A Trip to Tolentine

At 6:30 am on October 31, 2004, some thirty-five Augustinian Recollect friars who had just finished a six day work week piled into a bus for a well-deserved break. We were traveling from Rome, where we were attending our General Chapter, to Tolentino, an Italian city about four hours away, where the Augustinians have a shrine to honor St. Nicholas of Tolentine, one of the great saints in the history of the Church in Italy. The occasion was the 7th centenary of the death of St. Nicholas. Our Chapter group was an international one, with most of the friars coming from Spanish-speaking countries, together with a number of Filipinos and American.

The bus took us across almost the entire width of Italy. From the flat lands around Rome, we soon entered a mountainous country, brilliant green but touched with the colors of fall, where the road wound like a snake through century-old villages and was, in places, so narrow that traffic was permitted to flow in only one direction at a time. Along the way, we passed through the region of Spoleto, called "the country of the saints" since many saints like St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order, and Augustinian saints like St. Rita of Cascia, St. Clare of Montefalco, and St. Nicholas of Tolentine were born and lived out their extraordinary lives.

When we finally arrived in Tolentino our bus stopped at the bottom of a long hill that led into the center of town. We all climbed up the old cobblestone street and, making a sudden right turn at the top of the hill, were confronted with the ornate baroque facade of the Basilica of St. Nicholas, standing at the far end of a small plaza. The complex belongs to the Order of St. Augustine (O.S.A.), the parent community of the Augustinian Recollects.

We were given a very warm, fraternal welcome, and then ushered into the cloister where an old Augustinian brother showed us through the monastery and kept us laughing with his jokes. At one point he told us in Italian that he was the only thing around older than the cloister!

While waiting to celebrate Mass in the room where St. Nicholas died (now a chapel) we explored the museum, which included a number of incredibly ornate nativity sets, and a diaroma with 18 miniature scenes depicting the life of St. Nicholas. Each was an artistic gem of life-like figures, buildings, and scenery.

When the time came to celebrate Mass, we were escorted to the sacristy, where beautiful gold vestments had been prepared for each of the priest-celebrants. Processing through the main church (which could easily seat 500) we entered St. Nicholas Chapel. It was a breath-taking display of religious art. Medieval frescos, done in bands of brilliantly colored figures, covered the walls of the chapel from top to bottom. They depicted the four evangelists, scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, scenes from the life of Christ, and finally scenes from the life of St. Nicholas. The frescos were reminiscent of those done by the artist Giotto in Assisi.

Fr. Rafael Mediavilla, provincial of St. Nicholas Province, presided at the Mass and gave the homily in which he spoke about St. Nicholas as a clear and powerful reflection of the Augustinian tradition, moving men and women throughout the ages to commit themselves to a life of holiness and service to others. During the Mass the chapel echoed with song and was filled with the smell of incense.

After Mass, all the friars descended to the crypt where the tomb of St. Nicholas was located, to offer a silent prayer to a saint known for his good works for the sick and the poor, and his devotion and prayers for the faithful departed.

Following the services, the Augustinians offered a sumptuous lunch to their Augustinian Recollect brothers, serving everything from pasta to rabbit (that's right), all exquisitely prepared. Dessert consisted of fruits and rich Italian pastries. Following the prevailing European custom, lunch was followed by coffee and liquors. A wonderful variety of books on Augustinian history and art were made available to us at no charge thanks to the generosity of our hosts.

A walk after such a lunch was an absolute must. Many of the friars took advantage of the time remaining before the departure of our bus to stroll around the monastery cloister or to poke around the many shops of Tolentino.

Our return trip to Rome seemed longer since it took place after dark, depriving us of the beautiful scenery which was visible earlier in the day. However, the friars soon began a lively sing-along, consisting mostly of well-known and humorous Spanish songs that kept everyone wide-awake and laughing all the way home. The day had been an absolute delight, and provided the needed break to begin the work of the Chapter again.

Fr. John Gruben, OAR

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