BENEDETTINI VALLOMBROSANI. – Monks of the Benedictine Order who took their name from the Abbey of Vallombrosa, founded around 1036 in Tuscany by s. Giovanni Gualberto (v.), who initiated the new monastic Congregation and trained the monks in the struggle for the freedom of the Church, the sanctification of the clergy, the restoration of observance in the cloisters, and good morals among the people.
The new institution spread rapidly in Tuscany, the Romagna, and other provinces of northern Italy, as well as in France, Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily, so that by 1253 there were as many as 79 abbeys and 29 priories.
At each monastery there was a hospice for travelers and pilgrims, and a place where clerics sent from the various provinces were gathered in order to be prepared for the priesthood. The B. V. heresy. S. Giovanni Gualberto introduced into Benedictine monasticism in Italy an innovation hitherto unknown: namely, the distinction between monks and lay brothers, and he established a central government whereby all the monasteries and abbeys of the Congregation came under the government of a general moderator.
First commendatory appointments and then the suppressions decreed by civil governments caused the Congregation to decline from its former splendor, just as the entire Benedictine Order had declined for the same reasons. But, after the storm of the French Revolution, with the old stock blossoming anew into life, the B. V. too are experiencing a promising revival.
At the same time as the male Congregation, s. Giovanni Gualberto also founded the Vallombrosan nuns, to whom he gave, in addition to the Rule of s. Benedetto, constitutions of their own. The first monastery arose in 1066 or 1067 opposite Vallombrosa, in a place called Corte di Cavriglia, through the work of donna Berta, daughter of Lotario, count of Burgundy, born in Florence around 1020. They lead a life of prayer and work according to the Benedictine ideal, and also devote themselves to teaching. Their monasteries are autonomous under the jurisdiction of the local bishop, whereas before the Council of Trent they were under the jurisdiction of the general abbot or of the nearest abbot.
(future Abbey of Montecassino)