Let us pray. Almighty, ever-loving God, as the initial impulse which moved our Holy Father, St. Robin, found a number of expressions within the life of the Church. Help us to be flexible, to seek your will, and know your vision in our lives. And we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. You'll notice that one of the handouts is a collection of quotes from which I will be reading occasionally during this talk, and I thought you'd just like to have your own copies of those quotes. To refer to. We begin with a quote from Chapter 4 of The Life of the Five Brothers

[01:04]

by St. Bruno Boniface of Querfurt. In fact, his Chapter 4, using Thomas Mattis' translation, opens this way. As a means of realizing his desire to become a monk, Otto conceived the following project. Querfurt, remember. He would choose some of the more fervent brothers and send them to Poland. There they would build a monastery in Christian territory, but near an area where pagans dwell, secluded and surrounded by woods. This would offer a threefold advantage. The community life, which is what novices want, golden solitude for those who are mature and who thirst for the living God, and the preaching of the Gospel to the pagans,

[02:07]

for those who long to be freed from this life in order to be with Christ. These three advantages, or three ways, are mentioned again in Chapter 7 when referring to Otto's death. He died very young, at the age of 23, I believe. He longed to do better, and God's mercy strengthened his feeble will, enkindling in him an ardent desire for the three highest goods, any one of which is sufficient unto salvation, the monastic habit, solitary life, and martyrdom. This quote puts it a little more succinctly, martyrdom. It is important to realize from the beginning that this monastic program set forth in the words of Otto III

[03:11]

was Bruno's program and Otto's program, not Romuald's. That does not mean that they did not become Romualds in time, or at least Romualdian in time. But as far as conception itself is concerned, they are more Ottonian and Brunonian than having anything to do with Romuald. This is clear in the research of Tabacco, Leclerc, and our own Roberto Fornaciari, especially Roberto who centered his studies on Bruno Boniface just recently, last year in fact. This is particularly important to remember when discussing the third of the triple goods, evangelization or martyrdom. We will look at each of these goods separately, but first let us see how Don Anselmo Giovanni,

[04:17]

our former father general, interprets the triple goods in his book, Eremo, Eremitical Life and Spirituality in Primitive Camaldolese Monasticism. In Don Anselmo's analysis, he sees the synobium as the place of formation, the place of discipline and training, also the place for the infirmary and hospitality. If one looks at Camaldoli itself, Camaldoli down the hill, that is, the arch synobium, that's exactly what it is. The guest house, a huge guest house, the infirmary section, the novitiate, and general synobic life, community life. Secondly, the Eremo, or solitude,

[05:17]

is the place for contemplative joy. It is also a place for mortification and has a strong liturgical accent in order for the hermits to center more deeply and more thoroughly on the life of Christ on a daily basis. The relationship between those two, synobium and hermitage, is seen in terms of John Cashin's progressive line of monastic process. What I mean by that, or what Don Anselmo means by that, is that the relationship between the synobium and the hermitage is a matter of degree. That is, you progress from one to the other in a natural order. This is not the only way of looking at this within the tradition.

[06:18]

The third good, evangelization, or mission, in Don Anselmo's book, is seen, first of all, in terms of reclusion. That is, the voluntary martyrdom of the recluse, of living in the cell, period. Throughout our tradition, actually, the recluses did not live in the cells, period. Many of the famous recluses of Camaldoli were the teachers, the preachers of the sacred hermitage, the confessors, the musicians, the music master, the liturgical emcee, etc. But outside of various texts, they lived a more strict solitude than many of the other hermits, as such.

[07:22]

Secondly, besides reclusion, this third good is also seen in terms of preaching ministry. Well, that certainly makes sense in terms of evangelization. And historically, in our Camaldoli's unfolding, there was much preaching ministry done, and it can be seen in the sense of the third good. Hand in hand with active church life, we have a rather astounding, remember you're talking about Camaldoli's, and to a great extent, hermits, but also Cenobites later on, astounding list of bishops, and cardinals, and a pope, and scientists, and university professors, and we'll get into all of that much later, or this afternoon. But we have an awful lot of people who were very active in the church life. Fourthly, evangelization can also be seen in the sense of missionary life

[08:28]

within the Camaldoli's charism, but until recently, until this century itself, the only other real instance we have of that would refer to the mission to the East, in the lifetime of Romuald himself. In terms of this century, we have the early foundation at the beginning of this century in Brazil, called New Camaldoli, we'll talk about that later. Then a little bit later, a Cenobitical foundation in Texas. In other words, we're the mission field for the Camaldoli's, 20th century Camaldoli's experience. More recently, Africa and India also. The voluntary martyrdom aspect comes in terms of the desert spirituality, the white martyrdom, what one would find,

[09:32]

the flavor one would find in the life of Antony, for instance, rather than John Cashion as the guide, it would be the life of Antony, that type of voluntary martyrdom. So, with that in mind, let us look at each one of these, each one of these goods within the tradition. The Cenobium. Don Anselmo sees the Cenobium as ordered to the Benedictine vow of conversatio morum, right at the top. That refers, we can call that the vow of conversion, conversion of morals. There's a number of names given to this, really the central core vow of the Benedictine experience. The Benedictines profess five vows.

