Since I arrived around the 15th of September and courses started up only at the end of the month we spent all the intervening time harvesting grapes in the Val di Chiana or Plain below and putting them through the huge wine press in the cellar . The juice was then poured into 12 gigantic 1000-gallon oaken vats for fermentation... some of which was reserved for domestic use... meaning us !! ... whereas most would be sold during the coming year at the "mercato" or market in Camucia thereby bringing revenues to the community for the purchase of other goods and necessities.
During this whole wine-making process I learned a great deal about the structure of power within our walls as well as one minor struggle for power and priveleges among the "hired" help. As mentioned before our legally appointed superior was Padre Canuto.... a big panda-pitbull ,"one of these days , Alice" kind of guys. He was also our professor of Canon Law and looked upon by most as having a bigger bark than a bite. However , from the very outset I learned that any time Padre Canuto acted with authority he always seemed to run it by the balding priest at his right , Padre Natalizia , economist and money handler... often referred to by the students as " money bags " who held the purse strings drawn tight on the monastery's frugal financial situation. Padre Natalizia taught moral theology . Then there was our chubby , pint-sized Padre Roberto.... Socius (or friend in Latin) to the student body.. our immediate superior .... whom I convinced early on that it was imperative that I travel as often as possible throughout the whole of Italy during my stay to get a better grasp and deeper understanding of Italian history , geography and culture . LOL. I'll deal more generously with this aspect a bit later on. Anyways Padre Roberto was a real sweet , mild - mannered character whose academic specialty was Patriarchy.. or the study of the Church Fathers. This triumvirate was the authorative hierarchy for the whole seminary. As for the other priests - professors I shall talk about each one of them in a later post .
Now for the fun guys... the lay brothers and the "hired" help. The role of the lay brother within the monastic framework is that of an auxiliary or aid to the priests in the carrying out of the latters' missions or ministry... freeing them , so to speak , from the more menial tasks so that they might deal almost exclusively with spiritual matters. There were three lay brothers at the college ... Brothers Valentino , Luigi and Francesco.... Valentino visibly being "numero uno "and my best friend.... the main cog in the wheel who took orders directly from Padre Natalizia , the BOSS !.... while Luigi ruled the kitchen.... Francesco simply helped out wherever he was needed and wielded no power or influence whatsoever. As for the "hired" help... well ! There were three of them.... Cecco , who lived in a room off the kitchen , who had no idea of world geography ...thinking I came from somewhere across the Pianura because of my funny accent and whose principal job was gardener to the tracts of arable land allotted for the growing of vegetables and spaghetti inside the courtyard walls. Cecco was a kind wee geezer .. even too gullible to be true and I spent many an hour sitting in the shade with him telling me what it was like under Nazi occupation. The next "hired" help was Nello... called the "Philosopher" by the locals because of his profound views on life in general such as the best ways to get as much out of the system while doing less and all this on a decreasing curve. In other words how could he milk the priests for all they were worth by lulling them asleep with his sweet talk about how often he prayed to God , etc . Nello lived with his sister in a rundown rock hut just outside the college walls. Last but not least comes Marconi , our old burly surly Facist-hating bachelor caretaker-guardian whose hut near the entrance gate looked more like a combined machine gun nest and munitions dump than living quarters . At the market in Camucia he started the rumour that he had planted mines all around his place so as to ward off possible thieves... and I for one believed the old buzzard and , as a precaution , would always stay on the main pathway and call out to him should I need to ask him something !! Marconi answered directly to Valentino... il Capo or foreman. In my next post I 'll talk about studies. Deo gratias!
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