Saint Romula

When I went to seclude myself in a monastery, there was a very elderly woman named Redempta who lived in this city of Rome; having renounced all the pomps of the world, she had donned a religious habit to serve God with greater perfection and holiness in a place she had chosen near the church of the holy Virgin (this is the church of Saint Mary Major). She had received the first principles of virtue in the school of another holy woman named Herundina, who is said to have ended her days in a solitude she had fashioned for herself in the mountains of Palestine, after having led there a life more angelic than human. Redempta chose two companions for her retreat, who, animated by the same spirit, considered themselves happy to wear a habit like hers and to live with her in the same practices of piety. One of these pious virgins was named Romula; as for the other, who is still alive, it is true that I know he r by s Romule Roman virgin of the 6th century, disciple of Saint Redempta. ight, but I do not know her name. They lived, therefore, all three in the same house, where they lived in great poverty of worldly goods and in great contempt for the vanities of the world, while they made new efforts every day to enrich themselves with the treasures of grace and to adorn their souls with the rarest virtues of Christianity.

It is true that Romula walked with such great strides on the path of perfection that she soon surpassed her companion. She possessed admirable patience; her obedience was without example; she loved retreat and silence extremely, and her most pleasant and ordinary occupation was prayer. But most often God still finds stains and defects in those souls that men already believe to be entirely holy and perfect, and His most ordinary conduct toward His elect is to purify them through the fire of suffering and the cross; He permitted this illustrious virgin to fall into a paralysis which, having entirely taken away the free use of her limbs, reduced her for several years to a bed, crippled and immobile, without, however, in the violence and length of the ailment, letting herself give way to the slightest movement of impatience. She knew so well how to profit from her illness that, as much as she lacked strength for outward actions, she had that much fervor for applying herself to the interior life and the exercise of prayer.

Such eminent holiness could not long remain without bursting forth in some great miracle. It happened one night that Romula called Redempta with these words, equally tender and urgent: 'My mother, come! My mother, come!' Redempta, who had always had as much love for Romula and her companion as if they had been her own children, rose immediately, and, having taken this same companion with her, they went together into the sick woman's room. While they were by her bedside to assist her, although it was in the dead of night, a great light appeared which filled the whole cell, and whose splendor was so surprising that it threw them into terror and made them tremble in their whole bodies, as I knew from that time by the testimony they gave me of it. But their fright was greatly increased when, at the same moment, they heard a certain noise as of a crowd of people entering the room; for the door was moved and beaten, as when people press to see who will pass first. Indeed, they were entering: but they could not see the persons who were entering; the excess of fear had troubled their sight, and the great brightness of the light had dazzled them. Shortly after, a scent so pleasant and sweet spread throughout the cell that it calmed their fear and terror. Nevertheless, they could not yet bear the brilliance of this light, which did not diminish any of its initial strength: that is why Romula, who wished to give complete consolation to Redempta, whom she always considered as her mistress in the spiritual life, said to her in a voice full of tenderness: 'My mother, fear nothing, I am not yet dying.' Then this light dissipated little by little; but the scent remained for the following two days in all its sweetness.

« On the fourth day, Romula called her dear mistress a second time, and begged her to have the holy Viaticum given to her, which she received with great devotion. Redempta and her companion had not yet withdrawn when they heard an admirable music taking place in the square, opposite the door of the house; they noticed that this concert was composed of voices of both sexes, that the men formed one choir and the women another, and that they answered each other alternately with chords full of charm. While the angels celebrated these pompous obsequies, Romula rendered her beautiful soul to God, which was carried away by these two heavenly choirs: as they moved away from the earth, the voices were lost insensibly by becoming softer and more delicate, until finally nothing more was heard at all of this marvelous symphony, and the sweet odor, which had embalmed the cell of our illustrious afflicted one, also ceased to be felt ».

This is what Saint Gr egory writes o saint Grégoire Pope contemporary to Saint Psalmodius. f her, citing as a witness one of his fellow priests named Speciosus; and the Reverend Father Louis of Granada did not forget this example in the *Guide for Sinners*, where he demonstrates the advantages of the death of the just over that of the impious.

The body of Saint Romula was carried to the church of Saint Mary Major, where it rests with that of her pious mi stress R Rédempte Roman religious, spiritual mistress of Saint Romula. edempta, as observed by Cardinal Baroniu cardinal Baronius Disciple of Philip, historian and cardinal, author of the Annales ecclesiastici. s in his *Annals* and in his learned *Remarks on the Roman Martyrology*, where mention is made of these three Saints: Romula, Redempta, and Herundina.

She is depicted listening to a concert given to her by the angels at the moment of her death.

Ribadeneira.