Saint Romuald

St. Romuald was born in 952 in Ravenna, Italy, into the ducal family of Onesti. His life took a drastic turn at 20 when he witnessed the murder of a relative by his father. To atone for this, he entered the Benedictine monastery of St. Apollinare at Classe. Disillusioned by the monks' laxity, he sought guidance from the hermit Marinus, leading to a life of strict asceticism, first near Venice and then in the Pyrenees. His father, Sergius, later repented and became a monk as well.

In 996, Emperor Otto III appointed Romuald as Abbot of St. Apollinare in Classe, but he resigned after three years. For the next 30 years, he wandered northern Italy, southern France, and northeastern Spain, reforming monasteries and establishing hermitages. His most notable foundation, which endures today, is at Camaldoli in the Apennines, where he erected five hermit cells in 1012 on land donated to him. Though he had no intention of starting a new religious order, this site became the mother house of the Camaldolese Order, a blend of Benedictine hermits and cenobites that revitalized eremitical life in the Western Church. Each hermit had a simple cottage with two rooms, a workshop, and a garden, dedicating themselves to God in silence and solitude.

St. Peter Damian, who chronicled Romuald's life, noted that Romuald aimed "to turn the entire world into a hermitage." He gave the hermits the following instructions: "Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it." Convents for Camaldolese nuns were established by 1086. St. Romuald died in his cell on June 19, 1027. Miracles were reported at his tomb, where an altar was built five years later. His incorrupt body was discovered in 1466 and has been enshrined in Fabriano since 1481. Pope Gregory XIII canonized him in 1582.

St. Romuald, pray for us that we might recognize the transitory nature of life and fix our eyes on the eternal abode.

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Pelayan Atasan Tertinggi / Most High Servant,
Yesus, Maria, Yusuf Pelayanan Kasih / Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love 
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)

My vocation is Blessed and Saints.

"I am the most humble of all the Saints in Heaven" Mary, Mother of God."

"I am the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me."

Mother Mary is the most humble Saint in Heaven and she is also the Mother of God for us all
(Luke 1:38)