by Elisabetta Povoledo

The Rev. Cassian Folsom was preparing to celebrate morning Mass one recent Sunday when suddenly the earth started trembling. "Stones and roof tiles started raining down on our heads," he recalled. "It was a terrifying experience." When the dust settled, he and the other monks — almost all of them transplanted from the United States — found their beloved Basilica of St. Benedict, built centuries ago in Norcia in the central Italian mountains to mark its namesake's birthplace, in ruins.

After the Oct. 30 quake, one of the few things left standing at the monastery was a small brewery, where for the past four years the monks have been making Nursia, a beer named for Norcia's ancient Latin appellation. Their brew may now be the salvation — symbolically, at least — not only of the monks' sanctuary, but also of Norcia itself. This ancient walled city is a ghost town of ravaged churches and cracked palazzi, and is still struggling to recover from the strongest earthquake to strike Italy in 36 years.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/