Days near Rome . lose to the road, and a freshness always rises from the riverwhich dashes wildly through the abyss of green beneath,rejoicing to be freed from its imprisonment in the walls ofcliff beneath S. Scholastica. Here a ruined gothic chapelstands amid thickets of flowers, there a gaily painted shrine,very dear to artists, surmounts the tufa rocks. Wlien we reach the bridge called Ponte S. Mauro, bywhich the road from Olevano crosses the Anio at a greatheight, a carriage can go no further, and the footpath whichascends to the great monasteries turns off up the gorge tothe left. Little
Days near Rome . lose to the road, and a freshness always rises from the riverwhich dashes wildly through the abyss of green beneath,rejoicing to be freed from its imprisonment in the walls ofcliff beneath S. Scholastica. Here a ruined gothic chapelstands amid thickets of flowers, there a gaily painted shrine,very dear to artists, surmounts the tufa rocks. Wlien we reach the bridge called Ponte S. Mauro, bywhich the road from Olevano crosses the Anio at a greatheight, a carriage can go no further, and the footpath whichascends to the great monasteries turns off up the gorge tothe left. Little chapels at intervals mark the rocky way,which is overhung by wild laburnum and coronilla, andfringed with saxifrage and cyclamen. The first of thesechapels commemorates an interesting mediaeval story inwhich Benedict bore a share. Amongst those who camehither from Rome to share his teaching, were two Romansenators of high rank, Anicius and Tertullus, who broughtwith them their sons Maurus and Placidus, entreating. 302 DA YS NEAR ROME. hiin to bring them up in the way of Life. Maurus wasthen twelve years old and Placidus only five. One day (in528) the child Placidus fell into the Anio below this , seeing him fall, called to Maurus to assist him,and he, walking upon the water, caught the drowning boy bythe hair, and dragged him out. His safety was followed bya contest of humility between the pupil and master. Maurusattributed it to the holiness of Benedict, Benedict to theself-devotion of Maurus; Placidus decided the question bysaying that he had seen the sheepskin-coat of Benedicthovering over him in the water. Long before we reach it, the grandly toned bell of SantaSchoiastica, echoing amid the rocks, gives notice of theapproach to a great sanctuary. Nothing can exceed thesolemn grandeur of its situation, perched upon huge crags,and with the roaring river below. The monastery v/asfounded in the fifth century by the Abbot Honoratus, thesainted successor of Benedict
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectromeita, bookyear1875
