The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-08-05
THE WONDERS OF SICILY
STORY OF THE MONAs fERY OF
SAN DOMENICo.
A Land Where History and Story and
The Beauties of Nature and Art
Blend so Marvelously.

Later in my stay at Taormina I
fouhu out more about the old monas-
terry of san DomeniCo. which is now n
hotel The story is more interesting
even than l hau thought at first. The
monastery was founded by Dameano
Rosso in the year 143O. lie was a d.
rect uescendent of Tancred rHaute-
vile, and therefore claimed kindred
with William the Conqueror. The place
has remained in the possession OF the
hosso family ever since, and it was
the present representative of the fam
lily who told me its story. In all its
long history services in the church
have been kept up, and they are so
still in one of the chapals, though this
is only private mass for the Rosso
family and their household.
The wood carvings in the choir and
the sacristy and on the pulpit, which
are so marvelously rich and fine were
the lifework of one of the old Benedic-
tine monks, who labored upon them
forty years, finishing in the year 1902
| This man must have been a kind of
Fra Angelica, for every figure bears
testimony to his fervent piety as well
as to the exquisite refinement of his
art and the religious sCrupulousness
with which every detail was wrought
Jul. Inc lONely SURROUNDINGS OF MS
monastery taught the monk how to
adorn his stalls and mis- pulpit, and
right well did he use the flowers, fruits
and leaves that filled his garden and
covered the mountain sides above and
below his cell in embellishing his capt.
tails and corbels and all the surfaces
of his construction work.
There is among the other carvings a
curious Tree of st. Domenic," whose
l., q. . E,.I
soil for the production of abbots and
saints, for each branch of the tree that
grows from his side has borne fruit in
one of them.
This same most pious and devoted
monk had time in spite of his forty
years of carving to paint the missal
of the church and adorn it with pious
care.
There is something most beautiful
and interesting about the spirit which
pervades this ancient church, and buy
ers get in it's lovely cloisters in spite
of the intrusion of careless priests who
come and go, having no part nor lot in
it. 1t is pathetic that a place so holy,
so sacred, so altogether apart from
earthly things as San Domenico must
have been to the artist monk, should
now be thus laid bare to the world.
One must linger awhile at Taormina
glance suffices. The theater in the
arms of it's mountains is not the same
in the morning as in the evening, and
at midday it is again quite different
At few places do the lights and shad-
ows produce a more impressive effect
upon the lanscape than here.
To see the sunset from the Greek
theater at Taormina is an event in any
ones lifetime There is no other place
where such a sight can be seen. AS
| the sun sinks behind the mountains
shadows creep over the theater, deep
ening, ever deepening, till it becomes
quite gray and dark, while the Callahan
mountains on the Italian shore are still
rosy and luminous, and Aetna, tower
| ing far above them all, seems still light
almost to it's base. Gradually, however,
| the vast mountain begins to glow. II
becomes deep purple down among its
valleys, then amethystine, then moro
roseate till the snOwcrOWned dome
shines out in radiant pink.
Long after the sea has lost its blue
and the shadows have covered even
the highest Italian mountains after
even the clouds that have been bathed
in rosy light are beginning to pale
there is still a radiance about the crest
| of Aetna. 1t seems as if the great
dome far up in the heavens were lumi-
nous in itself, light-giving perhaps be
cause of the fires within. But no, that
cannot be, for as the moments pass a
pearly gray succeeds the rose color
and only the column of smoke remains
red. like a pillar of fire, upon this
highest. purest sanctuary of the Sici-
liam land At last even this one CLEAN
of color fades away, and for time
deep shadows cover the vast mountain
and all its attendant peaks.
But soon the moons light touches
the white dome of Aetna. Then broad
path of silver leads across the sea from
italy to Sicily At last all the gray
rocks and crags and castles and the
little towns and monasteries that rest
/ quietly on their hill crests are silVereC
by the mOonbeams. The great noun
tain that dominates all the land is
bathed from base to dome in a food OF
tremulous moonlight
In such a light and such place al
the wonderful story of Sicily seems tC
be told again. The old people who
lived here long before the Greeks bull
yonder castle far above the theater
Then the Greeks came and Syracuse
arose in all her beauty and grandeur
and the majestic temples crowned the
hills about Girgenu. Then came the
Romans and conquered after LONG
wars, leaving their amphitheater and
many another noble building to tell OF
their power. Christians, Saracens and
NOrmans follow in the train of these
and with them came Monreale and the
Royal Chapel, lustrous gems of art, i'm,
spired by the love and power of the
conquering Christ
Where is another land like this in
which history and story and the mos
exquisite beauties of nature and of arr
are blended in so marvellous a way?
WALTER CRANSTON LARNED.