Biography of Saint Romuald

Saint Romuald

Profile

Italian nobility who spent a wild youth. Acting as second, he witnessed his father kill another man in a duel, and Romuald sought to atone for the crime by becoming a Benedictine monk at Classe, Italy. Abbot from 996 to 999. A wanderer by nature, he established several hermitage and monasteries in central and northern Italy. He tried to evangelize the Slavs but met with little success. Founded the Camaldolese Benedictines. Spent the last fourteen years of his life in seclusion at Mount Sitria, Bifolco, and Val di Castro. Spiritual teacher of Saint Wolfgang of Ratisbon.

Born

c.951 at Ravenna, Italy

Died

• 19 June 1027 at Val-di-Castro, Italy of natural causes
• body found incorrupt
• enshrined at Fabriano, Italy
• relics translated on 7 February 1481

Canonized

1582 by Pope Gregory XIII

Patronage

Suwalki, Poland

Representation

monk pointing at a ladder on which other monks are ascending to heaven, indicating the founding of his Order

Readings

Romuald lived in the vicinity of the city of Paranzo for three years. In the first year, he built a monastery and appointed an abbot with monks. For the next two years, he remained there in seclusion. Wherever the holy man might arrange to live, he would follow the same pattern. First, he would build an oratory with an altar in a cell; then he would shut himself in and forbid access. Finally, after he had lived in many places, perceiving that his end was near, he returned to the monastery he had built in the valley of Castro. While he awaited with certainty his approaching death, he ordered a cell to be constructed there with an oratory in which he might isolate himself and preserve silence until death. Accordingly, the hermitage was built, since he had made up his mind that he would die there. His body began to grow more and more oppressed by afflictions and was already failing. One day he began to feel the loss of his physical strength under all the harassment of increasingly violent afflictions. As the sun was beginning to set, he instructed two monks who were standing by to go out and close the door of the cell behind them; they were to come back to him at daybreak to celebrate matins. They were so concerned about his end that they went out reluctantly and did not rest immediately. On the contrary, since they were worried that their master might die, they lay hidden near the cell and watched this precious treasure. For some time they continued to listen attentively until they heard neither movement nor sound. Rightly guessing what had happened, they pushed open the door, rushed in quickly, lit a candle and found the holy man lying on his back, his blessed soul snatched up into heaven. - from a biography of Saint Romuald by Saint Peter Damian