The holy Abbot Romuald was the son of one Sergius, of a noble family of Ravenna. While he was still very young, he went to a neighbouring monastery at Classis to do penance. While he was there he heard a discourse by a monk, which stirred him up strongly to aim at godliness of living; and he had afterwards in the Church by night two visions in which the blessed servant of God Apollinaris foretold to him that he should become a monk himself. He accordingly did so; and soon afterwards betook himself to one Marinus, whose holy life and strict discipline were then much noised about in all the coasts of the Venetians, that he might by his teaching and guidance attain towards the hard and lofty point of perfection.
The more he was assailed by the wiles of Satan and the unkindness of men, the more did he exercise himself in lowliness, with continual fasting and prayer, and rejoice in thinking of heavenly things, with abundance of tears. And all the while he bore so bright a face as gladdened all who looked on him. He was held in great honour by princes and kings, and his counsel moved many to leave the blandishments of the world and withdraw to the desert. He had such a burning desire to obtain the crown of martyrdom that he set out for Pannonia on purpose to seek it, but, falling into sickness whenever he went forward though growing strong again whenever he drew back, he behoved to return home.
God worked miracles by him both during his life and after his death, and likewise gave him the gift of prophecy. Like the Patriarch Jacob, he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and men in white garments ascending and descending upon it, in whom he marvellously knew were represented the monks of the Camaldolese Institute, of which he was the founder. At the age of one hundred and twenty years, of which he had spent an hundred in serving God in great hardness, he passed into his presence, in the year of salvation 1027. Five years after his death his body was found incorrupt, and laid in a magnificent grave in the Church of his order at Fabriano.
The more he was assailed by the wiles of Satan and the unkindness of men, the more did he exercise himself in lowliness, with continual fasting and prayer, and rejoice in thinking of heavenly things, with abundance of tears. And all the while he bore so bright a face as gladdened all who looked on him. He was held in great honour by princes and kings, and his counsel moved many to leave the blandishments of the world and withdraw to the desert. He had such a burning desire to obtain the crown of martyrdom that he set out for Pannonia on purpose to seek it, but, falling into sickness whenever he went forward though growing strong again whenever he drew back, he behoved to return home.
God worked miracles by him both during his life and after his death, and likewise gave him the gift of prophecy. Like the Patriarch Jacob, he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and men in white garments ascending and descending upon it, in whom he marvellously knew were represented the monks of the Camaldolese Institute, of which he was the founder. At the age of one hundred and twenty years, of which he had spent an hundred in serving God in great hardness, he passed into his presence, in the year of salvation 1027. Five years after his death his body was found incorrupt, and laid in a magnificent grave in the Church of his order at Fabriano.
The Tomb of St. Romuald in the Church of San Biagio, Fabriano, Italy
