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Camaldolese
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Camaldolese are part of the Benedictine family of monastic communities which follow the way of life outlined in the Rule of St. Benedict, written in the 6th century.
The Camaldolese branch was established through the efforts of the Italian monk Saint Romuald in the early 11th century. His reform sought to renew and integrate different dimensions of monastic life.
In his youth Romuald became acquainted with the three major schools of western monastic tradition. His first monastery, Sant' Apollinare in Classe was a traditional Benedictine community under the influence of the Cluniac reforms. His later master, Marinus, followed a much harsher, ascetic hermit lifestyle that was originially of Irish eremitic origins. Some years later Romuald settled near the Abbey of Sant Miguel de Cuxa, where Abbot Guarinus also began reforms but mainly building upon the Hispanian Christian tradition. Leaning on his early experiences Romuald was able to establish his own monastic order.
Nearly a thousand years ago, Saint Romuald founded the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli, high in the mountains of central Italy, near the city of Arezzo. There are Camaldolese hermitages and monasteries throughout Italy. The most ancient is the urban monastery originally established by Saint Gregory the Great in the heart of Rome in the sixth century.
The order is currently divided into two autonomous congregrations. The one headquartered at Camaldoli maintains a mix of monasteries and hermitages among the communities of men. The other, known as the Congregation of Monte Corona, was established by the Renaissance reformer, Saint Paul Giustiniani. This group lives solely in hermitages, usually with a very small number of monks comprising the community. Unlike the other congregation, it is not a member of the larger Benedictine Confederation.
The Camaldolese order extended its presence to the United States in 1958, with the founding of the New Camaldoli Hermitage in the Santa Lucia mountains of Big Sur, California. It was joined in 1959 by Holy Family Hermitage, Bloomingdale, Ohio, belonging to the monks of Monte Corona. Additional U.S. Camaldolese monasteries are Incarnation Monastery in Berkeley, California, and Transfiguration Monastery, for women, located in Windsor, New York. There are also Camaldolese communities in Poland, France, India, Brazil, Colombia and Tanzania.
In the Kingdom of Hungary four Camaldolese monasteries were established: Zobor Hill (1695), Lánzsér (1701), Vöröskolostor (1710) and Majk (1733). In 1782 Joseph II ordered the dissolution of every monastic order that in his view didn't pursue useful activities. Camaldolese monasteries were secularized.
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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.
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.
Realize above all that you are in God's presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor.
Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him.
Bielany (Warsaw) and Bielany (Krakow) - locations of two Camaldolese monasteries in Poland