BENEDICTINE CAMALDOLESE — I. CONGREGATION OF HERMIT MONKS
The Camaldolese Congregation arose as a branch of the Benedictine Order in 1012 and has an eminently contemplative character and purpose. It was founded by St Romuald, who, while remaining united to the Benedictine trunk, gave his monasteries and hermitages a distinctive character of their own. The Rule is Benedictine, with particular statutes compiled in 1080 by Rudolph, fourth prior of Camaldoli, based on the teachings of St Romuald. These pertain especially to the relationship between the cenobium and the hermitage, united along the lines of Eastern monasticism, and to the predominantly eremitical purpose of the institute.
Juridically, the Order first took shape around two centres: Camaldoli and Fonte Avellana. Monasteries and hermitages, even those not founded by St Romuald but arising spontaneously or through the work of Popes and bishops, accepted the Rule and the supremacy of the generals; these, however, left each house its autonomy. The relationship between the two centres remained one of simple fraternal charity until the 16th century.
Thanks especially to St Peter Damian and his immediate successors, Fonte Avellana rose to great prosperity, and a large number of Avellan monks were elected to episcopal sees, particularly in the Marches and Umbria. In 1325, however, the hermitage—transformed, contrary to the founders’ intention, into an abbey—declined; soon after, the system of commendation hastened its decline, until Pius V reunited it with Camaldoli in 1569.
No less than Fonte Avellana, Camaldoli soon acquired great renown, both for the holiness of its monks and for the many papal and imperial privileges that acknowledged its supremacy over vast territories, monasteries, and churches. In the 12th–14th centuries it counted hundreds of dependencies. This was the golden age of holiness, development, and unified governance; but from the 15th century onward, owing to political upheavals, ambitions, and above all the system of commendation, Camaldoli also declined, and not a few monasteries that then separated from the centre eventually died out.
In the second half of the 15th century, in opposition to commendation, smaller groupings began to form, which unfortunately led to deeper divisions. Thus in 1521, through the work of the Blessed Paul Giustiniani, the Congregation of Hermits of Monte Corona was established with full independence and still flourishes today. A century later, the cenobitic branch withdrew from the hermitage, forming an autonomous Congregation; finally, in the 16th century the Piedmontese Congregation arose, which in turn gave birth to the French Congregation. These subdivisions, while aiding the spread of the institute, weakened its structure. The Piedmontese and Gallican Congregations disappeared in the Napoleonic storm, and the Cenobites, by the constitution *Inter religiosos* of 9 July 1935, were reunited with Camaldoli, restoring the characteristic union of the Romualdine institution: monastery and hermitage.
Over ten centuries, the Camaldolese Order earned many and great merits, both in the realm of holiness and in that of learning and the arts. To these must be added its contributions to agriculture and especially forestry; the great forests of Camaldoli were the work of many generations of monks. Likewise, the archives and libraries of Camaldoli, Fonte Avellana, San Michele di Murano, and Sant’Apollinare in Classe gathered immense treasures of documents and codices. A cenacle of artists and scholars was Santissima Maria degli Angeli in Florence, and Camaldoli hosted the first Neoplatonic academies, bringing together in the second half of the 15th century such great Florentine humanists as Ficino, Alberti, and Rucellai. Other academies later arose at Avellana and Sant’Apollinare in Classe. From the outset, almost every Camaldolese monastery had a hospital for the poor attached to it; at Pisa they founded the first hospice for foundlings.
Many were the saints and blesseds, including St Peter Damian, a Pope (Gregory XVI), many cardinals and bishops; writers such as Ambrogio Traversari, Niccolò Malermi, and Mitteralli; the monk-artists Lorenzo and Bartolomeo della Gatta; the cosmographer Fra Mauro; scientists such as Grandi, Soldani, and Piccolomini; not to mention the two great figures Guido d’Arezzo and Gratian.
Bernardo Ignesti
II. CONGREGATION OF CAMALDOLESE HERMITS OF MONTE CORONA
This is a branch of the Camaldolese family that separated in 1523 through the work of the Blessed Paul Giustiniani (d. 1528) in order to observe more strictly the Rule and customs of the Order. At first the Congregation was called the Company of Hermits of St Romuald; later it took its name from the hermitage of Monte Corona (Perugia), where in 1730 it established its seat. It reached its greatest development in the 18th century with 23 hermitages in Italy, 7 in Poland, and 5 in Austria-Hungary. The religious policies of Joseph II first, and then the Napoleonic government, caused almost all the hermitages to disappear. Monte Corona itself was suppressed under the anti-clerical laws of the Italian state.
Today there are only nine hermitages: six in Italy, two in Poland, and one in Spain, with about 200 monks.