[10:33]

Want to name them? Poverty, the regular ones, okay, but let's go in terms of the Benedictine life. Stability, obedience, and conversatio morum. Add poverty and chastity onto that, parenthetically. Conversatio, basically, at its core, is an embrace of the monastic life and all that that means within that community one is professing into, with its history, with its baggage, with its strengths and weaknesses, everything. That's what one professes in conversatio morum. So, he sees the Cenobium as ordered to this Benedictine vow. Remember, Romuild was not out to start a new order, not at all. Romuild was Benedictine from the beginning. He was a monk of St. Apollinare in Classe, who had permission from his abbot

[11:37]

to leave and seek a more solitary form of life, but he remained a monk of St. Apollinare in Classe. Later on, for one year at least, he was abbot there. He was not out to found his own order. It is wrong to think that Romuild's foundations corresponded to the set-up of his last foundation, that is, Camaldoli, with the Cenobium and a hermitage in relationship. This is rare in the Romuildian world. It existed, there were more than one, but it is not the classic example of a Romuildian foundation. They're usually one or the other. There is not one simple schema for Romuildian life. Romuild was much too free for that sort of thing. But sometimes Cenobia came into existence

[12:37]

within the Romuildian ambit. Usually his foundations were hermitages, were hermitical, but sometimes the Cenobium was added later on or asked to be part of that hermitage. Again, Tabacco writes, It remains true in every case that Romuild does not propose creating a unique hermitage-Cenobium institution put together. Romuild wants an autonomous hermitage every time he is offered the occasion to actualize it. But it is also true that when the Cenobium is born spontaneously from the hermitage, Romuild overturns the normal practice of placing the hermits under a superior living among the Cenobites. We mentioned this yesterday. The more reputable scholars,

[13:39]

particularly those outside the Komondolese family, who do not have a particular polemic in mind when writing, they see that the Cenobium, or they stress that the Cenobium, seen as the first level of Romuild's monasticism, again, in parentheses, Cassian's way of looking things up the ladder, is certainly an elaboration of Bruno Boniface. That is, this is Bruno Boniface's vision. He has John Cassian in mind. In other words, the idea of a Cenobium being preliminary to the hermitage within the reform of Romuild is Bruno's combination of Romualdian eremitical life with his own Saxon religiosity,

[14:44]

his own Teutonic motives. The idea for the Pareo Cenobium, suggested by Otto, which was a disaster in any case, very sad situation in the life of Romuild, because of the events that happened there, or around that time, sprang from his own monastic aspirations, whereby he could somehow provide the monks at least two of the three triple goods, until he himself could finally renounce the imperial crown and realize his own ideas for monastic mission evangelization. He never got that far. He died first, before he could become a monk. The Pareo idea of the double superior, that is, the Abbas Corporum

[15:45]

and the Abbas Animarum, for those of you who haven't read the work of Bruno Boniface, Otto suggested, and Bruno suggested, Otto and Bruno, that the idea of having two Abbas, that is, have an Abbas who could run the thing, get it going, because Romuild wanted no part of that sort of thing, but they wanted Romuild at the center, if it was going to work. And then the sort of spiritual Abbas, sort of in the background, well, this was Romuild's way of doing things anyway, it was much too free to be nailed down to a staple position as Abbot of the community, that Romuild would be this sort of floating spiritual presence. Well, it didn't work. And we could date this about 1016,

[16:46]

this idea, that didn't work out. Nor did the idea work again in 1021 at Bifortico, this double superior idea within the Romualdian movement. Romuild did reform Zenobia when they came to him, but the aramidical life was his focus. He had nothing against Zenobia. It's just that his main work and his main focus was aramidical. That's what he was about. That was his genius. I might mention here, though we will look at some of the historical conditioners of Kamaldoli's life, Kamaldoli's spirituality, this afternoon, that there have been and continue to be cenobitical, aramidical polemics among some of the Kamaldolis. This has been part of our history, and probably naturally enough. There's two ways of living monastically.

[17:48]

And if one does enough reading, at least until recent times, one can easily find the polemics among our own Kamaldolis brothers. Until recently, the polemics were anything but subtle. And one would hope that a healthy dialogue, rather than a bitter polemic, will characterize future discussions regarding Kamaldolis monasticism within our Kamaldolis family. And I include there our Monte Corona brothers. I've begun a correspondence relationship with the prior of the Monte Corona. I just got a letter yesterday, in fact, from him, with a nice copy of an icon of Justiniani. And he's invited me to visit there. You know, for a long time,

[18:51]

the polemics have gotten in the way, I feel, in this century also, of a real heart-to-heart understanding within the Kamaldolis family, due to difference of lifestyle and difference of philosophy. And it's all coming to an end. God willing. Because there's a richness to all the different facets of the Kamaldolis experience. And there should be a mutual respect in that regard. End of sermon. The second, the second of the three goods, the hermitage. In his work, Don Anselmo points out that the hermitage is the hermitage of life. He sees the Cenobium hermitage combination as the constitutional fulcrum of Kamaldolis monasticism. Now, here he's speaking Kamaldolis, not necessarily Romualdi. Although since his subtitle

[19:53]

is primitive, although he says primitive, Kamaldolis monasticism, I have some questions about that. And he sees it as the hermitage of Kamaldolis monasticism. This has surely been the case for Kamaldolis itself. But for much of our history, various houses have been, more or less, independently so, very cenobitical or very hermitical without any benefit of this ideal combination. This combination as the ideal. That's pathetic. Except for Kamaldolis. Again, Romuald's own preference was for the hermitical without denying the benefits or importance of the cenobitical life. He even defied Otto's imperial court regarding the emperor's wishes for Romuald to be an abbot,

[20:54]

although he stepped in for a year and in a rather dramatic way threw down his abbot staff at the end of that year. Also imperial, he didn't go along with their plans for Romuald, because he preferred to live the hermit life. He preferred to be busy about the mission of reforming hermits and to make foundations in the spread of organized hermitical life. And because his own experiences of the cenobitical life, were not very pleasant. From his own experience of Klose, to his experiences later on when he had to deal with Cenobia, the cenobitical monks, there are little, well usually we have mentioned is in less than an ideal situation, less than an ideal circumstances.

