. 548, n. 10. Bulteau, Hist.
Mon. d'Orient. l. 4, c. 9, p. 695.

FEBRUARY VII.

ST. ROMUALD, ABBOT, C.

FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF CAMALDOLI.

From his life, written by St. Peter Damian, fifteen years after his
death. See also Magnotii, Eremi Camaldol. descriptio, Romae, an. 1570.
Historarium Camaldulensium, libri 3. anth. Aug. Florentino, in 4to.
Florentiae, 1575. Earumdem pans posterior, in 4to. Venetiis, 1579.
Dissertationes Camaldulenses, in quibus agitui de institutione Ordinis,
aetate St. Romualdi, &c. auth. Guidone Grando, ej. Ord. Lucae, 1707. The
Lives of the Saints of this Order, in Italian, by Razzi, 1600, and in
Latin, by F. Thomas de Minis, in two vols. in 4to. an. 1605, 1606.
Annales Camaldulenses Ordinis St. Benedicti, auctoribus Jo. Ben.
Mittarelli, abbate, et Ans. Costadoni, presbyteris et monachis e Cong.
Camald. Venetiis, in four vols fol., of which the fourth is dedicated to
pope Clement XIII., in 1760.

A.D. 1027.

ST. ROMUALD, of the family of the dukes of Ravenna, called Honesti, was
born in that capital about the year 956. Being brought up in the maxims
of the world, in softness and the love of pleasure, he grew every day
more and more enslaved to his passions: yet he often made a resolution
of undertaking something remarkable for the honor of God; and when he
went a hunting, if he found an agreeable solitary place in the woods, he
would stop in it to pray, and would cry out: "How happy were the ancient
hermits, who had {371} such habitations! With what tranquillity could
they serve God, free from the tumult of the world!" His father, whose
name was Sergius, a worldly man, agreed to decide a dispute he had with
a relation about an estate by a duel. Romuald was shocked at the
criminal design; but by threats of being disinherited if he refused, was
engaged by his father to be present as a spectator: Sergius slew his
adversary. Romuald, then twenty years of age, struck with horror at the
crime that had been perpetrated, though he had concurred to it no
further than by his presence, thought himself, however, obliged to
expiate it by a severe course of penance for forty days in the
neighboring Benedictine monastery of Classis, within four miles of
Ravenna. He performed great austerities, and prayed and wept almost
without intermission. His compunction and fervor made all these
exercises seem easy and sweet to him: and the young nobleman became
every day more and more penetrated with the fear an