CAMALDULIANS, or CAMALDOLESE  , a religious order founded by St Romuald . Born of a noble family at Ravenna c . 950, he retired at the age of twenty to the Benedictine monastery of S . Apollinare in Classe; but being strongly drawn to the eremitical life, he went to live with a hermit in the neighbourhood of Venice and then again near Ravenna . Here a colony of hermits grew up around him and he became the superior . As soon as they were established in their manner of life, Romuald moved to another district and there formed a second settlement of hermits, only to proceed in the same way to the establishment of other colonies of hermits or " deserts " as they were called . In this way during the course of his life Romuald formed a great number of " deserts " throughout central Italy . His chief foundation was at Camaldoli on the heights of the Tuscan Apennines not far from Arezzo, in a vale snow-covered during half the year . Romuald's idea was to reintroduce into the West the primitive eremitical form of monachism, as practised by the first Egyptian and Syrian monks . His monks dwelt in separate huts around the oratory, and came together only for divine service and on certain days for meals . The life was one of extreme rigour in regard to food, clothing, silence and general observance . Besides the hermits there were lay brothers to help in carrying out the field work and rougher occupations .

St Romuald and the

early Camaldolese exercised considerable influence on the religious movements of their, time; the emperors Otto III. and Henry II. esteemed him highly and sought his advice on religious questions . Disciples of St Romuald went on missions to the still heathen parts of Russia, Poland and Prussia, where some of them suffered martyrdom . In his extreme old age St Romuald with twenty-five of his monks started on a missionary expedition to Hungary, but he was unable to accomplish the journey . He died in 1027 . After his death mitigations were gradually introduced into the rule and manner of life; and in the monastery of St Michael in Murano, Venice, the life became cenobitical . From that time to the present day there have always been both eremitical and cenobitical Camaldolese, the latter approximating to ordinary Benedictine life . The Camaldolese spread all over Italy, and into Germany, Poland and France . Camaldoli itself exists as a " desert," the primitive observance of the institute being strictly maintained . There are a few other " deserts," all in Italy, except one in Poland; and there are about 90 hermits . The chief monastery of the cenobitical Camaldolese is S . Gregorio on the Caelian Hill in Rome; they number less than forty . Since the 11th-century there have been Camaldolese nuns; at present there are five nunneries with 1,50 nuns, all belonging to the cenobitical branch of the order .

The

habit of the Camaldulians is white . See Helyot, Hist. des ordres religieux (1792) v. cc . 21-25; Max Heinibucher, Orden and Kongregationen (1896) i . § 29; and the art . " Camaldulenser " in Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon (2nd ed.), and Herzog, Realencyklopddie (3rd ed.) . (E . C .