Romuald's father was a member of the Onesti ducal family. Romuald grew up in a luxurious and worldly environment, where he learned little in the way of self-restraint or religious devotion. Yet he also felt an unusual attraction toward the simplicity of monastic life, prompted by the beauty of nature and the experience of solitude .
SAINTS OF THE DAY
THURSDAY, 19 JUNE, 2025
1) SAINT ROMUALD OF RAVENNA
2) SAINT JULIANA OF FALCONIERI
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1) SAINT ROMUALD OF RAVENNA
ABBOT
(c. 950 – June 19, 1027)
It was not beauty or tranquility, but a shocking tragedy that spurred him to act on this desire. When Romuald was 20 years old, he saw his father Sergius kill one of his relatives in a dispute over some property. Disgusted by the crime he had witnessed, the young man went to the Monastery of St. Apollinaris to do 40 days of penance for his father. These 40 days confirmed Romuald's monastic calling, as they became the foundation for an entire life of penance. But this would not be lived out at St. Apollinaris, where Romuald's strict asceticism brought him into conflict with some of the other monks. He left the area near Ravenna and went to Venice, where he became the disciple of the hermit Marinus.
Both men went on to encourage the monastic vocation of Peter Urseolus, a Venetian political leader who would later be canonized as a saint. When Peter joined a French Benedictine monastery, Romuald followed him and lived for five years in a nearby hermitage.
In the meantime, Romuald's father Sergius had followed his son's course, repenting of his sins and becoming a monk himself. Romuald returned to Italy to help his father, after learning that Sergius was struggling in his vocation. Through his son's guidance, Sergius found the strength to persist in religious life. After guiding his penitent father in the way of salvation, Romuald traveled throughout Italy serving the Church. Romuald spent 30 years going about Italy, founding monasteries and hermitages. He longed to give his life to Christ in martyrdom, and got the pope's permission to preach the gospel in Hungary. But he was struck with illness as soon as he arrived, and the illness recurred as often as he tried to proceed.
Both men went on to encourage the monastic vocation of Peter Urseolus, a Venetian political leader who would later be canonized as a saint. When Peter joined a French Benedictine monastery, Romuald followed him and lived for five years in a nearby hermitage.
In the meantime, Romuald's father Sergius had followed his son's course, repenting of his sins and becoming a monk himself. Romuald returned to Italy to help his father, after learning that Sergius was struggling in his vocation. Through his son's guidance, Sergius found the strength to persist in religious life. After guiding his penitent father in the way of salvation, Romuald traveled throughout Italy serving the Church. Romuald spent 30 years going about Italy, founding monasteries and hermitages. He longed to give his life to Christ in martyrdom, and got the pope's permission to preach the gospel in Hungary. But he was struck with illness as soon as he arrived, and the illness recurred as often as he tried to proceed.
During another period of his life, Romuald suffered great spiritual dryness. One day as he was praying Psalm 31 (“I will give you understanding and I will instruct you”), he was given an extraordinary light and spirit which never left him. At the next monastery where he stayed, Romuald was accused of a scandalous crime by a young nobleman he had rebuked for a dissolute life. Amazingly, his fellow monks believed the accusation. He was given a severe penance, forbidden from offering Mass, and excommunicated—an unjust sentence that he endured in silence for six months.
By 1012 he had helped to establish or reform almost 100 hermitages and monasteries, though these were not connected to one another in the manner of a distinct religious order. The foundations of the Camaldolese order were not laid until 1012 – when a piece of land called the ”Camaldoli,” located in the Diocese of Arezzo, was granted to Romuald. It became the site of five hermits' quarters, and a full monastery soon after. This combination of hermits' cells and community life, together with other distinctive features, gave this monastery and its later affiliates a distinct identity and charism.
Romuald's approach to the contemplative life, reminiscent of the early Desert Fathers, can be seen in the short piece of writing known as his “Brief Rule.” It reads as follows: “Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms – never leave it.”
“If you have just come to the monastery, and in spite of your good will you cannot accomplish what you want, take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart and to understand them with your mind. And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up; hurry back and apply your mind to the words once more.”
