As we strolled along the main shopping street in Norcia, Corso Sertorio, the effects of the devastating Oct. 30 earthquake, the strongest to hit Italy since 1980, were not immediately apparent. Most of the shops, though shut, seemed intact. Christmas lights were strung overhead.

The scenery changed dramatically when our guide, Benedict Nivakoff, 37, a Benedictine monk from Connecticut who is known in the local monastic community as Fr. Prior, led us to Piazza San Benedetto, the main square. There, its dominant feature, the 14th Century Basilica of St. Benedict, the spiritual home of the Benedictines, lay in ruins. The bell tower had collapsed onto the roof, reducing the basilica to rubble. Only the basilica's façade was standing.

"When we got there right after the quake, the façade was wobblingand there was a moment when our breath was taken away," Fr. Prior said. "A basilica that had been around for many centuries was gone in six seconds."

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The basilica, built over the legendary birthplace of the saint, who was born in 480, was not the only Benedictine treasure lost in the central Italy earthquake. So was the monks' business, the modern brewery in the basement of the Benedictine monastery adjacent to the wrecked church. While the brewery was left more or less intact, it can't be used because the structure around it is unstable.

Two of the six stainless-steel fermenting vats are still full of beer – 5,000 litres in total. About 1,000 bottles of the beer lay in cases. The pre-earthquake beer is precious. While