Pope Benedict XVI used these words to describe the re-growth of the Church. He described the Church as in need of prunning so that new young branches may grow. He, also, mentioned, that he got this motto from St. Benedict. Though I am a Benedictine monk, I don’t remember reading this motto until I opened a brochure of the famed Abbey of Montecassino in Italy. And there VOILA!! The emblem of the monastery: a picture of an oak tree broken almost up to the root and with a young sapling growing from within, with the words “Succisa Virescit.” This was one of the first monasteries St. Benedict established after he abandoned the monastery of Vicovaro where the monks tried to poison him for being too orthodox. Many of Pope Benedict XVI’s critics, if words can poison, would have done the same today. How relevant!
The motto of the Benedictine monastery of Montecassino is “Succisa Virescit.” And the emblem consists of an oak tree, devastated by a strong storm, practically uprooted, and a small sapling from within growing upwards. This very well exemplifies Pope Benedict’s mind on how to resurrect the Church. Like Monte Cassino that had been built by saints, like Saturnius, a disciple of St. Boniface, evangelizer of and founder of German monasticism, Theobald, Richerius and Frederick of Lorraine who later became Pope Stephen IX, the Church had been built by saints. And there was Desiderius, right hand friend of the Pope, who helped in the reform of the Church by Pope Gregory VII. He, also, became Pope, Victor III. Pope Benedict XVI wants to let a small sapling grow from within, a small Church with strong and mature faith, to grow up from within the old decrepid and dead trunk of the present Church.
Montecassino, like the oak tree and much like the Church today, had been devastated by the Saracens in 883, by an earthquake in 1349 and lastly by the bombardment in 1944 where the monks and countless civilians taking shelter there were killed.
Montecassino, by many historical events, may truly be a symbol of the Catholic Church, like the centuries-old oak tree, which although broken by the storm, remains green and alive again, growing from within; stronger than ever: thus “succisa virescit.”