John Gualbert, Saint (GIOVANNI GUALBERTO, SANTO) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VI, p. 390

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

GIOVANNI GUALBERTO, saint. - Founder of the Vallombrosan Order, born in Florence in the final decades of the 10th century (985, or more likely 995) from the noble family of the Visdomini, died on July 12, 1073 in the monastery of S. Michele Arcangelo in Passignano, near Florence, and buried there.

Article illustration — GIOVANNI GUALBERTO, saint - Detail of a fresco by Raffaellino del Garbo (early 16th century) - Vallombrosa, monastery church.

It appears he was created a knight of the Empire by Henry II. Having met one day, perhaps on Good Friday, the killer of a relative or, according to another tradition, of his own brother Ugo, he granted the forgiveness that the adversary, on his knees, begged for the sake of Christ's Passion. Shortly thereafter, in the church of S. Miniato, he saw the Crucifix bow its head repeatedly as a sign of approval for the heroic act, and he decided to become a Benedictine monk.

Having left there shortly after due to the disorders he encountered, he took refuge in the hermitage of Camaldoli, where he met its founder, St. Romuald of Ravenna. Here in prayer he understood that the Lord was calling him to found a new congregation to combat the scourge of simony and Nicolaitane heresy. He therefore retired with some companions, around 1030, to a wooded basin of Mount Pratomagno called Acqua Bella, later Valle Ombrosa, leading a hermit's life there for a few years. In 1038 he founded the monastery of Vallombrosa here and gave his monks the Rule of St. Benedict with his own statutes. G. was the first founder who welcomed lay brothers into the Congregation and united several monasteries under a single abbot general. Following Vallombrosa, shortly after came the foundations of S. Salvi, Moscheta, and Passignano, alongside houses for the poor and the sick.

He had to struggle fiercely against the simoniacal Pietro Mezzabarba, archbishop of Florence, who in revenge had the monastery of S. Salvi burned down and its monks killed. He was canonized by Celestine III in 1193.

BIBL.: BHL, I, 651-52; Acta SS. Iulii, III, Paris 1867, pp. 297-433; M. Heimbucher, Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche, 3rd ed., I, Paderborn 1933, pp. 320-322; S. Casini, Storia di s. G. G. fiorentino, 2nd ed., Florence 1934.

Ulderico Vicentini