Over a long weekend in May, I had the opportunity to visit the city of Naples, (“Napoli” in Italian) and found it to be a very worthwhile and enriching experience. I went there from Rome by train and the ride is just an hour long. In Naples I stayed with a community of Discalced Carmelite friars whom we know, in the center of the city and not far from the beautiful bay of Naples, a ten minute walk away. The weather that weekend was very pleasant and not hot. Sultry temperatures are more a feature of June, July and August, as in Rome. The current population of the city of Naples is approximately three million. Rome is a bit larger.
The Carmelite friars in Naples live close to important sites, including the cathedral of Naples and a former Carthusian monastery, now a museum, overlooking the entire city and the bay of Naples. From the Carmelite friary the cathedral can be reached on foot and the Carthusian museum by means of a quick ride on public transportation and then a short walk.
To visit to the Carthusian museum, called “Certosa e Museo di San Martin,” I got my first ride on one of the “funicolari” of Naples. These are basically metros (trains) that go straight up (and down) hills! Naples and its environs are very hilly, so the funicolari are an important and impressive means of public transport and fun to ride, unless you have a fear of heights. Fortunately I do not.
A little farther away from the center of Naples, but still part of the city, is the former Camalolese Benedictine monastery, today occupied by Bridgettine sisters from Rome, but open to the public as a place of pilgrimage and prayer. Like the Carthusian monastery, “Camaldoli,” as it is usually referred to in Naples, sits high on a hill and provides another panorama of the city and the bay. To arrive at that location, kind new friends drove me there.
As a bit of a “culture vulture” when it comes to monasteries and sacred art, the visits to the former Carthusian and Camaldolese monasteries were highlights of my time in Naples. I also found the cathedral, dedicated to the martyr Saint Januarius (San Gennaro), a very inspiring site.
Some miles away from Naples, located high above the city of Sorrento, is the former Carmelite “desert.” Since 1983 it has been occupied by Benedictine nuns. Like the former Carthusian and Camololese monasteries, the nuns’ home is at a spot high above the bay of Naples with stunning views for miles around. This Carmelite desert was established in 1679 and used for solitude and prayer by Carmelite friars until the early 1800s, when the Napoleonic era closed the house. Afterwards it remained vacant for many years. During my recent Naples sojourn, I was able to visit the former Carmelite desert, thanks to two of the Carmelite friars of Naples who took me there, along with a Benedictine friend studying Naples.
For those not familiar with the term in Carmelite parlance, their “deserts” are places apart, usually away from the city, for friars to go on retreat, sometimes for years at a time or even permanently, with a life dedicated more to prayer, fasting, penance and manual labor than is normally possible in friaries where apostolic work takes place.
There is one such former Carmelite desert outside Mexico City, now a museum, called “Leon del Desierto.” The name is translated as “Desert of the Lions,” probably not so much for wild animals that may have been present in the region, than for the name of the original owners, the Leon family, who held the property at a time when religious were not allowed to.
I have not been to the Mexican Carmelite desert museum (for lack of a better term), but it looks like a beautiful place. The Mexican desert also once housed Carmelite friars seeking greater solitude and the hermit life, but it was suppressed by the Mexican government in 1810. Since 1937 the desert buildings and environs have also been a National Park of Mexico.
The interesting official title of the site when it was being used by the Carmelite friars was: “Desierto de Nuestra Senora del Carmel de los Montes de Santa Fe.” That is, “The Desert of Our Lady of Mount Carmel of the Santa Fe Mountains.”
I recall a mid-20th century book by the late British author Peter F. Anson where he confuses Mexico with New Mexico and Mexico’s Santa Fe Mountains with the state of New Mexico, placing the “Leon del Desierto” of Mexico somewhere in the state New Mexico, USA! No Wikipedia for Anson in his day.
The Carmelite friars with whom I stayed in May maintain a small sanctuary in Naples, in Italian called a “rettoria,” dedicated to Saint Teresa of Avila. The five friars (four are priests and one a deacon) live next to the church in a pleasant building or “convento,” and while not running a parish at Santa Teresa, they are actively involved in pastoral assistance to Catholics of their area.
The Naples friars also serve as chaplains to some religious sisters, including cloistered Carmelite nuns a mile or so from the friary. I was able to join the friars each day for praying the Liturgy of the Hours together in their convento chapel. I also celebrated Mass at their sanctuary and with the nearby Carmelite nuns.
From the beginning of my stay in Naples, and throughout the visit, I sensed a different “pace and spirit” from life in Rome. The nearest I can think of for comparison is what I have experienced in Mexico. I have been to tranquil towns in the middle of the Mexico, far from the ocean, such as San Louis Potosi, a “quiet place,” even in its city center. Comparing that to the “hustle and bustle” of a seaport city such as Veracruz, the difference is palpable; so too comparing Rome and Naples.
In general the movement and noise in Naples seems to be at a higher pitch and tone than Rome. At the same time, shopkeepers and “people on the street” seemed very kind and accommodating. I get along fine in Rome, but certainly liked what I saw, albeit in only four days, in Naples.
One of the dominant features of Naples is the still active volcano of Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Both of these Roman cities were buried under thirteen to twenty feet of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Vesuvius in79 AD.
The two sites, now popular tourist destinations not far from Naples, were only discovered in 1748 and subsequently excavated. A visit to Pompeii or Herculaneum can be a fascinating experience, walking amidst a formerly thriving city whose life was reduced to extinction in a matter of hours. Many years ago I was able to visit Pompeii and the close by sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of Pompeii.
Some might wonder, as I sometimes have, about the origin of the name “Naples,” or “Napoli.” The explanation is fairly straight forward. The area that is now Naples was established by Greeks some two thousand years before the birth of Christ. At that time it was called “Parthenope,” literally “Maiden’s Voice,” derived from Green mythology. In the six century B.C. the city was refounded and called “Neapolis,” which is Greek for, “New City.” It is easy to see how the words “Napoli” and “Naples” evolved from the word “Neapolis.”
