St. Romuald

After witnessing his father kill a relative in a duel over property, St. Romuald found refuge in a monastery to seek penance for his father and his own previous worldly sins. After 40 days in the monastery, Romuald felt called to become a monk of strict observance. He spent 10 years learning about the life of monks and the history of monasticism before then dedicating himself to traveling around Italy for the rest of his life founding and reforming monasteries. St. Romuald founded the Camaldolese, a religious order that combined elements of monasticism and eremitism (monasticism lived in solitude as a hermit), and died in 1027. “Better to pray one psalm with devotion and compunction than a hundred with distraction.” -St. Romuald