Subiaco, Italy - November 2024 - On 14 November, on Curriculum Day, the teachers and students fromthe Institute of Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) in Rome were able to admire the Sanctuary set against the overhanging rock of the Sacro Speco. It became a privileged opportunity to explore the theme of monastic spirituality. The art guide illustrated to the visitors the life of the young hermit Benedict in the Speco, already considered a ‘place of prayer and miracles’ since the time of St Gregory the Great. Students and teachers were able to admire the evocative beauty of the sanctuary: the paintings covering the wall surfaces, the frescoes in the two churches, the upper and lower, the paintings in the transept and the evocative Holy Grotto where the young Benedict lived for three years unknown to all but God and the Roman monk. ‘From this wild solitude, among barren mountains, all monasteries originated’ (Gregorovius). Leaving the Sanctuary, and still contemplating the sylvan valley that accompanies the silent flowing of the river Aniene with wonder, the fifty members of the group of teachers and students taking part in the curriculum day, reached the ‘San Biagio’ house of prayer, a small hermitage where a group of FMA have offered hospitality and spiritual animation since 1975 to all those who want to ‘reconnect with the essential’, by focusing on listening to the Word of God following the example of St John Bosco and Mother Mazzarello. The teachers and students of the Institute celebrated the Eucharist at San Biagio, and, after lunch prepared by the sisters, had the opportunity for exchange on the activities carried out in the house of prayer.