Romuald

Who they were

Romuald was born in 952 to a noble family of Ravenna. After a bloody feud involving his family he entered the monastery of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, together with his father, and lived a severe life of penance and prayer, though his rank kept drawing him into church and political affairs.

A tireless traveller up and down Italy, he preached more by deeds than words and founded many monasteries and hermitages. A count gave him land in the forest at the place later called Camaldoli, where he built a hospice and a hermitage for contemplatives with a rule close to St Benedict's. He died in his cell at Val di Castro in the Marches on 19 June 1027.

The miracles

The miracles examined for his canonisation are not described in the sources we have used.

Why that counted as sanctity

Romuald sought God in silence and taught others to find Him in solitude, preaching, as his motto says, 'with the tongue silent and the life speaking'.