St. Paul Outside the Walls is a Benedictine Abbey which shares its name,origins and centuriesof history, both joyful and sorrowful, with theadjoining basilica.
The first monastic community at the Basilica of St. Paul is testifiedto by the "Praeceptum" of marble from St. Gregory the Great (590-604)which is preserved in St. Paul's museum of stone tablets.
Here, inscribed on the tablet, we findrecorded a monastery of nuns;while the monastery of monks of San CesarioMartyr is first recorded inthe "Liber diurnus", in which it says that the monastery was already inruins at that time. Pope Gregory II (715-731) arranged for it to be united to the monasteryof St. Stephen and restored, giving to the monks the task of maintaining the lamps in the oratory of the proto-martyr and to administering thegoods of the monastery. In this way, this pope can be considered the true founder of the Pauline monastery.
Later the monks of San Cesario acquired the principle rights to andgoods of the monastery, such that they legally represented thePatriarchal Basilica before the Pope. It was during this time that the monastery welcomed an illustrious guest in the form of Pope Paul !(756-767) who, overcome by advanced age, and even more by the hostiletreatment at the hands of the archdeacon Teofilatto, died here.
When later the Saracens retreated from Rome, after the first invasion which disturbed the life of the monks, the threat of their continuedraids remained.
Preoccupied with this, the popes thought to fortify St. Peter's and St.Paul's with proper fortifications. The first to begin was Leo IV (855-872), who constructed the defensivefortifications around the Vatican, from which the name "Lenonine City"comes.
A little later, the example of Leo IV's work for St. Peter's was duplicated for the basilica of St. Paul by Pope John VIII (872-882), who surrounded the basilica and monastery with a wall and towers, a true fortified village with a church, a mill, a port on the Tiber and houses,called "Giovannipoli" of which not a single trace remains.If Rome was in constant peril from Saracen raids, it received incompensation the tribute of English kings, themselves recently convertedto the Catholic faith in the previous century through the work of
evangelization by Benedictine monks.
They came to venerate the Tomb ofthe Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, offering rich gifts for the basilica. It could be attributed to this religious connection that, in a laterMedieval period, the sovereigns of England would exercise the functionof protector of St. Paul Outside the Walls. In fact, the antique coat of arms of the abbot of St. Paul were represented by the inscription around the shield of the sword of a belt of leather with the motto of theOrder of the Garter "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (shame be to him whothinks evil of it), which was founded by Edward III c. 1344.
Nevertheless the internal discipline of the monastic life declinedlittle by little until the Abbot St. Oddone (+942), of the celebratedmonastery of Cluny (Burgundy), was called in to restore it, who when he came to Rome in 936 not only initiated the reform of the monastery ofSt. Paul, but also in other monasteries of the city.
It is from this time that the denomination of "abbas et rector S.Stephani et S.Caesarii ad Sanctum Paulum" practically disappears andbecomes instead the more simplified and definitive "Abbas et rectorSancti Pauli".After the reform, the monastery of St. Paul enjoyed a succession of worthy abbots until St. Odilone of Cluny, invited by the emperor OttoneIII himself, severely reorganized the monastic discipline and liturgical celebrations of the monastery making it much like his own monastery inBurgundy.
In this time of monastic reform, many Romans came to this abbey ofOstia to take the monastic habit. Among them we remember Pope John XVIII(1003-1009), of which we have this brief note "Post annos V et dimidiumin sancto Paulo monachus discessit". When he died, a modest marble stoneenclosed his monastic sarcophagus, on which was chiseled only the nameof the deceased "DOMS n' IOHS XVIII n' PAPA", a title added only later.
In the XI century there developed between the pope and the emperorgrave difficulties because of ecclesial investiture which unsettled thepeaceful relations among the two most potent figures of authority in theChristian world. The delicate situation in which the Holy See foundtself had great repercussions throughout the church in its contact withcivil society, extending even to the regular monastic observance of thePauline monastery and on the administration of its vast patrimony.
Themonastery and the basilica saw itself fall little by little into abandonand squalid decadence.When Leo IX (1049-1054) entered Rome and came to learn of the state ofruin in which the Pauline monastery and basilica had fallen into, heimmediately placed it all in the hands of the monk Hildebrand, who wouldlater be Gregory VII, nominating him "provisor apostolicus" of theabbey. After renovating the décor of the sacred temple and
reestablishing the provision of the necessities of life to thefrightened monastic community, hequickly increased their number andreturned the monks to their regular observance.
Elected later pope with the name of Gregory VII (1073-1085) hecontinued to occupy himself with his abbey.
From his legacy there remains: the bull confirming the vast feudal patrimony from 1081; the precious and richly illuminated Carolingian Bible; and the bronze doors with nielloed figures of silver and enamel, made in Byzantium in 1070, which is now placed in the faithfully restored Holy Doors of the basilica.
In the XII and XIII centuries the monastery at Ostia reached its greatest flowering spiritually and economically. It was during this period that the greatest artists of the time were invited to monastery. Among those who came, it behooves us to name Pietro Vassalletto of the Cosmatesque School, who was creator of both the cloister and the Candelabrum of the Easter Candle; the Tuscan artist Pietro Cavallini, who decorated the façade of the basilica with mosaics and adorned the walls with precious frescoes; and Arnolfo di Cambio creator of the artistic and magnificent gothic baldacchino found above the sepulcher of the Apostle.
