Editing Romuald (section)

==St. Romuald's Rule==
In his youth Romuald became acquainted with three major schools of western monastic tradition. Sant'Apollinare in Classe was a traditional [[Order of Saint Benedict|Benedictine]] monastery under the influence of the [[Cluniac Reforms]]. Marinus followed a much harsher, ascetic and solitary lifestyle, which was originally of Irish eremitic origins. The [[abbot]] of Sant Miguel de Cuxa, Guarinus, had also begun reforms but mainly built upon a third Christian tradition, that of the [[Iberian Peninsula]]. Romuald was able to integrate these different traditions and establish his own monastic order. The admonition in his rule ''Empty yourself completely and sit waiting'' places him in relation to the long Christian history of intellectual stillness and interior passivity in meditation also reflected in the nearly contemporary Byzantine ascetic  practice known as [[Hesychasm]].

''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.''<ref name=cna>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090620073329/http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=510 "St. Romuald", Catholic News Agency]</ref>
                                 
''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.''<ref name=cna/>

Archbishop Cosmo Francesco Ruppi noted that, "Interiorization of the spiritual dimension, the primacy of solitude and contemplation, slow penetration of the Word of God and calm meditation on the Psalms are the pillars of Camaldolese spirituality, which St. Romuald gives as the essential core of his Rule."<ref>[http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/romuald.HTM Ruppi, Cosmo Francesco. "A 'Burning Bush' and 'Father' of Spiritual Wisdom", ''L'Osservatore Romano'', Weekly Edition in English, 25 January 2006, p. 4]</ref>

Romuald's reforms provided a structural context to accommodate both the eremitic and cenobitic aspects of monastic life.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wwSQBAAAQBAJ&dq=saint+romuald&pg=PA25 McNary-Zak, Bernadette. ''Seeking in Solitude'', Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014] {{ISBN|9781606089699}}</ref>