June 19
Saints of the Day

Saint Romuald, Abbot, 1582-1027
An Italian who saw his father to kill a man and in horror fled and became a monk founder of monasteries and the Order of the Camaldolese Benedictines, uniting a monastic and hermit life.                        

    Italian nobility who spent a wild 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 was accused of a scandalous crime by a young nobleman he had rebuked for a dissolute life. Amazingly, his fellow monks believed the accusation. He was given a severe penance, forbidden to offer Mass and excommunicated, an unjust sentence he endured in silence for six months.

    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.

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1419

Born c.951 at Ravenna, Italy
Died 19 June 1027; body incorrupt; enshrined at Fabriano, Italy; relics tranlsated in 1481
Canonized 158 by Pope Gregory XIII
Additional Information http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintr07.htm
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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 night 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

 

 

 

Saints of June 19:

http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0619.htm

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