Like a thread stretched between earth and sky, monasteries have always made room for the production of natural products - based on herbs, honey, fruit… - for healing and cosmetic purposes.
It is a heritage of history and health, but also of ancient wisdom, to be rediscovered, because this is how we come to appreciate how precious natural products are and how strongly the echo of God, the Creator, is present in nature.
The monasteries
Since their creation, monasteries have been not only places of prayer, but also places of work and hospitality: they often offered shelter to pilgrims and travelers.
As early as the 6th century, the Rule of Saint Benedict required every monastery to have an infirmarius, that is, a monk “full of love of God, attentive and caring,” whose task was to care for the sick. For this very reason, he was also entrusted with the highly important task of cultivating medicinal herbs: roses, cumin, lilies, sage, and rosemary… A “green” heritage whose medicinal properties and health benefits the monks knew well.
Saint Hildegard of Bingen and the “verdant energy”
A Benedictine nun and abbess who lived in the 12th century, Hildegard is famous as a writer, mystic, theologian, herbalist, naturalist, and healer.
She defines healing as a holistic process whose principles are already present in our bodies and can be stimulated simply through the energies of nature. Central to her thought is the concept of viriditas: the Latin term denotes the color green, the color of plants that sprout and express vigor. For Hildegard, this symbolizes the balance of physical and spiritual health, a vital force capable of regenerating human beings: it is what she calls a “verdant energy”.
To preserve it, she therefore recommends eating well-prepared food and using medicinal herbs. “We,” Hildegard observes, “are a living tree, planted in a fiery sky!”.
Camaldoli
Camaldoli (Arezzo), founded a thousand years ago by Saint Romuald, is a community of Benedictine monks.
From the earliest years after its foundation, the monastery saw great development in the fields of healthcare and pharmacy. The apothecary monk worked alongside the monacus medicus, whose task was to visit and care for the sick and administer the medicines prepared by the apothecary.
A document from 1510 confirms that there was a botanical garden near Camaldoli where various medicinal plants were cultivated.
The monks of Camaldoli, custodians of the tradition, have in recent decades directed the work of the Antica Farmacia laboratory toward cosmetic and herbal products.
