il braccio ovest del chiostro rinascimentale è una ricostruzione dopo quel danno.
1962 Si scoprono sotto la chiesa le tracce del primo oratorio di Benedetto.
2002 La Santa Sede modifica lo status territoriale, come fa per Montecassino e Montevergine. Le 29 parrocchie passano alle diocesi confinanti, lasciando all'abate, come ordinario, la chiesa abbaziale, il Sacro Speco e le proprietà benedettine vicine.

Verificato su Wikipedia, ottobre 2026.

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Verificato su Wikipedia — Santa Scolastica is one of the 12 monasteries founded at Subiaco by Benedict of Nursia, the nearest to San Clemente where Benedict himself lived, and having been founded around the year 520 it is the oldest in Italy followed by Monte Cassino and the oldest Benedictine monastery in the world; it was probably made out of buildings belonging to the nearby villa of Nero, In the early 6th century Benedict of Nursia, from a well-to-do family and educated at Rome, retired to a grotto near an ancient Roman villa in Subiaco, and his reputation as a spiritual guide quickly drew disciples, with monastic communities arising around Subiaco including the one that would be named for St Scholastica, Benedict's sister and herself a monastic, before Benedict retired to Monte Cassino seeking greater solitude, Having arisen under the title of San Silvestro, the monastery soon added to its original title those of San Benedetto and Santa Scolastica -- in the Liber pontificalis of the pontificate of Pope Leo IV it is recorded under the invocation of these three saints -- but after the 15th century it was called only Santa Scolastica, In the 9th century St Scholastica's Abbey was twice destroyed by the Saracens, in 828-829 and 876-877, but it was restored and grew in the tenth century thanks to the patronage and favour of several popes, many of whom were themselves Benedictine monks, Devastated by the Saracens in the 9th century, Santa Scolastica was restored thanks to the support of Pope Gregory IV and Pope Leo IV; the Romanesque church was consecrated by Pope Benedict VII on 4 December 980, the campanile was erected in 1052 and the cosmatesque cloister was commissioned by abbot Lando in the first half of the 13th century, The 11th and 12th centuries were a golden age for the abbey, which boasted vast lands, a large number of monks and elaborate ornate liturgy, with economic power bringing political power as well, and in the thirteenth century a sanctuary was erected over the cave where St Benedict had dwelt, the Sacro Speco, Between the 10th and the 13th century the monastery acquired great possessions thanks to donations from sovereigns and churchmen, becoming one of the most powerful fiefs of the Papal State, and in 1276 the Holy See reserved to itself the right to elect the abbots of Subiaco before Calixtus III let it fall into the regime of commendam in 1456, Long power struggles with the feudal establishment weakened the abbey and decadence set in when Calixtus III made Juan de Torquemada, uncle of the famous inquisitor, commendatory abbot; subsequently powerful families tied to the papacy controlled it, Rodrigo Borgia holding the commendatory abbacy in 1467 and the Colonna in 1492, the Borghese in 1608 and the Barberini in 1633 gaining control of its revenues, some trying to restore it but most content to exploit its revenues, sometimes without ever visiting the monastery, The commendatory abbots of Subiaco included Juan de Torquemada, Rodrigo Borgia -- who had the abbey rocca rebuilt -- Antonio and Francesco Barberini and Giovan Angelo Braschi, Belonging to the Cassinese congregation from 1514, in 1850 the abbey was assigned to abbot Pietro Francesco Casaretto, who introduced his reform there, from which began the congregation that later took the name Sublacense, today Sublacense Cassinese; bombed during the Second World War on 23 May 1944, the monastery was then restored, The tide began to turn in 1753 when Benedict XIV decided to remove commendatory abbots' power over the day-to-day running of their monasteries, leaving them only the spiritual and ecclesiastical dignity; at the end of the century, when the French occupied the Papal States, the abbey was suppressed, and Pius VII restored it as soon as he regained his independence, while in 1915 Benedict XV accorded it the privilege of a territorial abbey, The canonical status of territorial abbey granted to Subiaco by Pope Benedict XV was modified by the Holy See in 2002 in harmony with a general policy applied also to Monte Cassino and Montevergine; since 1915 the Abbey of Subiaco had had jurisdiction over 29 parishes in the vicinity in a manner similar to a Catholic diocese, and the 2002 measures transferred these parishes to neighbouring dioceses, leaving the abbot as ordinary with jurisdiction over the abbey church itself, the Sacro Speco and other Benedictine properties close by (ottobre 2026).
Verificato su Monasteri di Subiaco -- Benedictine community of Santa Scolastica — In 1052-53, perhaps on the bell tower of the church of 980 which was itself built on the narthex of the 9th-century church, of which four large pillars with as many arches remain, the French abbot Umberto had the five-storey campanile raised, The limestone archivolt on the southern side of the Cosmati cloister at Santa Scolastica reads "Magister Jacobus Romanus fecit hoc opus", naming the Roman marble-worker Jacopo il Vecchio, son of Lorenzo di Tebaldo, who began it probably before 1210; on his death around 1240 his son Cosma, from whom the art of the Roman marmorari took its name, continued and completed the construction together with his sons Luca and Jacopo, The second cloister of Santa Scolastica, called the Gothic cloister, was built between the end of the 1200s and the beginning of the 1300s, its irregular six-sided form deriving from the union of two rectangles with different orientations, the sides adjacent to the church respecting the arrangement of the oldest part of the monastery while the others follow a direction deviating eastwards; it is called Gothic for the pointed arches with double splay resting on sturdy piers, and at the centre stands a hexagonal well with parapet and marble columns that once belonged to the Neronian villa, The church of the Monastero di Santa Scolastica stands over the first oratory of St Benedict, whose traces were discovered in 1962; a second church was probably built over it in the 9th century, as can be deduced from remains emerging under the campanile; a third church, consecrated in 980 by Benedict VII, was built in Romanesque style and in 1300 was rebuilt at unchanged dimensions in Gothic-Cistercian style, with the remains of the original rose window still visible in the transept, The first or Renaissance cloister is the most recent part of the monastery of Santa Scolastica; its construction began in 1580 during the abbacy of Cirillo di Montefiascone and was completed in 1689 when Michelangelo Inurea, brother of the doge Luca Maria, was abbot; the west side was rebuilt after the bombing of 23 May 1944, and the north and east sides, which before 1580 formed the facade and entrance of the monastery, are today occupied by other buildings, In 1769 the architect Giacomo Quarenghi restored the church of Santa Scolastica in neoclassical style following the previous Gothic structure; it is a Latin cross with a single nave of irregular rectangular, almost trapezoidal form, with a barrel vault and decorations from the Quarenghi restoration, which took its inspiration from Palladio and in particular from the church of the Santissimo Redentore at the Giudecca in Venice (ottobre 2026).

Abbazia di Santa Scolastica cronologia storica

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