But then came the unhappy times of the "evil Avignonese".Notwithstanding the difficulties of this time, the abbot of St. Paul was considered the most important prelate in Rome, to whom important missions were entrusted to by the popes of Avignon. It was also in this time that important monastic figures came upon the scene, such as Blessed John Elemosinario, who exercised considerable charity towards the poor and died in 1330 at Todi where he had been sent by the abbot of St. Paul.
Inevitably, there followed a period of decadence in the observance of monastic life, in response to which Pope Martin V (1417-1431) entrusted the governing of the abbey to Gabriel Cardinal Condulmer (later Pope Eugene IV, 1431-1447). The choice could not have been better or more propitious in that Condulmer belonged to an elect group of reformers in the Church, who began their work of reform, and rightly so, with the monastic orders.
For this reason, in order to help him in his work, he called on his friend and ex-superior, Ludovico Barbo, of the abbey St. Giorgio in Alga, in the territory of Venice, who himself only recently founded the new monastery of St. Giustina of Padua with a confederation of monks whose goal it was to bring to Benedictine monasticism the regularization of cloistered life.
The Benedictine monasteries reformed by Barbo were united in a congregation called "de Unitate", or St. Giustina of Padua. And finally in 1504, when even Montecassino became part of the reform, introduced by Barbo, there saw a monastic renewal, of a sort, of discipline, spirit and administration of monasteries.
Once again was the passion for the study of both sacred and profane sciences rekindled among the monks, and the Pauline monastery became once more a center of holiness and culture. In fact, the superiors of the Cassinese Congregation chose the monastery of St. Paul as the center for a "gynasium" of philosophy and theology which was approved by Blessed Innocent XI (1676-1687).
This school was the seed for the future international Benedictine Athenaeum on the Aventine, which from Leo XIII (1878-1903) on, would come to be known as the Collegio Sant' Anselmo, the office headquarters of the Abbot Primate of the Benedictine confederation. From this Pauline academy came the monk Barnaba Chiaramonti, later himself a professor of philosophy for nine years.
Chiaramonti, a professed monk of the monastery of St. Maria of Cesena, who, during the pontificate of Pius VI (1775-1799) became first a bishop, then later cardinal, and finally was elected pope at the conclave held at the monastery of St. George Major of Venice with the name of Pius VII (1800-1823).
The XIX century for the basilica was one of sorrow.The night between the 15th and 16th of July, 1823, saw a fire which reduced the entire structure to ruins in a short time. Thereconstruction of the basilica took practically an entire century, finishing only with the placing of the monumental central bronze doorsin 1931. It was consecrated by Pius IX (1846-1876) on the 10th of December, 1854 with the participation of many cardinals and bishops who had come to Rome for the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception.
With the suppression of the religious orders in 1866 and then, for Rome, in 1870, all the goods of the monastery were confiscated by the Italian Government. Therefore the monastery of St. Paul found itself in a precarious position, so much so that the monks could only remain in their own home as custodians of the basilica, which at that time was under reconstruction. Yet they never abandoned their office around the glorious sepulchre of the Apostle to the Gentiles.
The full renewal of the monastic and economic life of the abbey at Ostia did not begin until the end of the XIX century, but then continued into the XX. The development of the spirit of religious revival was so rapid and vigorous that the abbey of St. Paul felt itself strong enough
spiritually and physically as to be able to help many monastic bodies retake the Benedictine life.
In Germany (with the two Wolter brothers), in Portugal (with D. Francesco Villaca Ferreira), in Brasil (with D. Franco Amorin) and, we can add, even in a certain sense, France, since the rebirth of Benedictine life in that country was made by D. Prosper Gueranger, who made his profession at St. Paul on the 26th of July, 1837 (the solemn ceremony took place in the sacristy because the basilica was still under construction). In Italy, two celebrated monasteries were
reopened, Farfa and Pontida. Once again, full renewal came about entirely as a result of the fervor for, and of, authentic Benedictine monastic life.
One must attribute the vigorous reflowering of cloistered life to a few great figures of monasticism of that time; the abbots D. Leopoldo Zelli, D. Bonifacio Oslaender, Blessed. Ildefonso Schuser (later Cardinal Archbishop of Milan) and the monk Blessed Placido Riccardi. Even the founder of New Norcia (Australia), Mons. Rudesindo Salvado, was of the
house of St. Paul and died there on the 29th of December, 1900. Finally, from time immemorial, the abbey of St. Paul had exercised diocesan jurisdiction over three Roman territories: Capena, Nazzano and Civitella S. Paolo.
Now, with the new organization of territorial diocese and relative jurisdiction, the abbot of St Paul has pastoral care with ordinary power (like that of the diocesan bishops and is therefore a member of CEI) of the extraterritorial zone of the
Patriarchal Basilica of St. Paul according to the decree "Vetustissimam Abbatiam" of John Paul II given on the 11th of July, 1981.
The history of the monastery was taken from the volume: Itinerario Paolino "I Monaci Benedettini a San Paolo Fuori Le Mura di Roma"
