Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists)
FATHER ROMANO BOTTEGAL
(1921-1978)
Version en français
Versión española
Romano Donato Bottegal was born in 1921 in the town of San Donato de Lamon, in the region of Belluno in northern Italy. The Bottegal family was poor and he was the second of six children. Throughout his life Romano would encourage his family to put up with their harsh economic condition in a spirit of peaceful trust in Providence.
After finishing primary school, little Romano entered the minor seminary of Feltre, then passed to the major seminary of Belluno. The assistant rector of the major seminary was Father Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I, who was very fond of Romano and has left us a remarkable letter of appreciation for him. When he was 18, Romano made a perpetual vow of chastity. During his years of theological studies a solid monastic vocation was beginning to appear, but his superiors and spiritual directors advised him to wait for priestly ordination, which he received on June 29, 1946.
Immediately after his ordination he left his diocese and entered the Abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome, where he made solemn profession in 1951. He studied at the Gregorian University and it was there, in 1953, that he obtained his licentiate in theology. Back at his monastery he was appointed Father Master of the Laybrothers, Cantor, then Novice Director and Prior.
In 1961 he accepted the invitation of the Abbot of Latroun, in Israel, who was looking for volunteers to make a Trappist foundation of the Maronite Rite in Lebanon. Romano received permission from his superiors to take part in this project, which was being prepared at Latroun. It was there that he began studying Arabic, Syriac and the Liturgy of the Eastern Churches. However, the Lebanon project was not approved by the General Chapter of the Order and had to be abandoned. So it was that, in December 1963, Father Romano returned to Tre Fontane where the Abbot, aware of his monk’s serious monastic commitment, deep interiority and proved virtue, gave him permission to live as a hermit on the property.
A short time late a new superior of Tre Fontane was named, one who thought he should not permit Romano’s experience of solitude near his community. By then, however, Romano had become certain of being called by the Lord to a more solitary and austere form of life, so he asked and obtained an indult of exclaustration "to live as a hermit under the responsibility (ad nutum) of the Holy See." After searching for a suitable place, he left for Lebanon, put himself under the authority of the Melkite bishop of Baalbeeck and lived as a hermit at Jabbouleh, in a hermitage on a piece of land belonging to the diocese. It was there that he passed the last years of his life: in great austerity, eating very little, with no heating, furniture or material comforts.
He maintained good relations with some of the brothers at Tre Fontane and with his former superiors, always concerned with the good of the community. His style was serene and clear, an expression of the peaceful sensitivity and love with which his pure soul was full. His penances had not hardened him, even though he was faithful to them to the end, nor did he lose his good practical sense and easy-going manner. On the contrary, he was always happy, smiling, attractive, tender, full of good humor. All the witnesses speak of his joy and of how the presence of God shone on his face. Undoubtedly this was also the fruit of certain mystical experiences which he kept as a well-guarded secret, but which are evident in his "Personal Notes".
Father Romano lived among Moslems. He loved them deeply, prayed for them and forgave them. One night he was arrested by Syrian soldiers as they plundered and destroyed his hermitage, but was freed at once by their Moslem commander who asked the monk to pray for him. Romano used to say that the best apostolate among Moslems was a life of poverty, prayer and work, and that his mission among them was to live alone but close to them, to be poorer than they are, to help them and love them. The neighboring peasants wondered how he could stand up under such a life and admitted that it was thanks to his presence that God blessed them.
Father Romano’s light was put out on February 19, 1978, in the General Hospital of Beirut. He was 56 years old, sick with tuberculosis, worn down by his austerities after 32 years of monastic life, 14 of which were as a hermit. A monastic center is being built now beside his hermitage, to continue his work of prayer and contemplation.
The General Chapters of 1999 voted in favor of introducing the cause of his beatification. In October of 2000, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith gave its permission, Nihil obstat, for continuing this process.
Return to: Saints, Blesseds and Martyrs