Churches: San Marco (Part 3 of 5)

While visiting San Marco, we were shushed.  Three times we were shushed. 

The shushers in this case were Saints Dominic and Peter of Verona, shushing us from their perches on the frescoed walls of San Marco.

Background:  The Dominicans are known as the Order of Preachers.  Dominic founded the order, in part, to train priests to better teach the masses through preaching.  Ironically, Dominic also greatly valued silence--silence in every part of a monastery.

To the uninitiated like us, preaching and silence do not seem to go together.  Well, it turns they fit together nicely. The silence practiced by Dominicans is not perpetual silence. Instead, it is silence in large doses punctuated by preaching.  Apparently, the cultivation of silence is considered the "doorway to contemplation" and listening for what is most meaningful while in deep thought and prayer.  So, silence leads to profound understanding and then to inspired preaching.

Silence in San Marco:  In the convent, the dozens of Dominicans living there were silent throughout much of their daily routine. The Dominican constitution calls for: “Silentium fratres nostri teneant in claustro in dormitorio in cellis in refectorio et oratorio.” ("Silence hold our brothers in the cloister, in the dormitory, in cells, in the refectory and the oratory of his brethren.")  So, San Marco was a very quiet place.

While silence might have been easy for some Dominicans, others probably had a hard time keeping mum.  For the more verbal Dominicans, there were reminders throughout San Marco to practice silence.  The reminders were none other than St. Dominic and another revered Dominican, St. Peter of Verona (also known as St. Peter Martyr).  Below are photos of three frescoes in San Marco that shushed would-be talkers.

 

A word about Peter of Verona--has was one tough person.  Peter was the Pope's General Inquisitor for northern Italy in the mid-1200's and he preached against the Cathar heresy.  His preaching greatly angered one heretic who decided to silence Peter with an axe to the head.  Rather than fall silent, Peter knelt and recited part of the Apostle's Creed.  Before dying, he wrote a sentence of the creed in the dirt in his own blood.  The Pope, knowing a saint when he saw one, expedited Peter's canonization. So, when St. Peter shushes you, you had better shush. 

Next Up:  Possibly the greatest of Dominican preachers who did not observe silence when perhaps he should have.