Visit to Scala, Southern Italy, June 17, 2007

At 8:00 AM on June 17, 2007, the participants of the Spirituality Course and Fr. Felix left St. Severa for the trip to Scala, in southern Italy.
Fr. Felix says goodbye tot eh Sisters as we boarded the bus.

Jos and Jimmy prepare for the trip.

Roughly four hours later we reached the area at the slope of Mt. Vesuvias, encompassing Napoli, Pagani and other cities. This place is suppowsed to have the highest density in terms of the ratio of the population to the area in the whole of Europe.

Mt. Vesuvious looms above this entire area which has the highest density. And take note that this volcano remains active.

The mountainous area of this part of Italy. Our bus steadily climbs the mountains as we travel to Scala.

The bus takes a turn as we followed the road towards Ravelo before reaching Scala.

The awesome view of the Bay of Naples and Amalfi. Before St. Alphonsus founded the Redemptorists, he was a priest based in the city of Naples. He went off for a vacation, but because of the bad weather, their boat was forced to dock here. Taking advantage of this situation, he decided to take his break in this place. This eventually led him to Scala which is a mountain area above this city. He came to Scala in 1730 (he had been earlier ordained on Dec. 21, 1726).

The road going down to the coast but which also connects to Scala.

We arrived at Scala and I accompanied Felix to visit our confreres who live in this house. The rest of the participants had proceeded up the hill, we needed to stop by the house to get the key to the grotto where St. Alphonsus spent time in prayer.

This is the facade of the Redemptorist house in Scala. Note the two signs on the side of the door: one sign says Padri, the other says Redemptorist!

We went up the narrow road and caught up with the rest of the participants. Here Felix gives an orientation to the place as we gathered in front of the main church in Scala.

This is the interior of this church. Ollie looks to the main altar.

On the floor one can see the coat of arms related to the noble family who built the church, it has a lion climbing the stairs. Thus the name, Scala or stairs. This coat of arms could be seen in many parts of the church.

A statue of St. Alphonsus inside the church.

The pulpit inside the church.

One of the major old paintings inside the church showing Jesus and the cross.

We left the church to move on to other places of interest in Scala.

We gathered in front of a building which housed the first members of the congregation who came together with St. Alphonsus in 1732. Alphonsus had found an old building and an abandoned hermitage with a chapel. His first companions were Sportelli, Mazzini, Romano, Donato, Mannarine, Tosquez and Vito Curzio.
Here they had their first meetings after all arrived on November 3, 1732. They were to be the first members of the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour. In fact, the group did not prosper.



The marker on the wall of the building informs the visitor of the significance of this place.



From this place, one sees the higher levels of the mountain range.

Then we proceeded to the grotto. Gary, Anton, Witold, Mark and Lawrence are all busy getting their cameras ready as I pose at the gate that leads to the grotto below.

From the gate, we followed the stairs below towards a chapel. One can see the Bay from this vantage point.

The group wait for the chapel to be opened.

Across the ridge, there are lots of buildings built through the years.
The zigzag road completes this awesome view.

Felix continues to orient the group as to the events that took place in this spot during the first years of the Congregation. Dan, James and Jos listen intently.

Inside the chapel is the grotto where St. Alphonsus spent time to pray and meditate during the first years of rthe founding of the congregation. The grotto is now enclosed by this chapel. The group, with Robert at the foreground, listen intently to Felix as he translates quotations which are on the walls.

An icon of St. Alponsus has been placed at the base of the grotto.

This is a painting on the ceiling of the chapel. It is perhaps the only painting showing Alphonsus as a young man. Here, it is suggested that Mary "appeared" to him as he reflected on what he needed to do at that time. However, this scene was only imagined by Alphonsus.

The group celebrated the Eucharist inside the chapel at this very important site of the Congregation's history.

The three Pinoys in the delegation posed in front of the chapel after the Mass.

The building where St. Alphonsus and the first members lived is now a restaurant. We had lunch there that day.

After lunch, we proceeded to the monastery of the Redemptoristine Sisters in Scala to visit them. This is the gate leading to the monastery which is at the upper floor. As the others started to enter the gate, Barrie and Mung seem distracted.

This is a relief-statue of St. Alphonsus encased by glass placed on the wall of the Redemptoristines' monastery.

A close up of the image.

Inside the chapel of the sisters' monastery.

A statue of St. Alphonsus inside the chapel.

In the sacristy of the chapel, one sees this marble relief showing the Redemptoristines and Redemptorists who have died and are in union with God.

The group gathered in the gardens of the Sisters to share drinks and biscuits. Note the topmost window of the building. Here Sr. Celeste Crostarosa was detained during a difficult stage of her congregation's history.

The Sisters chat with Felix. The sister to the right of Felix is someone from Madagascar.

Before we left their place, the group posed with the Sisters for a souvenir photo. A statue of Jesus served as backdrop.

The Sisters say goodbye.

The statue of Our Lady of the Mountains which is inside the chapel of the CSsRs' convent in Scala. This was the statue that St. Alphonsus saw when he arrived in Scala. He was quite taken by this statue that shows Mary holding Jesus on one hand and the Bible on the other hand. St. Alphonsus felt quite close to this statue.

On the side of the chapel are stained glass windows of Blessed Sarnelli and St. Alphonsus.

As we returned back to the lowlands, the awesome view continued to impress us.

On our way to Materdomini, we passed by Salerno, another city by the sea.

A town perched on top of a mountain can be seen by commuters who travel from Napoli towards Materdomini.
It is summer time so the landscape is quite green as the agricultural fields show bountiful crops.

As the shadows lengthen on that day, we found ourselves getting nearer to Materdomini. One can already see the tower of the Basilica from the road that goes around the mountain.

The sign indicates that we had reached the road that leads towards the Basilica of San Gerardo de Maiella. Just down this road is Hotel San Gerardo where we would be staying for the next week.