On 6 December 2022, the course of the University of the Third Age of Umbertide began, promoted in collaboration with the Municipality and the Ethically
The path crosses interesting places both from a historical and naturalistic point of view. Particularly in the area of Umbertide, we wanted to point out and make known the value of the presence of the abbey of San Salvatore di Montecorona which can boast a thousand-year history and the passage of orders and saints who have illustrated its events.
In the first meeting, opened by the greetings of the president of UniTre Umbertide Corrado Baldoni, the municipal councilor Claudia Fagnucci and the president of the EticaMente association Vincenzo Silvestrelli, Don Andrea Czortek (historian, director of the Office for Culture and Social Communications of the Diocese of Città di Castello and former professor of Church History in the Theological Institute of Assisi and in the Diocesan School of Theological Formation) illustrated the history of the Camaldolese settlement in the Umbria region. These monks, who followed the Benedictine rule, were inspired by San Romulado (ca. 951- ca.1027), a saint from Ravenna who had a great influence in the Christianity of his time and founded many hermitages such as those of Sitria in Umbria and Camaldoli in Tuscany. The first Camaldolese settlements were in the upper Tiber valley and then they had a vault in Umbria with the acquisition of the Sansepolcro abbey and dependent ones such as the Church of San Severo in Perugia.
Even the abbey of Montecorona, according to the late traction of the Coronese monks (the congregation that managed the abbey and its dependent ones from the 16th century until its suppression in 1860), was founded by the saint from Ravenna in 1008.
The speaker explained in particular how the heritage of the abbeys was formed through donations from important families who wanted to ensure the prayers of the monks to obtain salvation. The lands of the monks were managed with various types of contracts, in particular with the emphyteusis, a contract which provided for the improvement of the fund and the payment of a rent which served for the maintenance of the monks.
The companies of the abbeys extensively modified the landscape, expanded the land used for cultivation, led to the reclamation of marshy land and the adoption of new cultures and their rotation.
The UNITRE course, open to citizens, will continue with other meetings that will examine the history of the abbey of Montecorona and the biography of San Romualdo and San Savino, a saint originally from Umbertide who lived in the seventeenth century within the experience of the congregation of Montecorona .
On 17 January 2023 Stefania Zucchini of the University of Perugia will trace the history of Montecorona from its birth until the arrival of the monks reformed by Blessed Paolo Giustiniani (1476-1528), son of an important Venetian family who lived in Umbria and founded the Camaldolese monks of Montecorona (Coronesi), still existing as a community of hermits.
The figure of San Romualdo (951-1027), a hermit and reformer who was of great importance as the founder of the Camaldolese monks, will then be presented on 31 January 2023 by Don Giustino Farnedi, abbot of San Pietro in Perugia. Peculiar was his relationship with the young emperor Otto III (980-1002), with whom he collaborated for the reform of the Church.
On February 14, 2023 Monsignor Pietro Vispi, chancellor of the Diocese of Gubbio and parish priest of the Collegiata, will address the biography of a saint from Umbertide, San Savino, a Coronese monk who illustrated his homeland with his virtues, gathering a great reputation for holiness during his lifetime.
On 28 February Mirko Santanicchia, from the University of Perugia, will talk about the valuable frescoes in the Abbey of San Salvatore di Montecorona which are strongly linked to those of the Cistercian monastery of S. Giuliana in Perugia, because they were created in a unique context.
All the meetings will take place at the San Francesco di Umbertide socio-cultural center at 17.00.