“Realize above all that you are in God's presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor. Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him.”
Romuald's approach to the contemplative life, reminiscent of the early Desert Fathers, can be seen in the short piece of writing known as his “Brief Rule.” It reads as follows: “Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms – never leave it.”
“If you have just come to the monastery, and in spite of your good will you cannot accomplish what you want, take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart and to understand them with your mind. And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up; hurry back and apply your mind to the words once more.”
“Realize above all that you are in God's presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor. Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him.”
St. Romuald had prophesied his death. St. Romuald of Ravenna died in his monastic cell alone on June 19, 1027. Many miracles were wrought at his tomb, over which an altar was allowed to be erected in 1032. In 1466 his body was found still incorrupt; it was translated to Fabriano in 1481. Pope Gregory XIII canonized him in 1582.
PATRON: Suwalki, Poland.
PRAYER: St. Romuald, by your intense example of prayer, penance, and solitude, assist all the faithful to put God above all things, to conquer themselves before any other mountain, and so come to know themselves, and their Maker, more deeply. Amen.
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2) SAINT JULIANA OF FALCONIERI
FOUNDRESS OF THE SERVITE NUNS
(1270 - 1341)
Juliana Falconieri grew up among saints. Her uncle, St. Alexis Falconieri, was one of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order. The priest who taught Juliana as a child and deepened her love of God as she developed into a young woman was St. Philip Benizi, one of the early superiors of the Servites. Juliana's parents are not canonized saints, but they were devout people: her father built the Servites' first church in Florence, Santissima Annunziata (Most Holy Annunciation); and Juliana's mother spent the last 20 years of her life living an austere, quiet life of prayer and good works.
Inspired by the holiness she saw around her, Juliana decided to affiliate herself with the Servites as a nun. Her friend and spiritual director, St. Philip Benizi, heard her vows and gave her the habit of a Servite sister. Through what we would call parish missions, the Servite priests and brothers sought to promote devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to encourage Catholics to repent their sins and increase their commitment to the faith. Juliana added works of charity to the Servite way of life by going out into the streets of Florence to help the sick, the helpless, and the abandoned. It was hard, often dirty work; to keep their hands and arms unencumbered Juliana and the women who joined her modified their habit by shortening the sleeves.
For the first 20 years or so after she took her vows, Juliana lived and worked out of her parents' house. This was not unusual in the Middle Ages. Most orders of nuns lived a cloistered life within a convent, but religious women who wanted an active life nursing, teaching or doing some other form of good work, had the option of living in their own homes or living with other like-minded women as a community. While Julaina remained at home with her elderly mother, the women of Florence who became Servite sisters moved into a large house near the church of the Most Holy Annunciation. After her mother died, Juliana joined them.
During Juliana's life Florence was being torn apart by two political parties with odd names - the Ghibellines wanted the Holy Roman Emperor to be the dominant power in Europe, while the Guelphs believed that the ultimate authority was the pope. To gain the upper hand both parties resorted to bloody skirmishes in the streets, assassinations, even civil war. We don't know if Juliana took sides in this squabble. We do know that by acting as a mediator she reconciled several bitter enemies and restored some degree of peace to her hometown.
St. Juliana is the patron of people who suffer from any type of chronic illness because during the last years of her life she was plagued by an undiagnosed stomach ailment. She never knew when an attack of nausea or severe cramps would strike and incapacitate her. Eventually the illness proved fatal. As she was dying she was seized by such a severe bout of vomiting that the priest who came to anoint her felt she could not receive Holy Communion. Instead, at Juliana's request, he covered her chest with a corporal and laid the host over her heart. According to the story, a few moments later the host vanished, and soon after that Juliana died. When the nuns washed her body they found the imprint of a cross directly over St. Juliana's heart.
ATTRIBUTES: represented in the religious habit of her Order with a Eucharistic host upon her breast.
PATRONAGE: bodily ills, sick people, sickness.
PRAYER: O God, you gave to your virgin blessed Juliana wondrous solace in her last illness through the precious Body of your divine Son; grant that through her intercession, we too may be strengthened and comforted in the hour of our death and brought safely to our heavenly home. Through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen.