Saint Romuald, Abbot

Saint Romuald was born around 951 in Ravenna in northeastern Italy, into the noble Onesti family. As a young man he lived like many of his class, until a shocking turning point: at about twenty he witnessed his father kill a relative in a duel. Stricken with sorrow, Romuald withdrew to the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe for forty days of penance, and soon embraced the monastic life there. Yet his hunger for deeper conversion led him beyond ordinary observance. He sought the guidance of the hermit Marinus near Venice, and later lived for years near the monastery of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, where prayer, silence, and study shaped his vision. For roughly three decades Romuald traveled through Italy, reforming lax monasteries and founding new hermitages, steadfastly calling souls to purity of heart and contemplative stillness. In 1012 he established the hermit cells at Camaldoli, the seed of the Camaldolese Order, uniting solitary and communal monastic life. He is venerated as a father of renewed eremitical holiness and is patron of Bonarcado. His feast day is June 19.

Saint Juliana Falconieri was born in 1270 into the noble Falconieri family of Florence, where her parents helped fund the great church of Santissima Annunziata, closely linked to the Servite Order. Inspired by her uncle, Saint Alexis Falconieri, one of the seven Servite founders, Juliana embraced a consecrated life while still young. After her father’s death, she received the habit of the Servite Third Order around 1285 from Saint Philip Benizi and lived a hidden life of prayer and service at home until her mother died. In 1305 Juliana and several companions formed a community that became the first convent of the Servite Tertiaries, later known as the Mantellate Sisters. For 35 years she guided them with humble charity, fostering deep devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows and a tireless care for the sick in streets, homes, and hospitals. Tradition recalls a Eucharistic miracle at her death, when the Host could not be received and a cross was found imprinted upon her breast. Venerated for her holiness and compassion, she is a patron for those suffering from disease. Her feast day is June 19.