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Welcome to the Farm Web Site of the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore.  I am Fr. Giacomo and am responsible for the farm.  We monks of S. Mary of Monte Oliveto follow the Benedictine Rule.  Our life can be summed up by our traditional motto “Ora et Labora”.  The day flows with a wise distribution of time; between OPUS DEI (prayer in choir), LECTIO DIVINA (examining oneself in the light of God’s Word), MANUAL WORK – these are the three great pillars of monastic life.  This fitting balance between work and prayer, is for Saint Benedict, a help for man in recognising that he is a co-operator with God in His creative work.  About manual work the Rule says:

"Idleness is the enemy of the soul; and therefore the brothers should be occupied at certain times in manual labour, and at certain other hours in sacred reading. …. If, however, local necessity or poverty require that they themselves are occupied with gathering the harvest, they should not be saddened; for they are then truly monks when they live by the labour of their hands, as did our fathers and the apostles…” 
(Chapter XLVIII – Daily Manual Labour).
     
 
   

Founded at the beginning of the XIVth century by Giovanni Tolomei, a noble of Siena.  The great monastic complex of Monte Oliveto Maggiore extends along the ridge of a hill in the heart of the “crete senesi”; it has been described  as a “city in the form of a monastery” because of the spaciousness of the buildings which compose it.  Over the last few centuries the labour of the monks and lay workers has profoundly changed the surrounding landscape which was originally uninhabited and wild.

Today a very beautiful countryside encircles the monastery as cultivated fields, vineyards, olive groves and woods alternate with a “lunar” landscape sculptured by ravines and natural precipices.