For centuries, the Catholic Church has been at the forefront of healthcare, merging faith with science for complete healing of body and soul. A shining example of this tradition is the Benedictine apothecary in Trastevere – a testament to the enduring legacy of monastic herbal wisdom. This article is republished with attribution from Paolo Ondarza, “The Benedictine apothecary of the Pope’s collections,” Vatican News, November 2023 — an inside look at the Spezieria di Santa Cecilia and the Speziaria di Santa Maria della Scala, the "Pharmacy of the Popes."
(Featured image by D. Bellucci. Other photos by A. Poce, courtesy of Musei Vaticani.)
Hypericum, Mallow, Dandelion, Wormwood, Belladonna, Cardamom, Rosewater or Chicory Water. The names of ancient remedies, distillates, syrups, painted in blue on finely decorated ceramic vessels, are reviewed as one gazes along the wooden shelves of the Spezieria of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, set up in a hall of the Vatican Museums recently opened to the public.
Objects from ancient times
The history of the objects displayed here is fascinating, a total of 1,579 items, including majolica, mortars, scales, spatulas, pestles, wooden or Murano glass containers, with curious shapes that evoke distant times.
As you observe the press, perhaps carved in medieval times from an ancient stone capital, the scales with the image of Saint Cecilia, the straw-covered flasks, the vials, a glass jar containing corals, deer antlers, and wild boar teeth inside wooden boxes, or the mysterious small plates, each bearing two letters of the alphabet, you get the impression that time has stood still in this room.
Many questions come to mind. How did a glimpse of the life of an ancient pharmacy find its way into the artistic heritage of the Pope's Museums?
Saint Cecilia and the care of the poor
Caring for and welcoming the poor has characterized the house in which Cecilia, a 3rd century martyr and the patron saint of music, lived from the earliest days.
A basilica and a monastic complex were built near the building that stood in the Anicia insula, in Trastevere, one of the oldest areas of Rome. At least from the ninth century, a female religious community was established there without interruption.
Saint Francesca Romana and the Benedictines
In the 15th century, St. Francesca Romana directed her charitable action toward people afflicted by plagues, pregnant women, and many people suffering from physical and spiritual infirmities. She often visited the undisturbed remains of St. Cecilia within the Basilica.
In 1527, the Benedictine nuns took up residence in the monastic complex. On the initiative of the then titular Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, the entire complex was transformed into one of the most important spiritual, religious, economic, productive, and commercial centers in Rome.
An important production center
The Monastery, located near the port of Ripa Grande, had wheat mills on the Tiber, a large fish pond, and numerous workshops and kilns of potters from the most renowned ceramic centers on the Peninsula, such as Deruta, Montelupo, or Faenza.
These artisans were responsible for producing a significant portion of the apothecary equipment owned by the Spezieria, or apothecary shop, which the cardinal arranged inside the monastic residence, "at the end of the garden, under the novitiate."
The Spezieria of the Benedictines
The intention was to provide a health reference not only for the monastic community but also for the entire population of Trastevere: a rich complex with an infirmary, a fountain, tanks, a stove, a fireplace, small ovens, distillers, cabinets, tables, mortars, scales, containers made of majolica, glazed terracotta, and glass, as well as books and boxes for packing medicines.
The Spezieria immediately established a relationship with similar institutions in various monasteries in and outside of Italy.
Medicinal herbs and medica simplex
The majority of the raw materials in these ancient pharmacies were herbs called officinalis, which were processed in a laboratory or officina. There, they were dried, ground into powders, and transformed into syrups or ointments.
These herbs were grown in the gardens of monasteries and convents, known since the Middle Ages as "gardens of simples." Medica simplex were the healing principles obtained directly from nature, in contrast to "compounds," which resulted from the mixture of different substances.
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Br. Basil and the Treatise on Simples
The recipes for these preparations are codified in various manuals. Most notable among them is the Treatise on Simples, with its 240 pages, one of the most comprehensive herbal tractates to this day.
It’s creation was overseen by Brother Basilio della Concezione, a Carmelite active in Trastevere between 1727 and 1804 who resided in the nearby monastery of Santa Maria della Scala. The mendicant order he belonged to traditionally guarded the secrets of medicinal plants from around the world.
Santa Maria della Scala
In the friars' convent, where the Treatise is kept, one of the oldest apothecaries in Europe was founded in the 15th century, opened to the public since 1640, and awarded the gold medal certificate by Pope Leo XIII.
While it ceased the preparation of galenic drugs in 1954, it still maintains its intact eighteenth-century arrangement.
It was known as the "Pharmacy of the Popes" by the residents of Trastevere, dating back to the times of Pope Pius VIII, and was a destination for princes, dukes, sovereigns, and cardinals, whose portraits, along with those of the most famous ancient doctors, were painted on the cabinet doors containing the preparations.
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Theriac and other ancient medicines
Particularly sought-after and preserved in sandalwood boxes, a type of wood impervious to woodworms, were some medicines that made the Carmelite apothecary famous: Theriac, an ancient remedy based on viper flesh, attributed to the physician of King Mithridates of Pontus and used as an antidote to poisons; Antineuralgic Water, known as "of the Scala"; Melissa Water for the treatment of hysteria; Antipestilential Water for contagious diseases, whose formula was never revealed by Basilio della Concezione.
