Saint Romanus of Condat

Romanus was born in 390 in Izernore, in what is now eastern France, and his parents sent him to study at the monastery of Ainay, in Lyon. There Abbot Sabinus put two books in his hands that changed his way of thinking: a *Life of the Desert Fathers* and Cassian’s *Institutes*. From that moment on he wanted only one thing: to be a hermit. At thirty-five he withdrew into the forests of the Jura, to a place called Condat. He settled under a great solitary pine whose branches sheltered him from the rain, and he lived on wild fruit and water from a spring nearby. He had brought a spade and some seeds with him: he sowed, and the harvests were enough for him. After a few years his brother Lupicinus, who had been widowed, joined him. And here is the episode that makes the whole story. The two lost heart. The Jura is cold and damp, and the Desert Fathers they wanted to imitate had chosen somewhere hot and dry: the hardship was something else entirely. They decided to give up and left. After a day’s walk they stopped at a farmhouse and asked a woman for hospitality. It was she, that woman whose name we don’t even know, who persuaded them to go back. They went back. From that return came the monasteries of Condat, Lauconne and Romainmôtier, and the convent for women at La Balme. Romanus died in 463. If your name is Roman or Romana, today is your name day. Two men who were about to quit, and a stranger who sends them back where they belong. Sometimes what saves us is someone who has nothing to do with it and sees things clearly.