Saint Romuald of Ravenna

Saint Romuald (c. 951–1027) was born in Ravenna to a noble family. In his youth, he witnessed a fatal duel between his father and a relative over a land dispute—Romuald had been present as a second. Traumatized by the bloodshed and burdened by guilt, he abandoned his worldly life and entered the monastery of Sant’Apollinare in Classe to begin a life of penance.

Through long years of silence, obedience, and inner trial, Romuald embraced the eremitic and monastic vocation with increasing depth. He later became a reformer of Benedictine life and the founder of the Camaldolese hermit-monks—a community combining strict solitude with common prayer. Romuald’s teaching was not in words but in example: retreating into the wilderness, then returning to form others in the path of stillness.

His feast is kept on June 19 in both the traditional and modern Roman calendars.