Word: caving
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...mountain cave near Subiaco, Italy, a tall, white-haired Englishman with gentle eyes stood in silent prayer. The place was Sacro Speco, where, tradition says, St. Benedict spent years as an anchorite. The Englishman was Historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee, and (aloofly in the third person) he now describes what he felt there three years ago: "Here was the primal germ of Western Christendom; and, as the pilgrim read . . . the names of all the lands, stretching away to the ends of the Earth, that had been evangelized by a spiritual impetus issuing from this hallowed spot, he prayed that the spirit...
...finished picture does not altogether overleap convention; it looks staged, and has a flattering slickness. Yet its virtues far outweigh its faults. The Walnut Street backdrop gives a fresh-air feeling to what would otherwise be a Vulcan's cave. The young apprentice nicely complements Lyon's robust maturity. His big feet spread and firmly planted, his heavy arm and hand holding the hammer with negligent authority. Blacksmith Pat Lyon himself easily dominates the huge canvas. He seems truly at home in it-as the workingman has long since come to be in the nation...
...location of the cave is still kept secret to protect it from destructive sightseers. But one honored guest, the Abbe Henri Breuil, dean of French prehistorians, was invited to inspect the find. Although 79 years old, he crept through the cave's winding corridors and examined the animal drawings. He declared them "among the most beautiful specimens of prehistoric art yet discovered," estimated they were late paleolithic, probably between 15,000 and 20,000 years...
...Stone Age did not decorate their caves with animal drawings for pure love of art. The drawings had a purpose: they were the central images in religious rites. In the newly found cave there are no drawings of deer, and the Abbe Breuil thinks he knows why. His guess: "The occupants of the cave probably regarded deer as their mythical ancestors. They were forbidden to kill and eat them. So there was no reason to use any charm, such as cave paintings, to attract deer...
...legend of 4th century St. Malchus is readymade for Hollywood-complete with caravans and capture by infidels, a fake marriage and a lovelorn heroine who became a hermit herself for love of the saint. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, sealed up to suffocate in a cave by a persecuting emperor, were placed in miraculous hibernation by the Lord, to emerge 208 years later to their own astonishment and the edification of all good Christians...