Saint Romuald. Abbot. Feast Day 7 February.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.

Saint Romuald.
   Abbot.
   Feast Day 7 February.

Double.

White Vestments.

Saint Romuald. Abbot.

The Church of San Romualdo, Ravenna, Italy.

An Angel uses the Abbot's Baton to chastise an errant figure.

Artist: Guercino (1591–1666).

Date: 1640.

Current location: Pinacoteca Comunale di Ravenna, Italy.

Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art

(Wikimedia Commons)

Monks' Night Office.

Illustration: CANTICUM SALOMONIS

Saint Romuald was born at Ravenna, Italy, and left the World at the age of twenty (Gospel) to give himself up in Prayer and Meditation (Introit) to the work of Penance undertaken by Jesus.

Attacked by Satan, who tried to ensnare him, he always drove him away in terror (Epistle). He enjoyed, over Princes and Kings, a great influence (ibid), which he used for the good of Souls.

Like the Patriarch, Jacob, he saw in a vision a ladder which reached from Earth to Heaven, on which ascended and descended Monks clothed in White. This happened in Tuscany, Italy, on the field of a certain Maldoli.

Romuald bought this "Campo Maldoli" and Founded there the Monastery of "Camaldoli" and "The Camaldolese" Branch of The Benedictine Order (Communion).

He died in 1027 at the age of 120 at Val de Castro, Piceno, Italy. His body, found intact five years later, was placed in the Church of the Monastery at Fabriano. Saint Romuald always showed, in the midst of his austerities, a face so full of joy that those who saw him rejoiced.

Let us imitate him in the Holy Season of Lent.

Mass: Os justi. Of Abbots.
In Lent: Commemoration and Last Gospel of The Feria.