Romuald

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Romuald on a fresco by Fra Angelico from 1441/1442, in the Convent of San Marco in Florence

Romuald (* around 952 in Ravenna , † June 19, 1027 in Val di Castro ) was a saint and founder of the Camaldolese order .

Life

Romuald was born in Ravenna around 952 to a noble family and led an unstable life until he was 20 years old. When he saw his father kill a relative in an argument, it was a turning point in Romuald's life. He initially retired to the Benedictine monastery of Sant'Apollinare in Classe near Ravenna for 40 days . In 972, according to legend, due to a nocturnal apparition of St. Apollinaris - joined the order and became a monk . The observance in Sant'Apollinare, which had only been reformed by Maiolus a few years earlier , was not strict enough for Romuald. He aroused the disapproval of the other monks because he advocated a stricter monastic life. This led to his resigning from the monastery after three years and joining a hermit named Marinus in a wasteland near Venice . For some time he lived in a grotto (it is now called "Grotta di Romualdo") on the Limski Canal near Parenzo (today's Poreč ) in Venetian Istria. In 978 he fled with the Doge of Venice Pietro Orseolo to the French Cuxá in the Pyrenees , where they founded a community of hermits.

After Orseolo's death, Romuald returned to Italy after being offered the office of abbot of Sant'Apollinare. However, he only held this office for one year, gave it up and then lived again as a wandering anchorite . Since 999 Romuald founded and reformed many monasteries. Romuald finally settled down in Camaldoli in the Casentino Valley north of Bibbiena , where in 1010 he founded his most famous monastery: the Monte di Camaldoli monastery . In the founding of this monastery, he combined elements of ancient Egyptian hermits with the rule of Benedict . This eventually led to the Camaldolese order, which was characterized by strict rules. The monks lived together as a community in individual cells, but practiced constant silence and fasting.

Romuald died on June 19, 1027 in Val di Castro in a secluded hermitage into which he had withdrawn when he felt death approaching. His relics are kept in a marble shrine in the church of Ss. Biagio e Romualdo kept in Fabriano .

Romuald was venerated as a saint soon after his death and canonized in 1032.

In artistic representations Romuald is shown as a hermit or in a white camaldole habit, with a ladder to heaven , a book and a skull .

Remembrance day

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Otto Bitschnau: The life of God's saints . Benziger, Einsiedeln, 24th edition [after 1881], p. 95.
  2. ↑ Otto Bitschnau: The life of God's saints . Einsiedeln, 24th edition, p. 96.
  3. ↑ Otto Bitschnau: The life of God's saints . Einsiedeln, 24th edition, p. 97.

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personal data
SURNAME Romuald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES novel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saint and founder of the Camaldolese order
DATE OF BIRTH around 951
PLACE OF BIRTH Ravenna
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1027
Place of death Val di Castro