The chant and the roses
The path which led me to the nuns of the Monastery of Saint Cecilia has been a strange one. I was working on a year-long project, a reportage aiming to try to describe the “joy” in photos. I put the word joy in the middle of a blank sheet of paper and started to think of every other word connected to it. I finally landed on the word faith, and the joy that it could bring to those who really believe in God. And my pilgrimage through the Roman Monastery started.
I have collected many “no, thanks” along my journey, but every single no was a step towards Saint Cecilia, a step into an unexpected world. A place where time seems to be suspended, and where there's no rest. A story of prayer and of hard work that extends from the school of Gregorian music through the beautiful garden. A place where in each of the endless rooms whose walls are marked by time, and where the objects remain fixed in place exactly where someone placed them hundreds of years ago.
