The Abbey of St. Nilus the Younger, also known as St. Mary of Grottaferrata, is an Exarchic monastery of the Order of Basilian Monks. In 1004, a group of Catholic monks of the Italo-Byzantine rite reached the Tuscolo Hills. Their leader was an elderly man, St. Nilus the Younger, who was born in Rossano, Calabria into a Greek family.
St. Nilus had already founded various monasteries in Calabria and Campania. There were ruins on the Tuscolo Hills of a great Roman villa that may have belonged to Cicerone, which included a small, two roomed building made from blocks of peperino (“opus quadratum”) which had been a funeral sepulchre during the Republican era and had been used as a Christian oratory since the 5th century. The building was known as “Crypta ferrata” (hence later Grottaferrata) for its windows with their double iron grill. Tradition recounts that the Mother of God appeared to St. Nilus and his disciple St. Bartholomew the Younger in the Crypt asking that a sanctuary be dedicated to her in that place, for which she would have blessed the surrounding area with her grace.
Having obtained the land as a gift from Gregory, Count of Tuscolo, the monks began building the church and monastery. St. Nilus died shortly after, on 26 September 1004. St. Bartholomew and the other monks worked for twenty years on the building, using materials found in the ruins of the Roman villa: slabs and pillars of marble, carved frames, blocks of peperino. By 1024 the sanctuary had been completed. On 17 December of that same year, Pope John XIX came to solemnly consecrate it and dedicate it to the Mother of God.
The facade of the Abbey of St. Mary of Grottaferrata has been restored to its original state with a large rose window and others in fretworked marble, Gothic blind arches and brickwork cornices continuing onto the sides. The Abbey is reached through a portico, with four pillars supporting the architrave. Inside, there are important 11th and 13th century mosaics. The polychrome flooring is the only relic of the 13th century Cosmatesque works that included the altar, baldachin, choir and the pulpit which were all demolished and therefore lost.
In 1577, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese commissioned the present pannelled ceiling, demolishing the previous wooden trusses. In 1665 Cardinal Francesco Barberini commissioned the main altar, rich with sculpture and precious marbles from Gianlorenzo Bernini.
Entrance to the Cryptaferrata is at the back of right aisle, which then leads onto the Farnese Chapel, dedicated to the founding saints. This chapel was originally dedicated to the martyr Saints Adrian and Natalia.
The Abbey possesses one of the world's most extensive libraries of Ancient Greek and Latin texts, counting thousands of inestimably precious volumes. The monastery also includes the Church of St. Mary where the Byzantine-Greek rite is followed in Ancient Greek.
 

 

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