The friar at Santa Maria della Scala also opened a school for religious and laypeople to learn the secrets of herbs.
Behind the hall, rooms intended for the preparation of medicines are still visible, with centrifuges, bottlers, presses for squeezing, presses, sieves, a sterilizer, and a pill press, a machine for turning pastes into pills.
Transfer from Santa Cecilia to the Vatican
The pharmaceutical equipment of the Spezieria of Santa Cecilia also survived intact and was transferred from the Benedictine Monastery to the collections of the Vatican Apostolic Library by the order of Pope Pius XI in 1936.
The female monastic community of Trastevere was undergoing a severe economic crisis on the eve of World War II, and the management of pharmaceutical production, active until 1930, became too burdensome.
The Pope guaranteed the nuns a monthly allowance for their support and ordered a sudden change of location for all the apothecary furnishings: cabinets, objects, and ingredients, many of which are still contained in jars and drawers.
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From the Library to the Vatican Museums
A Rescript [a formal papal decree] by Pope John Paul II in 1999 transferred this heritage to the jurisdiction of the Vatican Museums, which have recently made it accessible through special visits.
Guided by Luca Pesante from the Department of Decorative Arts of the Papal Galleries, we learn about the hidden stories behind each individual object.
We come to understand, for example, that the initials painted on those unique little plates that immediately catch our attention correspond to the names of the nuns of the Benedictine community of Santa Cecilia.
Layout of the Spezieria in the Vatican Museums
The current arrangement of the room faithfully reflects how the pharmacy would have appeared within the Monastery of Trastevere. On many vessels, below the cartouche with the name of the medication, you can distinguish, framed by the recurring motif of the split vine leaf, the emblem of the pharmacies of origin.
In Rome alone, in the first half of the seventeenth century, there were about 80 such pharmacies. They included those of San Salvatore ad Sancta Sanctorum, the Holy Apostles, established by the Pope for the care of the poor, Ara Coeli, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. John Lateran, to name only a few.
The dried herbs still bundled inside the exquisite wooden cabinets decorated with precious marbles are now the subject of study and research for the Vatican Museums' Analysis Laboratory.
Pharmacy of the cardinals
The exhibit room is located near the Sistine Chapel. Our thoughts and imagination immediately turn to the pharmacy that is said to have existed inside the Apostolic Palace between the 16th and 17th centuries.
It was likely located near the Regia Hall and was intended for the healthcare needs of the cardinals gathered in the Conclave — the sealed assembly that elects a new pope — as well as for the daily needs of the Pope and the Roman Curia, which at the time consisted of about 500 people, including scholars, librarians, chancellors, and barbers.
An active monastery
With the installation of the Spezieria room, the Vatican Museums once again unveil a secret of their unparalleled collections and engage in dialogue with the surrounding area.
Accompanied by the current Abbess of Santa Cecilia, Mother Maria Giovanna Valenziano, we discover that the connection between the Benedictines of Trastevere and the pharmacy that once belonged to the Monastery has never been broken.
Even today, within the convent walls where 21 nuns between the ages of 35 and 90 live, botanical painting courses are held, an artistic discipline that strikes a harmonious balance between art and science, inheriting the ancient herbalist's miniature technique and, therefore, the knowledge passed down, among others, by Br. Basilio della Concezione.
Memory and tradition
Today, the nuns are working on cataloging flowers and leaves dating back to the 16th century.
Furthermore, the medical tradition dating back to Asclepius, for whom there was a sanctuary on the Tiber Island since the 3rd century BC, has never waned. This is evident in the handwoven gauze by the nuns in the past centuries. The art of weaving is a hallmark of the Monastery of Santa Cecilia, which each year makes the stoles imposed on the shoulders of new metropolitan archbishops on 29 June.
The uninterrupted activity of the monastery
Keys, hinges, locks, latches, tools for embroidery, or for planting and harvesting plants are witnesses to uninterrupted productive activity in the history of the convent.
It's worth noting that until the 1950s, following the cessation of the apothecary's activity, a nun who was a pharmacist would deliver various herbs, including mallow, lemon balm, valerian, violets, orange peels, or orange blossoms, through the convent's wheel to those who requested them.
Drawing on the past and looking to the future
In the last 15 years, a "Garden of Simples" modeled on the botanical garden in Padua, the world's oldest, has been replanted in Santa Cecilia.
Various cultivations are in line with tradition: roses, both European and Chinese, which generate the various qualities currently on the market, with their petals used to make preserves; oranges for herbal teas; lavender for essential oil extraction, jelly production, aromatic water, and scented sachets for linens.
With a rich and established tradition, the nuns' activity is now directed towards the future. Thanks to new technologies, the Benedictine community intends to create a historical memory area within the Monastery with a virtual reproduction of the ancient apothecary's activity.
Further reading
- Cosmas & Damian: Patron Saints of Medicine — the twin martyr physicians still invoked for healing today
- Natural Healing vs. Modern Medicine: The Untold Story — how herbal medicine was pushed from mainstream care into "alternative" status
- How Catholic Herbal Tradition Survived in Protestant England — what became of monastic herbal knowledge once the monasteries were dissolved