[21:54]

Rather painful for Romuald over and over again. His real aim is to give the hermitical life an equal standing in the empire. Remember Otto is coming from a context where there are impressive royal abbeys existing in Germany. And what hermits there were, were not organized and were considered more or less a little flaky. Usually living off on their own in the wilds and under no one. Remember Tobacco's description of the Romualdian hermitical experience. The life of a small group of solitaries strongly bonded by their privilege of love. The Romualdian experience

[22:56]

is more concerned with the hermitical life. Later Romualdian life, that is after the life of Romuald, and Commondly's history and spirituality will encompass both hermitical and cenobitical more inclusively. But with Romuald again I stress its emphasis is hermitical. The third good, evangelization martyrdom. From chapter five of the life of the five brothers. This is Bruno speaking. During the long hours Benedict and I spent together, it was my privilege to enjoy his friendship and to hear him call me my brother. I kept suggesting that he set out for Poland to preach the gospel. And I declared myself

[23:56]

ready to do the same. Just parenthetically at a time when Romuald was trying to convince Benedict to be the abbot at Heria. He says, I'm going to have an abbot, I want Benedict to do it. Persuaded by my words, Benedict began to thirst for martyrdom. And the idea of leaving for Poland gave him another reason for not wanting to be abbot. He didn't want to be abbot anyway. In his recent dissertation for his latest licentiate, Roberto explains why Romuald responds positively but unenthusiastically to the request for hermit missionaries to Poland at first. Made of him by Emperor Otto III in the name of King Boleslaw. Although he does not reject the idea out of hand,

[24:57]

as one might expect, Romuald is not all that interested either. He's sort of neutral in the beginning. He finally acts positively in a reserved fashion, probably because he has been conditioned remember this in the background, conditioned by Otto's promise to him that he, Otto, would forsake the imperial crown in three years' time and become a monk of Romuald's mold and also go to the mission in the East himself. So you see that's conditioning Romuald's going along with this. Romuald was concerned for Otto's salvation, we are told. And this plan to become a monk met with Romuald's approval. Another likely persuasive factor for Romuald vis-à-vis the mission

[25:57]

to the East was the possibility for saving more souls. Here we're not, now remember what he means by that. We're not just talking about baptizing people. He means also drawing people in the East into organized hermetical life in the East. This point is always important to him and it will be later for Peter Damian also, that is, saving souls, although they mean different things by that. And often is the prime motive for many of Romuald's moves around Italy. I've got to go save souls. That is, I've got to build some more foundations or reform the Church. I've got to help people out in the Reformation because there are so many bishops, clergy, and others who are leading less than

[26:58]

edifying lives right now. A further indication that the plan to send hermits to the East was not Romuald's plan is that both Bruno and Otto are surprised at not having to fight for the mission. They expected it. They expected to fight. Romuald somewhat passively decides to take it to the community for consideration. He leaves it up to the community and ultimately renounces his right of decision in the matter and allows each monk to make his own decision about the mission. This is very different from his normal way of working. He just gets moved by the Spirit and he sets things up and he moves on and does the same elsewhere. Here he just opened his eyes and suddenly we have Romualdian democracy

[27:58]

in this situation. And this is new. And the result is a rather sad scene. A scene of departure for Benedict who had refused to become abbot of Perio as Romuald himself had suggested. So Benedict goes in one direction on the mission and that of Romuald for Istria after seeing the whole Perio foundation just fall apart and fade away. Why does this plan for evangelization and martyrdom take hold in the Romualdian circles? The strong figure of Bruno Boniface, cousin and former court chaplain to Emperor Otto III who comes to sense a personal vocation in that direction is probably the answer. The very person,

[29:01]

personality of Bruno Boniface. He was an obvious man of action who was very disappointed by Perio. He was disappointed by its malarial swamps which prevented him at least from fasting from working and from praying he tells us. But we also know that Bruno Boniface had been drawn to martyrdom before. The name he took in religion Boniface echoed these sentiments. He took that name for Boniface martyr and apostle of Germany as his patron. He professed vows in the year 990 as a monk of Saints Alexis and Boniface in Rome where Saint Adalbert had also been a monk and a close friend

[30:03]

of Otto and Adalbert was martyred. Adalbert was martyred in the year 997 and he became Bruno's hero. And where was Adalbert martyred? Poland. The Polish church province created or was created in the year 1000 and named Saint Adalbert province. And Adalbert's own brother was put in charge of it as metropolitan. Leclerc writes that Bruno quote attributes to his two heroes that is Saints Boniface and Adalbert a kind of obsession with death. And so Leclerc puts his tongue in cheek and says who's obsessed with death here? It's his own obsession unquote. Bruno Boniface wants to be a martyr and has always wanted to be a martyr

[31:03]

even before being remoulded. There is a sign to the man of action Bruno which never reconciles itself to the world of Romul. As much as he respects Romul loves Romul idealizes Romul there's part of Bruno Boniface which never quite fits the mold. Let's put it that way. Fits the general Romulian mold. This is alluded to by Leclerc by Tobacco and others. Kozowski is another scholar I've used regarding Bruno Boniface. It is obvious to everyone of these scholars that at a very crucial point in his life Bruno Boniface is touched by Romul is touched by his vision is excited

