Feeling peaceful and sacred at Sant'Antimo Abbey

Thursday, May 11 – Visiting la Abbazia di Sant'Antimo

The Abbey of Saint Anthony is in a beautiful, peaceful setting near San Quirico d'Orca.

We drove from Multipulciano to Pienza to San Quirico d’Orcia, and then headed south toward Castelnuovo dell’Abbate until we reached the valley containing the lovely Abbey di Sant’Antimo.  The Abbey was originally founded in the late 700’s.  It was visited by and received the seal of Charlemange, who traveled along the Via Francagena between Lombardy and Rome in 781.  We have seen many people hiking along the Via Francagena over the last few days – it seems as popular as the Santiago de Compostela trail in northern Spain – but longer.  It starts in Canterbury, England and ends in Rome, where the pilgrims and crusaders were heading.

The view of the Abbey in it's setting from the primary road - tracing the Via Francagena

The Abbey is surrounded by olive trees and vineyards - and was the center of commerce for the region for many centuries

The Abbey is in a quite valley, surrounded by vineyards and old olive trees.  It was very prosperous for more than 400 years, owning many surrounding castles, churches and monasteries until Siena defeated Montalcino in 1200.  

So peaceful and tranquil - the noisiest sounds come from all the birds

The Abbey was closed down by Pope Pius II in the late 1400s. It was revitalized with more recent restorations in the 19^th Century and 20^th centuries and now has an active religious community that was restarted in the 1990s.  The community is famous for singing Gregorian chants 7 times daily as part of their regular services. 

We were alone in the interior of this  evocative place of prayer

A stark and simple restoration of the interior with a wooden keel ceiling

While the building is fairly simple, yellow stone walls, wooden ceilings and tiled roofs, there are some interesting pieces of stone carving that have survived.  The interior smells spicy – from the fragrance of incense used daily in the services.  The high east window reflects sunbeams down into the apse, in part from the smoke particles that are still high in the air.

It feels like God is looking in on us, and shining his light on the representation of Jesus on the cross.  We felt renewed and reenergized after our visit to this most special place.