Saint Of The Day For February, 7: Saint Romuald
The special vocation of St. Romuald, founder of the monastery of Camaldoli, gives us some insight into how powerful is the call of God
In reality, the Saint died on 19 June, but today we commemorate the translation of St Romuald’s body
It is usually said that when there are clear signs of holiness, the body is incorrupt.
This was so for St Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese, and likewise for the venerable founder of the Daughters of Mary Missionaries, Fr Giacinto Bianchi.
Sin corrupts the soul, it is like a woodworm that gnaws at the entrails, but grace purifies and redeems.
A holy soul is in God’s grace, reconciled with the creator and the world.
Why does God call us and how? Let us see it with St Romuald
The calls are infinite, so much so that it is said that the breath of the Spirit, that breath of wind whose intensity and duration cannot be perceived, reaches everywhere, and it does not matter to whom.
No one is predestined in a preferential way in the doctrine of the Catholic faith, but we all contribute in a unique and special way to the call to the kingdom.
It is often life’s fateful events that cause us to make certain radical choices, and so it was for St Romuald.
Unfortunately, young in age, he witnessed a murder committed by his father and could not bear the burden.
He thus entered a Benedictine abbey.
For Giacinto Bianchi, on the other hand, the call was without any particular trauma, because from an early age he yearned to become a priest.
From a first call, many others can spring forth. Even so with St Romuald
One of the greatest mistakes one can make is to remain inert in the face of the first choice as if there were friction preventing us from taking other, albeit holy, paths.
This friction can be represented by unmotivated anxieties and fears, fear of the judgement of others, resting on one’s laurels (this place suits me now!).
And saints are free spirits like the wind: so was Mother Teresa of Calcutta when she decided to leave her sisters for other designs, and so was Saint Romuald.
Let us see why.
Perhaps we would think it is enough to consecrate ourselves, but sometimes a modus does not really make us happy.
And if the joy of the call is missing, there is no God there.
St Moses, bishop of the nomadic people of Sinai, responds to a different style, a hermitic, non-stop.
One can be a nomad by necessity or one can be a nomad by choice, a vocation.
Romuald wandered a lot and at each stop he founded a monastery
Original story this as if in God’s film there is also a Romuald, and many like him, who are waiting for nothing more than to join the Lord.
But while they wait, just to stretch their legs a little, they visit many, never too many, places of contemplation.
In short, being homeless following the example of Jesus who had nowhere to lay his head.
Don Giacinto Bianchi, who also visited many places in Italy and around the world, earning the title of apostolic missionary from Propaganda Fide.
Some thoughts from the Venerable Giacinto Bianchi on holiness that shed light on the mystery of St Romuald
Figures like St Romuald, St Blaise, St Sebastian, St Expedite fascinated Hyacinth Bianchi.
He was a friend in life of saints like John Bosco, even if the relationship between the two was more of a peaceful confrontation….
These words of his give enormous value to the whole hagiography, the history of saints on which we meditate day after day, and that is why we propose them to you, the readers:
“Holiness comes as a visible providence and constitutes at the same time a proof of our Catholic faith, a social benefit and a strength in the continuous struggle of life. Benefit and strength that endures and passes on to all future generations”.
From such wise words, we take the invitation to give life, depth, flesh to the biographies of the saints, bringing them as close as possible to us, to our experience, to our ideas.
Everything contributes to smoothing out the bristly path that humanity treads in making salvation history for all of us, yesterday as well as today.
Let us invoke these wonders of holiness so that they may help us to have the grace to discover our path, the one the Lord has planned for us, but not without us.
Best wishes and a good journey in holiness.
Sister Ines Carlone, Daughters of Mary Missionaries
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