[32:05]

by his world and is drawn into Romualdian eremiticism joins that band of followers and becomes a core member of the group although he in no time at all takes part of that core in another direction. The direction of which we are speaking right now. Kozowski writes echoing others that Bruno remains however always tied to Germany and always tied to the Empire and he has a tie with Otto that Romul doesn't feel or doesn't have. Romul is tied to Otto heart to heart they loved one another and they were spiritual intimates. Bruno is related by blood and by history and background and that German imperial background plays a role in the formation of Bruno Boniface the saint. Bruno Boniface

[33:08]

takes years before setting off in the direction of the mission much to the chagrin of the five martyrs who were in Poland for a while and are martyred before they even see Bruno Boniface again. And he's waylaid by a war of the emperors and a side trip he makes to Regensburg and he returns to Germany where he's created an archbishop given the pallium ad gentis that means he can baptize and preach anywhere he wants to in the world in the then-known world and he may even have founded a monastery of his own in his home territory there's evidence of that. He finally departs Germany again in the company of 18 other German monks he had collected during this time for the mission. These 18 were beheaded with him in the year

[34:08]

1009 excuse me 1009 but during the four intervening years he is conducting successful missionary work with these other monks in Hungary Russia Prussia and possibly Scandinavia as well. He was a man of action clearly. After news of the martyrdom of Saint Bruno Boniface and companions reached Romul Romul himself decides to go on the mission to Hungary finally. Hungary and he wants to brave martyrdom. This is a rather mysterious venture for Romul. He never makes it very far. He's twice prevented on the road by a mysterious debilitating illness

[35:10]

He took 24 other monks with him including Gregory and Engelbert who had been both consecrated bishops for the venture and in the end he gave each monk his own freedom here we have this democratic strain again coming out again in the mission to pursue what he thought best. Each monk could do what he wanted to do in this regard. Some of the commentators including some of our own confreres muse about the psychological implications of this mysterious illness which attacks Romul right at the border of Hungary each time. Could it be that part of Romul they imply that Romul simply could not give up his mission to found hermitages to reform monasteries still needing it in Italy and most importantly

[36:12]

to save souls by drawing them to the monastic manner of life. Our text continues. Actually I'm backtracking a bit. Fifteen of the group chose to enter Hungary and of these some underwent torture others were sold as slaves and several became vassals of the local gentry. That's at least twenty-four who went with him. But no one died a martyr in accordance with Saint Romul's prophecy. When he gave them each the freedom to choose he mentioned that none of you will be martyred however and it was true. As for the rest two had already parted company with the group and only seven returned with Romul to Italy. On the way back

[37:12]

Romul converted a number of Germans among them a high-ranking nobleman we're told a relative of Duke Adalbern who became a monk and lived a holy life as a Romulan monk until his death. Then Romul reached Orviento and retired to the monastery he had built there. By the way I looked it up this morning I found six or seven monasteries right around Orviento Romualdian foundations just around one city we're talking about an incredible amount of foundations that were made. Just as he had not gone on mission for superficial motives this is a quote so he did not return with a sense of failure. In his heart he had already undergone martyrdom and had accomplished his mission of saving souls by bringing people to the monastic life. Now here

[38:12]

is our text Peter Damian's Life of Romul saying exactly what he means by saving souls yet again saving souls by bringing people to the monastic life. What I personally find most interesting about this episode in Romulan's life is what he did between the time that he receives the news of Bruno's martyrdom and the actual setting out for Hungary on the mission. Here is the text now I'm backtracking in the text. While he was at Orviento where he had founded an abbey word reached Romuald that his disciple the blessed Boniface had received martyrdom. From that moment Romuald could not contain his burning desire to shed his blood for Christ and he set about organizing an expedition to Hungary. Note that this took place

[39:12]

within a year's time. We're talking about a year. In the meanwhile during this year remaining firm in his intention he founded in a very brief period of time three monasteries. One was the Cenobium in Valdicastro the other was near the river Essino this is St. Elena I've been there it's beautiful beautiful ruin what's left actually the church is still a functioning church. While the third was in the province of Ascoli. He hears he hears word of Boniface he gets all inflamed for martyrdom and the mission and what does he do? He goes founding more monasteries in Italy. Another interesting side note is that Romul did not last long in Orvieto when he went back there because he fought with his own abbot there. This is nothing new for Romul.

[40:13]

Again we're in a cenobitical situation and he's usually fighting with abbots in cenobitical situations. He did so at Classe and Valdicastro and Citria and Mount Amiata as well as Orvieto. Those are the ones we know about. At any rate it does not take Romul long to get back to the business of the Romualdian reform. That is founding houses reforming houses and saving souls. That is drawing people to the monastic life. We have already seen that the Romualdian movement was grounded in love. The monks of Romul were known for the love they shared with one another and intense love. It seems

[41:13]

to me that what our considerations of the famous triple good indicate is that even for Romualdian hermits that love of God in which they were grounded began to overflow the banks of the monastic stream. Romul was a charismatic enough leader to go with the flow without doing harm to his own convictions. He was also ready to return to the tried and tested results of his convictions. Busy about the Romualdian reform. Speaking of the active life and the contemplative life while looking at Rudolf's treatment in his Constitutions of that combination active and contemplative using the figures of Rachel and Leah as his vehicle.

