<p><em>Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, Prior</em></p>

<p>For a tiny little congregation of monks we sure do lay claim to a lot of great saints. Of course Pope Saint Gregory the Great was not a monk in the Romualdian tradition, but we did inherit some very nice property from him––San Andrea on the Caelian Hill is now the Camaldolese monastery of San Gregorio Magno. Gregory the Great (540–604) was the son of a Roman senator. He himself served for a time as prefect of the city of Rome, but eventually sold his vast property and gave the money to the poor. He founded seven monasteries, six in Sicily and one in Rome, which he joined himself. After some years of monastic life, the Pope forced him out to be one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome and then to be the <em>apocrisiarius</em> at the Imperial Court of Constantinople. He got to back to his monastery in Rome only to serve as abbot there for a short while before he was elevated to the papacy. And then went on to have an astounding career as a statesman, pastor, teacher, writer and reformer.</p>
