Saints Romuald and Bruno

St. Romuald (951 -1027) brought the semi-eremitical of the Middle Eastern deserts ideal back to the Western Church. Born into a noble family, he fled from the world in horror when his father killed a relative in a duel. Romuald was tonsured in a monastery near Ravenna, but then left it and became a hermit. His ascetic life impressed his father so much, so his father repented and became a monk. The bush of blossomed roses symbolizes transformation that happens to men with God’s Grace. A plant that grows in the shade and hides from the sun never blossoms. Once barbed ivy receiving sun rays, it becomes a bush of flowers.

St Bruno (1030-1101) brought the semi eremitical ideal to the West in a more clerical and organized way. He is often pictured with a skull in his hand. The observation of the skull helped him to meditate and remain faithful to his vocation. He wrote in one of his letters: only those who have experienced it themselves know how much benefit and divine joy brings the solitude and silence of the monastery to those who ardently surrender to its rules. The strong are given the opportunity to immerse themselves in themselves, diligently developing virtue and eating the fruits of God's grace. Here you become so sharp-sighted that a look full of love for the Bridegroom, uncomplicated by nothing, allows you to see God. Here you are in active peace and rest in quiet activity. Here God bestows the most enduring treasured reward: peace, which the world does not know, and joy in the Holy Spirit.