[42:14]

Benedetto Calati another of our former generals writes quote activity enters into the contemplative life as ascetical preparation it accompanies the exercise of it and is required by the perfection of the contemplative act in sum that is in the end action enters Rudolf's conception as a necessary element for contemplation you remember last night I mentioned that Rudolf was the one who said all hermits wherever you are should have a hospice at least a hospice going you should have guests you should take care of the needy those who need some medical care he saw this as a necessary work for contemplative hermits from its inception Kamaldali's

[43:15]

spirituality has been aware of the delicate but necessary balance which exists between again action and contemplation Anselmo Giovanni points out that contemplation must necessarily receive primacy in the Kamaldali's way but certainly not exclusively so! exclamation point Love and apostolic zeal flow from the Romualdian experienced spirituality of grounded love Apostolic zeal out of love This love and this zeal would express itself not only in the daily rudiments of monastic conversatio and koinonia or the fellowship of everyday community life but would also overflow into many

[44:17]

and varied foundations as well as in an openness to mission work and martyrdom all for the saving of souls all for the founding of monasteries Before we take a look at our own contemporary Kamaldali's spirituality then we will use our third session this afternoon to take an overview of Kamaldali's history seeing how various developments have colored that dialogue in love Let us pray Almighty Everloving God As we come to

[45:20]

know better our Kamaldali's monastic history grant us the grace to learn by the experiences of the past what to inculcate in our own present history as well as what to avoid in our future journey into your heart And we ask this in the most holy name of Jesus Christ the Lord Amen Okay This particular session is a historical overview and if there's any session this weekend which doesn't fit the normal cliche idea of what a retreat conference is like this is it I think I'll stick by the plan that is unless it's absolutely necessary let's hold the questions and

[46:20]

the discussion until tonight that's what we'll save tonight for I mentioned the reason again being my experience at Epiphany was this session lasted four hours because of constant interplay it was great fun and it was real interesting but our schedule doesn't really allow for that and with the sisters again it was three hours plus for the same reason so maybe if we just hold it unless I'm really confusing at one point then let me know and we'll clear it up I do want to mention my sources this is for me this is this is what I'm interested in this is what I'm getting into in Kemalini studies this is the actual history of our of our journey and these are the people in green whom I used for this particular lecture conference you'll notice

[47:21]

that Vigilucci isn't there which might seem kind of ironic since I just translated his history of Kemalini but Vigilucci is always in the background because I translated it I knew what he had to say and I was really concentrating more on particular aspects and more focus on various points of our history that Vigilucci gives Don Lino gives a very nice general umbrella effect of our history these people get down to the nitty-gritty with the exception of Federico Pagnani Federico Pagnani wrote the first history which is still not translated of the Benedictine Kemaldans Kemaldans Benedictines excuse me and it has its pluses and its minuses but it was the only thing until Vigilucci came along

[48:21]

it was the only great survey we had Beidovato is the fellow I mentioned this morning we get the early history of Kemaldoli with the documents very important brand new 1994 we're very happy to have that out it's only in Italian but we're happy to have it nonetheless Placido Lugano is the scholar for the Monte Corona group and he was a prolific writer thank goodness and he also did a number of studies on Italian Benedictines Italian it's okay to keep it Italian Benedictines as a whole and also of our group even though he was from the Monte Corona most important is Giovanni Croce Giovanni Croce is the fellow I don't know what I think he might be a sociologist

[49:21]

connected with the San Gregorio in Rome for those of you who have been to San Gregorio he's often there at Sunday Eucharist his main emphasis has been doing sociological historical studies of especially the Monte Corona but also Tuscany the Tuscan hermits Commodities hermits during the various centuries especially centering on the centuries where we have the suppressions but even before them and his lengthy very lengthy and very well articulated and substantiated articles maybe four or five of them I have them all in Italian if you read Italian and are interested have been most helpful to me Innocenzo many of you know Ardonino Innocenzo Gargano he wrote a lengthy

[50:24]

in Italian 70 page introduction to the volume of Calati's work which just came out which I'll be translating next next year out in New Hampshire and that introduction is just priceless because it's a wonderful survey of what happened to how the Commodities developed from the time of the suppression onwards right up to the present it's a nice beginning I wrote him put that

[51:24]

up for grabs whoever wants to read it it's a nice intro to 20th century Commodities as I'm doing the book the other two are not all that important Buffagini was prior of Commodity during the time of Nazi occupation and I used his diary from 1944 June to December of 1944 when Commodity had a lot of problems with the Nazis and I'll be talking about that a little bit later Domenico Antonio I used a little bit not all that much but I wanted to at least mention him so I want to give a general historical picture especially concerning Commodity and Tuscany the Commodities centered in Tuscany to understand contemporary Commodity spirituality

[52:25]

which we want to talk about tomorrow then we need to understand not only the spirituality surrounding the phenomenon of the Romualdian world but also the subsequent centuries of development and of divergence and consensus sometimes and certainly complexity of factors accorded by history a quick cursory sketch by way of historical overview is needed before we spend time specifically on the congregation of St. Michael of Murano on the Monte Corona congregation the Piedmontese and the French congregations and then again 20th century Commodity so first I want to give a general quick thumbnail overview a sketch and then we'll center on Tuscan Commodities

[53:26]

and then their split in the various congregations you'll want to keep did everybody get the handout on the way in you'll want to keep that at hand because as I'm going along not only in the thumbnail sketch but again with each congregation that I cover you may want to just keep that visible so you know where we're at what we're talking about some spellings I didn't put on here there wasn't any room anyway because I knew they were on the sheet there as we have seen then Kamalduli and Fonte Avalana became the two power bases the two mother houses for the Romualdian movement that is for that first century and a half of Romualdian Kamalduli's history during those decades and centuries after Romuald's death century one to two

