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Born at Ravenna, probably about 950;
died at Val-di-Castro, 19 June,
1027. St. Peter Damian, his first
biographer, and almost all the
Camaldolese writers assert that St.
Romuald's age at his death was one
hundred and twenty, and that
therefore he was born about 907.
This is disputed by most modern
writers. Such a date not only
results in a series of
improbabilities with regard to
events in the saint's life, but is
also irreconcilable with known
dates, and probably was determined
from some mistaken inference by St.
Peter Damian. In his youth Romuald
indulged in the usual thoughtless
and even vicious life of the
tenth-century noble, yet felt
greatly drawn to the eremetical
life. At the age of twenty, struck
with horror because his father had
killed an enemy in a
duel, he fled to the Abbey of
San Apollinare-in-Classe and after
some hesitation entered religion.
San Apollinare had recently been
reformed by St. Maieul of Cluny, but
still was not strict enough in its
observance to satisfy Romuald. His
injudicious correction of the less
zealous aroused such enmity against
him that he applied for, and was
readily granted, permission to
retire to Venice, where he placed
himself under the direction of a
hermit named Marinus and lived a
life of extraordinary severity.
About 978, Pietro Orseolo I, Doge of
Venice, who had obtained his office
by acquiescence in the murder of his
predecessor, began to suffer remorse
for his crime. On the advice of
Guarinus, Abbot of San Miguel-de-Cuxa,
in Catalonia, and of Marinus and
Romuald, he abandoned his office and
relations, and fled to Cuxa, where
he took the habit of St. Benedict,
while Romuald and Marinus erected a
hermitage close to the monastery.
For five years the saint lived a
life of great austerity, gathering
round him a band of disciples. Then,
hearing that his father, Sergius,
who had become a monk, was tormented
with doubts as to his vocation, he
returned in haste to Italy,
subjected Sergius to severe
discipline, and so resolved his
doubts. For the next thirty years
St. Romuald seems to have wandered
about Italy, founding many
monasteries and hermitages. For some
time he made Pereum his favourite
resting place. In 1005 he went to
Val-di- Castro for about two years,
and left it, prophesying that he
would return to die there alone and
unaided. Again he wandered about
Italy; then attempted to go to
Hungary, but was prevented by
persistent illness. In 1012 he
appeared at Vallombrosa, whence he
moved into the Diocese of Arezzo.
Here, according to the legend, a
certain Maldolus, who had seen a
vision of monks in white garments
ascending into Heaven, gave him some
land, afterwards known as the
Campus Maldoli, or Camaldoli.
St. Romuald built on this land five
cells for hermits, which, with the
monastery at Fontebuono, built two
years later, became the famous
mother-house of the Camaldolese
Order (q.v.). In 1013 he retired to
Monte-Sitria. In 1021 he went to
Bifolco. Five years later he
returned to Val-di-Castro where he
died, as he had prophesied, alone in
his cell. Many
miracles were wrought at his
tomb, over which an altar was
allowed to be erected in 1032. In
1466 his body was found still
incorrupt; it was translated to
Fabriano in 1481. In 1595
Clement VIII fixed his feast on
7 Feb., the day of the translation
of his
relics, and extended its
celebration to the whole Church. He
is represented in art pointing to a
ladder on which are monks ascending
to Heaven. |
