#june19stromuald

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 19 June – St Romuald (c 951-1027) – Monk, Abbot, Ascetic, Founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century “Renaissance of eremitical asceticism”.    St Romuald was born in c 951 at Ravenna, Italy and died on 19 June 1027 at Val-di-Castro, Italy of natural causes.   Patronages – the Camaldolese order and Suwalki, Poland.   St Romuald’s body is incorrupt.

According to the vita (life) by St Peter Damian O.S.B. (1007-1072), himself a Benedictine and Doctor of the Church , written about fifteen years after Romuald’s death, Romuald was born in Ravenna, in northeastern Italy, to the aristocratic Onesti family.    As a youth, according to early accounts, Romuald indulged in the pleasures and sins of the world common to a tenth-century nobleman.   At the age of twenty he served as second to his father, who killed a relative in a duel over property.   Romuald was devastated and went to the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe to do 40 days of penance.   After some indecision, Romuald became a monk there.   San Apollinare had recently been reformed by St Maieul of Cluny Abbey (906-994) 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. Romuald lived there for about ten years, taking advantage of the library of Cuxa to refine his ideas regarding monasticism.

After that he spent the next 30 years going about Italy, founding and reforming monasteries and hermitages.   His reputation being known to advisers of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Romuald was persuaded by him to take the vacant office of abbot at Sant’Apollinare to help bring about a more dedicated way of life there.   The monks, however, resisted his reforms and after a year, Romuald resigned, hurling his abbot’s staff at Otto’s feet in total frustration.   He then again withdrew to the hermetical life.

In 1012 he arrived at 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 motherhouse of the Camaldolese Order.   Romuald’s daunting charisma awed Rainier of Tuscany, who was neither able to face Romuald nor to send him away.   Romuald founded several other monasteries, including the monastery of Val di Castro, where he died in 1027.

The church in Eremo di Camaldoli, the famous motherhouse of the Camaldolese

St Romuald’s feast day was added to the Liturgical Calendar in 1594, today, the day of his death and entry into life.

St Romuald’s Rule: Romuald was able to integrate these different traditions in establishing his own monastic order.   The admonition in his rule Empty yourself completely and sit waitingplaces him in relation to the long Christian history of intellectual stillness and interior passivity in meditation also reflected in the nearly contemporary Byzantine ascetic practice known as Hesychasm.

Sit in your cell as in paradise.   Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish.   The path you must follow is in the Psalms — never leave it.

If you have just come to the monastery and in spite of your good will, you cannot accomplish what you want, take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart and to understand them with your mind.   And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up; hurry back and apply your mind to the words once more.

Archbishop Cosmo Francesco Ruppi noted that, “Interiorisation of the spiritual dimension, the primacy of solitude and contemplation, slow penetration of the Word of God and calm meditation on the Psalms are the pillars of Camaldolese spirituality, which St Romuald gives as the essential core of his Rule.”

Romuald’s reforms provided a structural context to accommodate both the eremitic and cenobitic aspects of monastic life.

[anastpaul]

One Minute Reflection – 19 June – The Memorial of St Romuald (c 951-1027)

And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.   And if we know that he hears us, in regard to whatever we ask, we know that, what we have asked him for, is ours...1 John 5:14-15

REFLECTION – “Better to pray one psalm with devotion and compunction than a hundred with distraction.”…St Romuald

PRAYER – Father, through St Romuald You renewed the life of solitude and prayer in your Church.   By our prayer and self-denial as we follow Christ our Lord, bring us the joy of heaven.   Kindly receive the intercession of St Romuald still, as we beg his prayers for all of your Church.   We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen

(via One Minute Reflection - 19 June - The Memorial of St Romuald (c 951-1027))

[anastpaul]

Thought for the Day – 19 June – The Memorial of St Romuald (c 951-1027)

Saint Romuald’s body was buried at the monastery in Paranzo.   Three decades later, his incorrupt body was transferred to Fabriano in 1481.   Many miracles have been reported at his tombside in the great Cathedral of Fabriano.   The Order he founded continues to operate today, with five distinct congregations.   The most austere of those, the hermits, continue to live in a manner much like that of Saint Romuald—strict adherence to silence and prayer for the reparation of the sins of mankind.

The quiet and contemplative life of Saint Romuald reminds us, that humility, meekness and a deep desire for the Lord are the hallmarks of our faith.   These simple tenets, lived as model for others, are a powerful witness to the depth of our hope and confidence in the Lord, a reminder of our obedience to Him and a powerful call to prayer.   When we pray, as Saint Romuald said, our bodies, hearts, souls and minds should be focused solely on God:  “Better to pray one psalm with devotion and compunction than a hundred with distraction.”

Prayer is the gauge of our love for God.   If we pray, we love Him but if we don’t pray, we do not love Him.   It is as simple as that, for surely we want always to speak to the one we love?   Let us ask Saint Romuald to obtain for us the grace of prayer and perseverance in prayer, particularly when we find the going hard.

St Romuald, pray for us

(via Thought for the Day - 19 June - The Memorial of St Romuald (c 951-1027))

[anastpaul]

Happy Feast Day of St Romuald – June 19 

After a wasted youth, Romuald saw his father kill a relative in a duel over property. In horror he fled to a monastery near Ravenna in Italy. After three years some of the monks found him to be uncomfortably holy and eased him out. He spent the next 30 years going about Italy, founding monasteries and hermitages. He longed to give his life to Christ in martyrdom, and got the pope’s permission to preach the gospel in Hungary. But he was struck with illness as soon as he arrived, and the illness recurred as often as he tried to proceed. During another period of his life, he suffered great spiritual dryness. One day as he was praying Psalm 31 (“I will give you understanding and I will instruct you”), he was given an extraordinary light and spirit which never left him. The most famous of the monasteries he founded was that of the Camaldoli (Campus Maldoli, name of the owner) in Tuscany. Here he founded the Order of the Camaldolese Benedictines, uniting a monastic and hermit life. His father later became a monk, wavered and was kept faithful by the encouragement of his son.

Image 4 - The Vision of St Romuald by SACCHI, Andrea

Image 5  -  Coronation of the Virgin with St Catherine of Alexandria, St John the Evangelist, St John the Baptist, St Romuald Camaldolese - Guido Reni