Romuald (; 951 – traditionally 19 June, c. 1025/27 AD)The traditional year of his death, given as 1027, rests entirely on testimony by Guido Grandi (died 1742), a hagiographical forger, who stated that he had seen the date in documents: see Tabacco 1942, preface:liv. was the founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century "Renaissance of eremitical asceticism".John Howe, "The Awesome Hermit: The Symbolic Significance of the Hermit as a Possible Research Perspective", Numen 30.1 (July 1983:106-119) p 106, noting Ernst Werner, Pauperi Christi: Studien zu socialreligiosen Bewegungen in Zeitalter des ersten Kreuzzuges (Leipzig) 1956; Howe also notes the contemporary examples of Peter the Hermit, leader of a crusade; Norbert of Xanten, founder of the Praemostratensians, and Henry of Lausanne, declared a heretic. Romuald spent about 30 years traversing Italy, founding and reforming monasteries and hermitages.
