The Convent of San Cosimato in Vicovaro is situated in one of the most picturesque areas of the Aniene Valley, where the rock cliffs rising over the river with natural and man made caves and the arches of the aqueducts, Marcio and Claudio (in disuse), played host to a flourishing community of anchorites in the 6th century.
The attempted poisoning of St. Benedict, elected abbot of the community, supposedly took place in the refectory hollowed out of the rock.
Having embraced Benedictine Rule in the 6th century, the monastic community built a church and a monastery, on Roman ruins at the top of the cliff, dedicating them to the physician saints St. Cosmas and St. Damian (St. Cosimato). Devasted by bellicose incursions, by Totila in 545, by Authari in 589 and later by Agiluf, the monastery was destroyed in the 9th century by the Saracens, who had, according to tradition, been defeated on the same plan by John X and his allies in 916.
St. Cosimato was rebuilt in the 10th century, under Alberico, as a Cluniacenses Abbey and won great power and splendour, although later once again fallen, it was incorporated with all its lands into the vast properties of the Monastery of St. Paul outside the walls (1081). Included among the Regalia Beati Petri (the inalienable properties belonging to the Apostolic Church), it was elevated by Pope Celestine III (1191-1198, the same pope who conceded Vicovaro, Cantalupo and Bardella to his Orsini nephews) to the status of “abbazia nullius”, a territorial abbey that depended directly from the Vatican. This continued until 1241, by which time the abbey had declined both spiritually and materially and, as a simple priory, was incorporated by Pope Gregory IX into the Cistercian Abbey of St. Sebastian of the Catacombs. It remained in Cistercian hands until 1407 when the monastery was conceded by Pope Gregory XII to the Ambrosian Friars of St. Clement in Rome, who undertook huge restoration work between the late15th and early 16th centuries. When the Ambrosian Order was abolished, the monastery was sold by Cardinal Maidalchini in 1648 to the Friars of the Third Order of St. Francis who were already present in Vicovaro at Our Lady of the Sepulchre. Suppressed in 1656 with the Reform of Pope Innocent X, the monastery passed to the Franciscan Recollets. With their arrival, the church was refurbished once again as were the so-called Caves which were prepared for use as places of penitence and, in part, decorated with paintings by Antonio Rosati of Vicovaro.
Between 1727 -1735, the ancient convent was completely demolished and rebuilt. Confiscated by the Italian State in 1876, it was used first as a hospital, then as a hospice, and finally as the headquarters for the nearby prison camp. In 1936, thanks to Antonio Santini, the Mayor of Vicovaro at the time, it finally returned to the Conventual Franciscans of the Province of Rome, in whose hands it still remains.
The church, recently restored, has a beautiful Renaissance portico (15th-16th century) with lunettes frescoed by Rosati (1670) and a painting (St. Leonard) which is contemporary to the slate construction. Inside there is a nave with five chapels on the left and one on the right.
The first chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Carmel, houses a carved marble barrier (late 12th-early 13th century), originally part of a medieval altar, donated by one Giovanni and with the signature of Maestro Uvo. The third chapel houses a 1868 tryptych by D. Monacelli and Fra Pietro da Copenhagen (previously Albert Küchler (1803-1886)). The fourth chapel has late 15th century frescoes of saints, with the fathers of the church on the vault surrounded by the symbols of the evangelists. Over the entrance arch, the fresco of the Blessing Eternal Father has been painted on earlier decoration, perhaps the earliest pictorial references found so far. The fifth, Gothic, chapel has late 15th century frescoes; the four evangelists on the vault, the invention of the true cross on the walls and a crucifixion and St. Anthony Abbot and St. Apollonia (late 15th century) on the underside of the arch. There are also the painted remains of a catafalque with the deceased, buried in the chapel. There is also a beautiful main altar in plaster by Cipriani (1696) following a design by Fra Tommaso Trentino which holds a wooden crucifix (1685). Beneath the modern altar is a Roman capital, recently unearthed, which had been used in the building of the medieval church.
To the right is the Chapel of St. Anne (previously the Chapel of the Orsini of Licenza-Roccagiovine), which was restored in 1628 by the Tiburtine bishop Maria Orsini. On the altar, a 17th century painting of “St. Anne teaching the Virgin” which replaced the painting by Vincenzo Manenti. To each side are paintings of St. Philip Neri and St. Charles Borromeo by the same painter. Facing is the cenotaph of Giulia Orsini di Mugnano.
From the area outside the church, the first group of Caves can be reached, these include the ex-Oratory of St. Michele which, according to tradition, was the famous refectory for the Sarabaite community and which for many years held the rock stained with the poisoned wine intended for St. Benedict.
In the little apse of the altar, there is a fresco of The Queen of Angels and Saints of the Seraphic Order, on the walls are stories from the Franciscan and Benedictine traditions. To the right is an interpretation of The Attempted Poisoning of St. Benedict, to the left St. Francis attempting to convert the Sultan, on the back wall a naif Transfiguration, the Poor Man who innests roses in the briars in Subiaco and The saint of Assisi receiving the Stigmata. All painted by Rosati (1670 – 1683).
From the garden behind the church, the stairway carved into the rock in 1682 leads to the other group of caves and the Chapel of St. Benedict, believed to have been his cell. On the altar another painting by Rosati, "St. Francis and St. Benedict talking to Christ with St. Cosma and St. Damiano”. Outside the Chapel, a small niche in the rocks in front of the river holds a Rosati painting of St. Benedict in abbot's robes, in his open book, the words BENEDICTVS QUI VENIT IN NOMINE DOMINI – BENEDICT CAME HERE IN THE NAME OF THE LORD can be read.