Post by Maria Angela Grow

June 28 Blessed Paolo Giustiniani ECMC (Tommaso Giustiniani) Priest, Monk and Founder of the Congregation of the Camaldolese Hermits of Monte Corona, Reformer. 1476-1528 Patronage: Society of Saint Romuald. . He was a member of the noble Giustiniani family of Venice and was born there in 1476, the son of Francesco Giustiniani and Paola Malipiero. He studied theology, philosophy and law, at the University of Padua. when he had completed his studies, in 1507, he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and upon his return he felt a call to follow the life of a the religious. . He joined the Order of the Camàldula, the Camaldolese, in 1510. The superior of the order, Pietro Delfino, asked him to assist in ending the irregularities that existed in some communities of the order, caused by the autonomy of each house and the lack of authority of the Prior General. Especially, the conventual branch (of cenobitic life) had relaxed in the application of the rule. In 1513, Pope Leo X, at the request of Giustiniani and Delfino, convened a General Chapter of the Camaldolese that decided the creation of the united congregation of the Sacred Hermitage and San Michele de Murano, with temporary general Priors and with a balance between the Conventual and Hermit branches. . In 1516 he was elected Prior of the Hermitage of Camaldoli until 1520 and in 1518 he was Ordained a Priest. Desiring a more hermit-like type of life and faithful to the primitive rule of the order, he obtained from Pope Leo X, permission to found other communities, which would follow the original rule of St Romuald. Pope Leo X granted him the necessary permission and allowed him to found a differentiated congregation, free from the jurisdiction of the Camaldolese Prior General and with its own constitutions, called the Company of Hermits of Saint Romuald, which would later be the Congregation of the Camaldolese Hermits of Monte Corona. This Order would come to considered as the most faithful expression of the original Charism of the Order of St Romuald. . On his return from Rome with permission, Giustiniani resigned as Prior and with a companion, Oliverio da Cortona, went to seek the spiritual guidance of a Hermit who lived in Monte Corona, near Perugia. Together with a Dominican, they went to live alone in a place in the Apennines, Pascialupo, where they lived in a Chapel and in 1521 founded the Hermitage of Monte Cucco. . Paolo was left alone with the Camaldolese monk who had accompanied him, as the other companion did not want to adopt the rule of St Romuald. The monks of Camaldoli asked him to be closer to them and he soon moved to a Hermitage near Massaccio, where he was joined by other monks of Camaldoli. These first Hermitages were followed by those of Cupramontana, San Leonardo de Monte Volubrio (diocese of Fermo) and San Benedetto de Monte Conero, near Ancona... https://lnkd.in/e7Pj53NR