Saint Romuald was born at Ravenna in north-eastern Italy in the year 956. As a youth, he was indulged in the pleasures and sins of the world. At the age of twenty he served as second to his father, who killed a relative in a duel over property. Romuald was devastated and went to the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe to do 40 days of penance. After some initial hesitation, he became a monk there.

At the monastery, Romuald tried correcting the less zealous monks injudiciously and that aroused much enmity against him. Following this, he was granted permission to retire to Venice, where he placed himself under the direction of a hermit named Marinus and lived a life of extraordinary severity. He lived there for about ten years, taking advantage of the library of Cuxa to refine his ideas regarding monasticism.

After that he spent the next 30 years going about Italy, founding and reforming monasteries and hermitages. His reputation being known to advisors of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Romuald was persuaded by him to take the vacant office of abbot at Sant'Apollinare to help bring about a more dedicated way of life there. The monks, however, resisted his reforms, and after a year, Romuald resigned, hurling his abbot's staff at Otto's feet in total frustration. He then again withdrew to the eremitical life.

In 1012 he arrived at the Diocese of Arezzo. Here, according to the legend, a certain Maldolus, who had seen a vision of monks in white garments ascending into Heaven, gave him some land, which afterwards known as the Campus Maldoli, or Camaldoli. Romuald built five cells on this land for hermits, which, with the monastery at Fontebuono, became the famous mother-house of the Camaldolese Order.

Romuald founded several other monasteries, including the monastery of Val di Castro, where he died in 1027.

Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Deodatus
2. Saint Didier
3. Saint Gervase
4. Saint Juliana Falconieri
5. Saint Protase

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