Hi Fodorites

I managed to find this timetable online for the chanting prayer ceremonies at Sant'Antimo. I'm not familiar with the different types seen below. Is any like to be more interesting than others?

Any tips for visiting Sant'Antimo / surrounding areas?


Prayer Schedule with Gregorian Chant
Hours Weekdays Sunday and Regular* Feast Days
Lauds 7:00 7:30
Terce 9:00 9:00, Mass 11.00
Sext 12:45 12:45
Nones 14.45 14.45
Vespers 19:00 18:30
Compline 20:30 (21.00 summer)

Many thanks Loveners

(might only be 100 days to go now

I hesitate to answer because I don't want to make it sound like these religious ceremonies are curiosities or tourist happenings.

Each of the times listed is for prayer. Nothing is in English. Prayers are chanted, but the number of priests or brothers at each time is variable, depending on who is there, who is ill, etc. It's not a huge community, and some members will occasionally be at other tasks. You may attend a service with just a few celebrants.

It's lovely, but quiet and contemplative. Not "interesting" in the sense that a performance might be. Unless you are versed in Latin as well as Gregorian chant, I don't think you will be able to differentiate between various prayers/hymns. Visitors are not permitted to come and go during services. Be prepared to attend a service from beginning to end.

The setting of Sant'Antimo is lovely, but very quiet and rural. You can walk a bit around the grounds, and they are surrounded by vineyards.

Unless you understand Latin or have a translation of the prayers they will all seem alike. I would go at a convenient time.

You can look up the Canonical Hours on the internet to get an explanation of what prayers are said at each hour.

Mass is a service, not a canonical hour or prayer.

We very much enjoyed our visit to Sant' Antimo. When we visited there were chants being piped in to the church through a speaker system. It was beautiful to listen to while we walked around inside the church with the sunlight streaming in through the front stain glass windows.

It's the listing of the Liturgy of the Hours or Daily Prayers sung at different times each day.
The more substantial are Lauds (Morning Prayer) and Vespers (Evening Prayer). Terce, Sext and None are Prayers during the Day, and quite short - 10 min or less. Compline (Night Prayer, before retiring) is meditative and quite moving, as it includes the blessing given by the Abbot (or his deputy in his absence) for the whole community at its conclusion.

Lauds and Vespers are the more substantial chants. It's in a fairly remote, rural area, so my tip would be don't plan on finding anyplace to eat close by - eat before you go. There is a restaurant close by, but it always seems to be closed when I've been there.

Excellent, thanks everyone, that is very helpful information.

One service you're probably best avoiding is Vespers on Sunday.

It concludes at Sant Antimo(but only on Sundays) with Benediction: the display of a host, believed by Catholics to have been transubstantiated into Christ, and subsequent ceremonies worshipping it. It's probably the single Catholic service most non-Catholics find utterly over the top, and the only form of Catholic service that hasn't been retained, more or less unchanged, in most Episcopalian and European Lutheran churches. It's extremely poor form to walk out between the chanted Vespers themselves and Benediction.

<i>It's probably the single Catholic service most non-Catholics find utterly over the top...</i>

And most Catholics find Benediction utterly moving and deeply devotional, and some non-Catholics too.

We were there for the 1245 service. It lasted no more than 1/2 hour.