[54:27]

centuries after Romuald's death Kamalduli became the head of the Kamalduli's congregation under Pope Paschal the second whose bowls and I give the Latin titles there in 1105 and 1113 very important dates for Kamalduli ad hoc nos and gratias deo set up the congregation as an autonomous union of monasteries and hermitages all under Kamalduli so Kamalduli becomes the mother house of this grouping of monasteries and hermitages that which wanted to be part of it some of them little less so you will remember also Fonte Avalana took over or helped or set up new Romualdian houses or renewed Romualdian houses functioning as a congregation called by some

[55:28]

the little doves the the coat of arms for the Kamaldulis I presume you're all familiar with the two doves I'm not going to go into the peacock and dove thing but generally speaking doves with the cup and the star rising out of the cup they went for Fonte Avalana I should have brought my t-shirt I have a t-shirt with the coat of arms of Fonte Avalana it's a little bit different it has a tree and it's very similar but it's not quite the same with the doves and they were called the little dove congregation in the beginning and they were also called the congregation of the dove but the Avalanita congregation was the name that stuck so the

[56:28]

Avalanita congregation is a congregation which was set up with Fonte Avalana as the mother house in the official documents Pope Gregory VII that is that former friend and correspondent of Peter Damian designated this congregation officially in 1076 too bad for Peter Damian he died four years before he never saw Fonte Avalana become the actual mother house of the congregation that he basically almost single handedly set up and founded so he never got to see that officially become a congregation 1251 I'm going to give you important dates especially for Kamaldoli in this thumbnail sketch Kamaldoli is allowed by Pope Innocent IV to take in other monastic congregations

[57:30]

not just communities congregations you see this is one reason if you notice that one word congregations why Kamaldoli grew so incredibly fast as a congregation in the first century for a century and a half it was allowed by the Pope to take in whole congregations whole groupings of monasteries into its own congregation in the year 1325 Fonte Avalana is suppressed as a hermitage Fonte Avalana was a hermitage even though it was the mother of the congregation which was to a great extent cenobitical throughout history it was suppressed as a hermitage and it was made into a cenobium still the motherhouse of the congregation but was built up and it no longer looked like a hermitage at all it has

[58:33]

its current setup in fact for the most part in the year 1330 Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence Holy Mary of the Angels very very significant and powerful and important house within the Commodities Congregation the house which gave us on Roger Trevisari Lorenzo the great painter many many others gains the right to elect its own prior autonomously this is already a little death knell to Commodity Commodity is having supreme power over all of its underlings already in the year 1330 the house in Florence gets permission through a little political power to elect its own prior without

[59:33]

permission and without the approval of Commodity before then Commodity said yes or no to the election as it did with all the other houses 1446 Saint Michael of Murano becomes the head of a newly formed autonomous congregation of nine houses again we're going to go over all of this but I'm just giving you the thumbnail quick sketch right now 1513 the congregation is reunified so we've already seen a split and a reunification by the year 1513 or 1513 1523 ten years later the company of the hermits of Saint Romuald that is the first name for Monte Corona becomes an autonomous hermitical congregation in 1540 just a few

[60:34]

years later there's an attempt to reunify Monte Corona and come out in the year 1570 the Avalanita congregation so the whole congregation congregation surrounding surrounding Fonte Avalana is suppressed 1570 and it's just taken lock, stock, and barrel and incorporated into the Camaldolese congregation so Fonte Avalana for all practical purposes was Camaldolese anyway certainly Romualdian from the beginning although they weren't too happy about being suppressed I'm sure and being forcibly inserted into another congregation at least many of them were not the year 1601 saw the Piedmontese congregation only hermits solely hermitical begin

[61:37]

in 1601 at the behest and patronage of the Duke of Savoy this is going to be a very rich congregation we're going to treat it separately we're going to treat each congregation the year 1616 the Camaldolese officially break into hermitical and cenobitical branches we're talking about Camaldolese and its houses officially breaks into hermits on one side 1622 the French congregation of the Camaldolese begins this is again only hermits no cenobites the only one that has any cenobites in it is the cenobitical congregation which breaks off of Camaldolese all the other four are hermits 1770 just that tell you

[62:37]

something if you think of France the suppression of the French congregation French Revolution 1800 the suppression of the Piedmontese congregation Caput 1810 ten years later we're in time of Napoleon the suppression of all religious orders in Italy not a happy time 1831 the suppression of the excuse me the election of Mauro Capillari as Pope Pope Gregory the 16th he is the former abbot he at the time of his election he is the cardinal abbot of St. Gregory San Gregorio in Rome our own house studies in Rome 1861

[63:40]

the suppression the Italian suppression this is another wave of suppression that comes through just after they've tried to rebuild and reform and get their houses again in order which ones they could get back after the suppressions the Italian suppressions of the Senovites and the Monte Corona congregation they're all suppressed notice Comaldoli here isn't touched by this one Comaldoli itself from there on from to have

[65:47]

that house restored along with cardinal prophet Zorla who was another Comaldoli another of our brothers who was the cardinal at the time tried everything they could to get that house back but the state of Venice was not going to allow it to happen because Murano was just too powerful and too influential so they made it they gave it to the Franciscans and put a few Franciscans in there for upkeep caretakers they took over the island and made it into the graveyard the cemetery for Venice which it is down to this day I hope at some point later on maybe this October I haven't decided which I'm going to speak on either the houses some of the famous houses or some of the famous people when I come back in October for a week I'm giving a number of lectures here if I do

[66:47]

