St. Romuald of Ravenna

St. Romuald of Ravenna (born c. 950, Ravenna [Italy]—died June 19, 1027, Val di Castro, Tuscany; feast day June 19) was a Christian ascetic who founded the Camaldolese Benedictines (Hermits). His feast day is celebrated on June 19, the anniversary of his death.

Romuald’s father was a member of the Onesti ducal family. After witnessing with horror his father kill a relative in a duel, Romuald retired to the Monastery of St. Apollinaris near Ravenna, where he later served as abbot. In 975 he went to Catalonia, Spain, and seems to have been impressed by the vigorous life in the monasteries. For several years he wandered through Tuscany, the Romagna district of northern Italy, and southern France, reforming existing monasteries and hermitages or founding new ones.

He attempted to go to Hungary but was prevented by illness. In 1001, however, the Holy Roman emperor Otto III founded a monastery at Pereum, near Ravenna, for Romuald and St. Bruno of Querfurt. The monastery served as a mission for the Slavs and Prussians. The most significant monastery founded by Romuald was Camaldoli (c. 1012), near Arezzo in Tuscany. It became the motherhouse of the new order, which combined cenobitic and eremitical elements with strict silence. By adding a note of severity to the Benedictine rule and by choosing the life of a hermit, Romuald initiated and helped to mold a movement that was to give birth to the Carthusians and the early Cistercians.