Tre Fontane Abbey

The portion of the Campagna through which our way lay for about two miles is no longer deserted as earlier travelers have described it, but is dotted here and there with farmhouses and gardens around which troops of pretty dark-eyed children were at play, but not so busily that they were unwilling to pause in their games to accept a soldo or a bit of chocolate from the forestieri, whom they eyed furtively.

Passing by an ancient fort and descending some hillocks, we reached a gate which admitted us to an avenue of eucalyptus trees through which we finally gained the celebrated Abbadia delle Tre Fontane, originally a Cistercian monastery.

Whether the present healthfulness of this place, which was at one time abandoned on account of the prevailing malaria, is due to the planting of the eucalyptus trees or to the general draining of the marshes and the vigorous war urged against the mosquitoes, we know not.

The gardens and buildings, under the judicious cultivation and care of the Trappists who occupy the premises, now wear a look of thrift and as much comfort as befits a monastery.

For some reason, perhaps because of this profusion of native products and the subtle charm of this lovely spot in its spring beauty, the extreme austerity of the Trappists' life with its motto, "Le plaisir de mourir sont peine vaut bien la peine de vivre sont plaisir," did not impress us as it might have done had we visited the Tre Fontaine on a bleak winter's day.

Neither did the silence which in the order weigh upon our spirits.

In the church of San Paolo alle Tre Fontane, a young monk was explaining the legend for which the place is celebrated to some students who drank in the story reverently.

The most interesting of the three churches, that of San Paolo alle Tre Fontane, is built over the spot where St. Paul is said to have been beheaded.

So it's telling us about the Immaculate Conception.

And before the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption, three years earlier, in a place called Tre Fontane in Rome, Our Lady appeared as the Virgin of Revelation to Bruno Cornacchiola and told him that she was assumed into heaven.

And three years later, the Pope actually proclaimed the dogma.

So at times...

It is preceded before there is an apparition that tells us something about the dogma.

We mentioned Rudabak and the miraculous medal, which was known as the medal of the Immaculate Conception.

And also Our Lady of the Tre Fontane, Pope Pius XII, had blessed the statue of Our Lady of Revelation.

And this is a certain approbation of the apparition.

But this preservation of the skull and whatever was in there, as if that's the power center of their being, for me is like this kind of fantastical, maybe just another quick story.

There's a place called the Tre Fontane, the three fountains.

Excuse my bad Italian, dear friends.

And that's just at the edge of the wall, the older wall of the city of Rome.