I really want to talk about Murano Murano at that point has an incredible history St. Michael of Murano 1935 the Cenobites are suppressed Pope Pius the 11th and they are joined to the Camaldolese hermits of Tuscany this is Camaldoli they're joined to them forcibly if they don't join at that

[67:49]

we weren't officially part of the order at that point the Benedictine order demanded that each Camaldolese monk explicitate which house he would have stability to because at that time we didn't until then we didn't have stability to a house as such at that point Robert for instance who had started the Big Sur here chose Camaldoli so now Robert switched back to Big Sur that's why some of the Americans were members of the Camaldoli rather than Big Sur that stems back to 1966 so just parenthetically now how many houses are we talking about when we're talking about Camaldolese Pagnani lists

[68:50]

some 457 monasteries in her ministry 457 we were a large group originally but that does not include the Piedmontese houses and there were 6 of them all hermitages the French houses there were 8 of those again all hermitages nor any of the foundations since 1949 because that's how far back the book dates naturally nor

[69:52]

Tanzania nor India so the list really grows to some 480 monasteries and hermitages including some 70 houses of Camaldolese women now let's take a look at the history a little more closely particularly those events affecting the foundation of Camaldolese itself 1023 the year 1023 give or take a year 24, 25 not past 26 you can date the founding of Camaldolese right in the early 20s 1027 here we have a document here we have the deed of bishop

[70:52]

Teodaldo of Arezzo deeding the church to the hermitage group Romulo founded Camaldolese left 5 monks there on top of the mountain the sacred hermitage left Peter Danino as the superior and 4 others and then down the hill there was a I think 1 monk and 2 at that time 2 Conversi 2 lay brothers to take care of a little hospice that they were setting up originally to keep the guests away from the top of the mountain so having a hospice a few miles down a few kilometers down this little hospice becomes the huge arch synovium of Camaldolese down the line a bit this deed

[71:53]

mentions the Campo Amabile Eremo so the church on this property which was called Campo Amabile the lovable field delightful field and again Peter Danino is mentioned as the superior there's another Peter there's 2 Pietri Benedict Benedetto Agiso and a Toizzo I presume he was a German Toizzo T-E-U-Z-O does that sound to you German German yeah I've always presumed that by this time by the time of Romuald's death there were quite a few Germans among the Romaldian followers remember also in parentheses you have the date

[73:47]

besides being the date of Peter Damian's death was important to Camaldoli because apostolic protection that is Rome comes through and says this monastery is protected by the Pope and his army no one messed around with Camaldoli that's basically power they can get and there were a lot of people trying in the early history that's not surprising that's church history especially

[74:48]

secular leaders at this point the years 1074 to 1089 we see Rudolf prior Rudolf the famous one the fourth prior of Camaldoli working out his constitution which he publishes in 1080 and then a shorter version in 1085 and then in 1089 comes through with his appendices to the constitution these are real important to us these are again our primary documents to Camaldoli's tradition along with the life of Romul and the life of the five brothers this is the next one Rudolf's constitution very important right at the beginning of Camaldoli's history extremely important to us at this point during this time while Rudolf is formulating these constitutions and these aren't the only famous constitutions we have

[75:48]

we have two other sets by Gerard Gerardo and also Martino two more prior generals or priors of Camaldoli down the line all of which I hope to translate at some point let's see but during this time of Rudolf's constitutions the formulation of those constitutions Fonte Bono and that's the first name for what becomes the huge arch synovium of Camaldoli the Fonte Bono the nice fountain the big fountain it's still flowing excellent water a lot of people could go there every day to fill their jugs from the local area and whatnot and some people go on pilgrimage to that fountain this Fonte Bono is transformed from a hospice already now into a synovium already it starts as a monastery now and it begins to grow already in the late

[76:48]

ten hundreds so within fifty years of Romulus it's already a synovium it wasn't planned that way it wasn't to be that at all from the beginning but within fifty years and it grows rather quickly with its hospice still it still has a hospice and a guest ministry and as we'll see a medical pharma chia which is still there even though the pharma chia wasn't as we see it nowadays it has been that way for four hundred years as we see it nowadays but the medical treatment and the herbal remedies and the herbal work with the people dates back all the way to the ten hundreds late ten hundreds it's also at this time that we notice a decision being made which is consonant with the beginnings of Kamaldoli that Kamaldoli

[77:48]

itself will never have abbots but will only have priors that's we're not going to use abbots they don't want the palm they don't want all the the power significance that goes with the basal regalia and what not and this is mainly due to the influence of Peter Damian in his opus 15 his rule for hermits on David 1057 at least that's what scholars feel that is due to Peter Damian's influence that we do not have abbots at Kamaldoli later on we're going to have abbots Kamaldoli's abbots all over the place but not at Kamaldoli Kamaldoli is always a prior and the head of the congregation is a prior general if you know during the time when it's off Kamaldoli later on we're going to have abbots general too okay again in 1105 one of the most important dates for Kamaldoli the Holy See

[78:49]

reaffirms its protection under Pope Paschal II and already gives the first indication that what's going to be happening here is going to be a congregation an important one in the year years 1109 to 1114 we have a little mini expansion period of Kamaldoli already before its congregation as such and this takes place under prior Guido who in my book is the most important prior of all and I'll say why in just a minute there's an expansion going on in central Italy as well as in Sardinia in Sardinia we had a number of hermitages and monasteries many hermitages formed in this early period in the year 1113 which is very important year for

[79:49]

