St. Romuald

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.