Romuald
was born into a noble Italian family in 956. He spent his youth wildly
in comfort and laziness. One day, when he was twenty, he saw his father
kill another man in a duel. He fled to a monastery in disgust, and he
stayed there for three years before deciding to travel, and spending the
next thirty years building monasteries and hermitages in Italy.
On
one occasion, Romuald was falsely accused of a scandalous crime. The
accuser was a young nobleman whom the holy monk had previously rebuked,
and Romuald’s fellow monks believed the young rake. Romuald was severely
reprimanded, forbidden to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass and
excommunicated, an unwarranted sentence which he endured for six months
without complaint.
Of the monasteries established by Romuald, the
most famous was called Camaldoli. There he developed an order he called
“Camaldolese Benedictine,” where he brought together the monastic and
hermitical ways of life.
Romuald died on June 19, 1027 at the
monastery of Valdi-Castro, which he founded. Eventually, his father too
became a monk. He gave up his wealth and followed his son to spend the
rest of his life doing penance for his sins.
Saturday, June 19, 2021
St. Romuald
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