6

Relations with the Church

The great abbeys

     The Abbey of Montecassino

The abbey was destroyed twice: the first time during the Longobard domination and again, by the Saracens, in the years when St. Vincent al Volturno suffered the same fate. After its reconstruction it experienced a period of great prosperity and artistic splendour, which reached its climax in the 11th century. In the years when abbot Desiderio was at the head of the monastery, the Normans acquired increased power over the Longobard estates as a result of forced exchanges or usurpations.
Ugo Morino, a Norman Count who, in 1072, donated some churches to the monks “pro redemptione anima”, is a typical figure of this period.

Over the centuries the monastery experienced periods of artistic splendour alternating with periods of decline.


     The Abbey of St. Vincent al Volturno