Romuald
Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church | |
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Feast | 19 June Orthodox Church 7 February |
Romuald (
Life
According to the
About 978,
After that he spent the next 30 years going about Italy, founding and reforming monasteries and hermitages.
In 1012, he arrived at the
Romuald's feast day was not included in the Tridentine calendar. It was added in 1594 for celebration on 19 June, the date of his death, but in the following year it was transferred by Pope Clement VIII to 7 February, the anniversary of the transfer of his relics to Fabriano in 1481, and in 1969 it was moved back to the day of his death.[8]
St. Romuald's Rule
In his youth Romuald became acquainted with three major schools of western monastic tradition. Sant'Apollinare in Classe was a traditional
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.[9]
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.[9]
Archbishop Cosmo Francesco Ruppi noted that, "Interiorization 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."[10]
Romuald's reforms provided a structural context to accommodate both the eremitic and cenobitic aspects of monastic life.[11]
See also
Notes
- ^ The traditional year of his death, given as 1027, rests entirely on testimony by Guido Grandi (died 1742), a hagiographical forger, who stated that he had seen the date in documents: see Tabacco 1942, preface:liv.
- ^ a b John Howe, "The Awesome Hermit: The Symbolic Significance of the Hermit as a Possible Research Perspective", Numen 30.1 (July 1983:106-119) p 106, noting Ernst Werner, Pauperi Christi: Studien zu socialreligiosen Bewegungen in Zeitalter des ersten Kreuzzuges (Leipzig) 1956; Howe also notes the contemporary examples of Peter the Hermit, leader of a crusade; Norbert of Xanten, founder of the Praemostratensians, and Henry of Lausanne, declared a heretic.
- ^ Peter's Vita Beati Romualdi was edited by Giovanni Tabacco in the series Fonti per la storia d'Italia (Rome) 1957.
- ^ a b Foley O.F.M., Leonard. "St. Romuald", Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons and Feast, (revised by Pat McCloskey O.F.M.), Franciscan Media
- ^ a b c Toke, Leslie. "St. Romuald." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 11 October 2014
- ISBN 9781136775192
- ^ Peter Damian's Vita, quoted in Howe 1983:106.
- ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana) 1969, p. 95
- ^ a b "St. Romuald", Catholic News Agency
- ^ Ruppi, Cosmo Francesco. "A 'Burning Bush' and 'Father' of Spiritual Wisdom", L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, 25 January 2006, p. 4
- ISBN 9781606089699
External links
- Butler, Alban. "St. Romuald, Abbot and Confessor", Lives of the Saints, Vol. II, 1866
- Colonnade Statue in St Peter's Square