CHAPTER II
EXISTING BYZANTINE INSTITUTIONS IN ITALY
We come now to the remains of what was once so great an element in the ecclesiastical life of Southern Italy and Sicily. The Byzantine rite is still used here; there are still Italo-Greeks, though now they are all Albanians. In describing their institutions we must go back, to trace the origin of each in particular.
- 1. Grottaferrata.
First among all Italo-Greek institutions I place the dear monastery of the Mother of God at Grottaferrata.[1] It is the oldest Greek centre now existing in Italy; it has a glorious history covering ten centuries; it has always been, it still is, the chief centre of their rite, to which all Italo-Greeks look. To the man who thinks that Popes want to turn everyone into a Latin the best answer is this venerable sanctuary, where under the very walls of Rome, protected, blessed, and favoured by a long series of Popes, Greek monks for over 900 years have never ceased to worship God according to an Eastern rite. How easily during all these centuries, time after time, might Grottaferrata have been turned into a Latin monastery! Who would have noticed or cared? The Pope himself would have cared. It is the Popes who have maintained here, in the heart of the Papal states, a rite foreign to them, yet no less Catholic than their own; so little have they ever thought that all Catholics must be Latins.
About the year 910 Nicholas, said to belong to the family
- ↑ Ἡ ἱερὰ Μονὴ τῆς Θεοτόκου ἡ ἐν Κρυπτοφέῤῥῃ, La Badia di Grottaferrata. Grottaferrata (Latin: Crypta Ferrata) is an old name of the place, probably older than the time of St Neilos. The local tradition is that there was an ancient picture and shrine of our Lady here in a grotto or crypt behind an iron grating (ferrata). The Roman place Lucus ferentinæ was here, between Tusculum (Frascati) and Castrimœnium (Marino). The country round was Tusculanum.
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