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ROMANUS
ROMANUS
ROMANUS (7), a solitary, born andbrought up at Rhosus, who retired to a cell onthe mountains near Antioch, where he passedhis life to extreme old age practising the utmostausterities, denying himself fire and lamp light,and taking no more food than would barelysupport existence. Theodoret describes him asconspicuous for simplicity and meekness, attract-ing large numbers to his cell by the beauty ofhis character, over whom he exercised a salutaryinfluence. He was accredited with miraculouspower in curing diseases and removing barren-ness (Theod. Hist. Relig. c. xi.). [E. VJ
ROMANUS (8), priest and abbat, founderof Monasterium Condatescense and others in theJura mountains, c. A.D. 489. Gregory of Tours(Vitae Patrum , c. 1, in Migne, Pat. Lai. t. lxxi.col. 1011 sq.) gives an account Be Lupicino atqueM’omano abb., and the Bollandists ( Acta SS. Feb.iii. 743 sq.) add another Life of Romanus that issaid to be written by a contemporary monk ofCondat: their comment, praev. contains thenotices in the Martyrologies. His acts are veryclosely related to those of his brother Lupicinus[Ltjpicinus (6) ]. He is said to have been ofa milder disposition than his brother, and tohave wrought miracles, for which after his deathhis burial-place became a famous place of pil-grimage. His feast is Feb. 28 (Fleury, II. E.xxix. c. 40; Tillemont, H. E. xvi. 142 sq., 743sq.; Hist. Litt. de la France , iii. 60 sq., 73 sq.;Ceillier, Aut. Sacr. x. 610, xi. 379). [J. G.]
ROMANUS (9), ST. A celebrated and prolifichymn writer of the Eastern Church, by whichhe is commemorated on Oct 1st. He is said tohave written more than 1000 hymns, of thekind called KOvraKia. There is reason to thinkthat he was the inventor of this form of hymn,and that it derives its somewhat disputed namefrom the legend as to its origin, which is to befound in the Synaxasion of St. Romanus’s day(Menaea , Oct. 1st). This legend is to the effectthat the Blessed Virgin appeared to him, andcommanded him to eat a roll (kovt&kiov) whichshe gave him, and that, obeying, he found him-self endowed with the power of composinghymns. If he was the first who wrote Kovrauia,it is an argument in favour of the opinion (inwhich Pitra and the Bollandists agree) whichplaces him in the reign of Anastasius I. (491-518) rather than of Anastasius II. (713—719).W. Christ, who takes the later date, supportshis opinion by pointing to certain words andphrases which appear inconsistent with theearlier date. But Pitra does not think thedifficulties which these raise sufficient to inducehim to assign so elegant and forcible a writer tothe 8th century.
Of the life of the saint we know nothingexcept from the Menaea, and what we learnthere contradicts many statements which laterwriters have made (see Pitra, Anal. Sacr.Spicil. Solesm. I. xxvi. n.). He appears to havebeen born at Gruesa, to have been a deacon atBerytus, and afterwards attached to the churchesof Blachemae and of Cyrus at Constantinople.Pitra, in the first volume of his Analecta, hascollected several poems which he sees reason toattribute to the saint, and expresses a confidenthope that more of his works will before long bediscovered or identified. [II. A. W.]
ROMANUS (10), archimandrite of a monas-tery at Eleutheropolis, in Palestine, in the begin-ning of the 6th century, in succession toMamas (2), like whom he is said to have thereindoctrinated Severus of Sozopolis in Euty-chianism (Liberatus Diac. Brev. c. 19 in Mi<mePat. Lat. t. lxviii. 1033). [j. §.]*
ROMANUS (11), monk, who alone knew ofSt. Benedict’s retreat in the cave at Subiaco, andfed him with food swung over the cliff by a ropewith a bell attached [Benedictus of Nursia](Greg. M. Dial. ii. 1 ; Vit. S. Benedict i, Prol.in Migne, Pat. Lat. t. lxvi. 127 sqq.; Ceillier,Aut. Sacr. xi. 156). [J. G.]
ROMANUS (12), exarch of Ravenna, ap-pointed some time before the middle of a.d. 590(Letter to King Childebert, m Troya, Cod. Dipl. i.66), carried on the war against the Lombardswith vigour, aided by the Frankish army sentby Ciiildebeut II. He retook Altinum, Modena,and Mantua, the Franks penetrated to Verona,Authari, the Lombard king, was obliged to shuthimself up in Pavia, and the Lombard dukeswho held Parma, Reggio,and Piacenza, surrenderedwithout fighting, as did Gisulf in Istria. Theravages of disease among the Franks, however,compelled theii commander to conclude a tenmonths’ truce, of which Romanus bitterly com-plained (Troya, l 63). Romanus, c. 592, marchedto Rome and captured several of the towns inthat part of Italy, including Perugia, which wasbetrayed to him. Perugia was soon, however,recovered by king Agilulf, who advanced to thewalls of Rome, and took many prisoners, some ofwhom were sold as slaves to the Franks, andothers sent into the city with their hands cutoff (Gregorius, Horn. in Ezechiel., ii. preface, and10 in Migne, Patr. Lat. lxxvi. 934, 1072).Gregory complained bitterly of the defencelessstate in which Romanus left Rome, withdrawingmost of the troops to garrison Perugia and otheroutlying towns, while those that remained wereunpaid, and could hardly be persuaded to dotheir duty The exarch would neither concludea general peace, nor allow Gregory to make aseparate one for the duchy of Rome ( Epp . ii. 10,v. 40). In a letter to Sebastianus of Sirmium,he expresses himself freely against Romanus,declaring that the oppressive conduct of himselfand his subordinates was more grievous thanthe Lombard swords (Epp. v. 42). In a.d. 595,Agilulf became more inclined for a general peace(Epp . v. 36), or if this were impossible, to makea separate peace with Gregory, but none wasmade till after thedeath of Romanus (Paulus Diac.iv. 12), which probably happened c. 596 or 7,as in the summer of 597, Gregory alludes to thearrival of one Callinicus, probably the newexarch (Epp. vii. 29). There are several lettersfrom Gregory to Romanus; in one (i. 33) hedemands that Blandus, bishop of Ortona, whohad been long imprisoned by him, should betried by a synod without delay, in another(v. 24) he warns him to desist from protectingthe priest Speciosus in his resistance to hisbishop, and from supporting certain nuns, whohad left their nunnery. (Ersch and Gruber,Encycl. xxxix. 314.) [F. D.]
ROMANUS (13), defensor, is mentioned inseveral letters of Gregory the Great, and no less