Vigils Reading

THE LIFE OF ST ROMUALD

By St Peter Damian4

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Romuald lived near the city of Parenzo for three years. In the first year he

built a monastery and appointed an abbot with monks. For the next two years

he remained there in seclusion. In that setting, divine holiness transported him

to such a summit of perfection that, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, he

foresaw many future events and comprehended with the rays of his intelligence

hidden mysteries of the Old and New Testaments.

Frequently he was seized by so great a contemplation of divinity that he

would be reduced to tears with the boiling, indescribable heat of divine love. In

this condition he would cry out: Beloved Jesus, beloved, sweet honey,

indescribable longing, delight of the saints, sweetness of the angels, and other

things of this kind. We are unable to express the ecstasy of these utterances,

dictated by the Holy Spirit.

Wherever the holy man might arrange to live, he would follow the same

pattern. First he would build an oratory with an altar in a cell; then he would

shut himself in and forbid access.

Finally, after he had lived in many places, perceiving that his end was

near, he returned to the monastery he had built in the valley of Castro. While he

awaited with certainty his approaching death, he ordered a cell to be

constructed there with an oratory in which he might isolate himself and

preserve silence until death.

Accordingly his hermitage was built, since he had made up his mind that

he would die there. His body began to grow more and more oppressed by

afflictions and was already failing, not so much from weakness as from the

exhaustion of great age. One day he began to feel the loss of his physical strength

under all the harassment of increasingly violent afflictions. As the sun was

beginning to set, he instructed two monks who were standing by to go out and

close the door of the cell behind them; they were to come back to him at

daybreak to celebrate Matins. They were so concerned about his end that they

went out reluctantly and did not rest immediately. On the contrary, since they

were worried that their master might die, they lay hidden near the cell and

watched this precious treasure. For some time they continued to listen

attentively until they heard neither movement nor sound. Rightly guessing what

had happened, they pushed open the door, rushed in quickly, lit a candle and

found the holy man lying on his back, his blessed soul snatched up into heaven.

As he lay there, he seemed like a neglected heavenly pearl that was soon to be

given a place of honor in the treasure of the King of kings.

4 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol III – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1472.9