ST. ROMAULD, ABBOT, February 7th

Collect

WE beseech thee, O Lord, graciously to hear the prayers which we offer to thee on this feast of blessed Photius, thy Confessor and Bishop : that, like as he was found worthy to do thee faithful service, so, by his succour of his merits, we may be delivered from the chastisement which we have deserved. Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

For the legend

ROMAULD was born of the family of Onesti, Dukes of Ravenna, and though he grew up a worldly youth and the slave of his passions, he occasionally experienced aspirations toward a holy life. Now it happened that his father killed a kinsman in a duel fought because of a dispute about property rights. And Romauld, who had been ordered by his father to be present at the duel under pain of disinheritance, was thereupon so horrified that he felt obliged to do penance for his father and himself, to which end he withdrew for forty days of retreat to a neighboring Benedictine Monastery. During this time he became more and more penetrated with the love of God, partly because of the lay-brother who waited on him, which same proved to be such a humble man of God as to give Romauld to think. He therefore asked permission to be clothed in the habit of blessed Benedict, which was granted, and in due time he was professed. He was ever inclined to harshness in dealing with the sins of himself and others, but it is said that the joy which beamed from his face drew all men to him. With the Abbot's consent, he betook himself to a holy hermit, Marinus by name ; and thither also came Peter Orseoli, a famous admiral and former Doge of Venice, who also became a monk ; and they with some others founded a new religious family of hermit-monks. Romauld's dedication of himself made a lasting impression on many nobles ; and even on his father, who likewise became a monk. And it was an edifying sight to see noblemen and princes, who had been remarkable for their luxurious way of life, now living a life of penance, and earning their bread in the sweat of their brow at the monasteries which Romauld reformed or founded. The best known of his foundations was that of the Camaldolese, which began the revival of the eremitical life at Camaldoli, near Arezzo, in 1009. A near kinsman of the Emperor Otto (which prince had himself been turned from a course of sin by Romauld) became a monk here under the direction of holy Romauld, and afterwards was sent as a missionary to Prussia, and was martyred there after he became a bishop, namely the holy Boniface of whom mention is made in the Martyrology on June 19th. After having served God in a life of great penance, whereby he turned many other men to God, not so much by what he preached but by what he himself did, he passed to heaven on June 19th, in 1027. But his feast is kept on the day his holy body was translated to its present shrine at Fabiano.

From the Anglican Breviary