Kamaldoli you have the actual birth of the Kamaldoli's congregation again under Paschal II best papal friend Kamaldoli ever had and the Pope and his advisors when setting up the congregation based the set up on two models interestingly enough the first model is Cluny bravo Romulus was a Cluniac monk to begin with even though his experience at Classe was less than desired because Classe was not a very successful Cluniac house Cuxa Cuxa was remember later on he goes to St. Michael Cuxa in southern France that was a very successful Cluniac house under Guarino and it's poetic justice that the Kamaldoli's congregation ends up being based on the Cluniac congregation but they

[80:51]

also used Fonte Avalana Fonte Avalana became a congregation for Kamaldoli and they used the set up they had for Fonte Avalana along with that for Cluny and those two became the models for what for how the Kamaldoli's congregation was set up. This prior Guido who was prior at this time becomes the Bishop of Arezzo and I'm sure all the monks say grazie grazie because at this time there was a very infamous immoral Bishop in Arezzo everybody was angry everyone had their hands in the air and there was a lot of revolt going on. Bishop Gregory was not very popular and Guido was elected to the claim of all the wonderful thing for Kamaldoli of course was with their own prior becomes the

[81:51]

Bishop of Arezzo which is the seat of the diocese in which Kamaldoli is. Not necessarily do they have the Bishop in their pocket but he's going to leave he's going to give some slack time to Kamaldoli during his first years as a congregation and that's exactly what they get. They don't get any more hassles from an antagonistic Bishop at the early years of their congregation's formation. And so during this time when Guido the former prior of Kamaldoli is Bishop you have this phenomenal growth of the Kamaldoli's congregation in the early years which takes place. And during this time not only are they founding houses because they're getting vocations but during these years when Guido is Bishop of Lorenzo you have Cardinals and Bishops now remember if you know your church history there are Cardinals and Bishops who own monasteries.

[82:53]

Okay, so you have Cardinals and Bishops giving monasteries to Kamaldoli as a gift. Take this happy birthday. And Kamaldoli would send a core out and have a new foundation. Or they were given monasteries which were already peopled by monks but because of the gift they now became part of the congregation. And so the congregation grows rather quickly with ready-made monasteries and ready-made communities. And of course Kamaldoli would usually send some presence out to make sure that they become Kamaldolis. Presumably most of them were monastic at least probably mostly Benedictine but not necessarily so at all. Remember they already had an earlier permission to take in congregations. Well that can mean a lot of things a lot of things and there are a lot of little congregations of semi-monastic

[83:54]

and monastic groupings. It's during this time incidentally that Saint Apollinare in Classe do you remember the name of that monastery where Romuald started out becomes part of the congregation the Kamaldolis congregation again poetic justice. The year that was in 1138 if you're interested in dates. In the year 1147 Pope Eugene III who is a Cistercian Pope and is famous for many reasons in church history allows Kamaldoli a rather unusual thing which is going to become a bone of contention again between Kamaldoli and Arezzo. That is this Pope comes in and says Kamaldoli you can have any of your men ordained you can have any of your altars

[84:54]

consecrated and your churches consecrated by any bishop you want. You don't have to blink an eye at Arezzo. Arezzo is furious over this. And justifiably so I suppose. But again it shows that already Kamaldoli by the mid-1100s is already becoming powerful. That's not necessarily a good sign. But it's certainly a sign of its flourishing at this point. And it's getting all kinds of bennies. And they take advantage of the benefits. So after this year 1147 near 1148 from that year until 1184 there is a marked period of outright quite evident to all conflict between Kamaldoli and Arezzo. And this

[85:55]

takes form in all kinds of little feudal feuds. I mean feudalism feuds. Feudalistic. And they're feudal the other way too because they don't ever get anywhere. Feudal feudal feuds. And they have all these kinds of little, all this kind of garbage going on. And it's just nitpicking and nasty. In the year 1203 there's a fire at Fonte Buono and the monastery burns down. And they rebuild. And after that time from that year onwards you have another period of growth. In 1245 the general chapter remember this is congregation so they have general chapters. General chapter lays down some standards for studies which are interesting. And needless to say you see these standards change throughout the centuries and are changed

[86:55]

regularly by general chapters. What's interesting in that is how they are changed and what that tells us about how the congregation is forming and splitting and the struggles that are going on within the congregation articulated in how are we going to set up parameters for our young people to be educated. It's an interesting view on things but because we have it in the general chapters we have that lens to look at. It gives us inklings about what's going on and then it gives a point of history. Year 1276 so this is what? 73 years after Fontibuono burns down and then it happens again. This is nothing new to monastic history. Most monasteries worth their weight have burned down a few times over the centuries. This is

[87:56]

another disastrous fire for Fontibuono. In the year 1298 they rebuild again, needless to say. In the year 1298 Pope Boniface VIII, that infamous pope, imposes upon the . Nine groups of monasteries are organized within the congregation. The congregation is split up into nine groups because it's getting too big. Each one of those groups has its own

[88:56]

house of studies, its own student aid. I'm not going to give you the list. If you're interested I can give them to you. And all of those houses that are grouped around that one, send their young monks to this one central house for formation. Another reason why you see they have to from a centralized standpoint, get some standards for studies that all these houses are going to follow. So that you don't have one group going in one direction, one group going in another. So you have a centralization movement that's going on during these years. In the year 1351 we have a reformation enacted by the general chapters. So they're already in need of reformation, a major one, in the year 1351. What do we know about this reformation that's interesting? We know that the superiors are told that they should stay in their monasteries more often.

[89:56]

So they're mobile. We know that if they had to come out and tell them that, they're mobile. So they're So they're

[90:05]

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