Between the present and the future

UNESCO’s motivation was very clear: it’s an exceptional example of a building representing the history of humanity, highlighting a significant convergence of cultural and religious values with the development of architecture and technics. Sankt Gallen is the denial of a so-called "value" of modernity, namely, the ephemeral, the transient, all that which lend itself to quick consumption. And notably, UNESCO ‘s registration of world heritage sites dates back to 1983, i.e. since the onset. However, it wasn’t endorsed by the local administration but by international agencies, charged with monitoring the treasures of our planet: an objective, non-partisan decision, which is very telling about the importance of one of the most interesting abbeys in the world. An abbey which will now celebrate 1400 years since its foundation: in 612 of our era Gallo, an Irish monk, following his master Colombano, reached this place in North-East Switzerland, and stopped for prayer and meditation. It was the original event, since in this impervious mountain region a small hermitage was creatred, probably with an oratory surrounded by a few cells, which a century later another monk, this time from Germany, Otmar, replaced with a true monastic complex, adopting the Benedictine rule.Thus began a long series of stratifications, which led to the current asset of the abbey that dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. Its building works lasted many years: in 1761 heavy demolition works were made (the Gothic chorus, for example), which were completed not until the first decade of the 19th century, although the entire compound could have been viewed as an open building yard, owing to its composite nature. But Saint Gallen conceals, so as to say, another wonder: its library in its present asset dates back to the 18th century, but in reality it has been operative for the past 1200 years. Here we find 170.000 catalogued volumes, of which 2.200 manuscripts, 500 dating back to before the year one thousand. And some of these works testify to the emergence of the German language from the darkness of the Middle Ages. But the library continues to thrive, not only as a showcase of codes and volumes but also – and this is very telling in terms of enhancement of our patrimonies –as an ongoing service, appropriate for our times: 400 ancient codes have been excellently digitalized and put on line for scholars that can thus admire, as if standing before their own eyes, calligraphic script, typeface, marginalia, miniature and front cover plates.It is a lesson on how to actualize the past, introducing it within the communication network of today and tomorrow, entrusting it to the next generations. It is a lesson which derives not from the sophisticated and cold laboratories of web shamans, but from a thousand-year-old abbey shrouded beneath the Swiss Alps. Doesn’t this remind us of something? Looking back at the origins of Benedictine monasticism, we see that the transcription work of these monks enabled the survival of a culture despite the crisis of the Roman Empire, which was thus passed on to the young generations. We owe to that silent commitment what today we call culture. Sankt Gallen is also this: a relentless thrust to knowledge promoted by those same institutions which today are accused of obscurantism, while instead they enable the survival of human culture. But the library represents a cultural wealth also for another reason: one hundred thousand people, who every year admire the extraordinary connection between the city (which today counts almost 70 000 inhabitants) and the monastic-abbey complex (albeit marked by a modern feature: a double tower, memory of the ancient Carolingian Basilica), marvel at the reading-room of the library, a remarkable example of rococo architecture, capable of conveying delicateness through a genial design of volutes and curves to the otherwise massive walls created to support the weight of thousands of volumes. But the singular relationship between past and present agreed at Saint Gallen doesn’t end here. The seat of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, an ecclesial body representing the presidents and general secretaries of the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE, whose president-in-office is Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdö, vice-presidents: Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco (IT) and Archbishop Józef Michalik from Poland), is located near the abbey. The Old Continent owes much more than imagined to a past in which faith represented Community spirit and respect for culture. Can the same be said about some of the "free" ideologies of the present times?