The founder, a Florentine named
John Gualbert, a member of the prominent Visdomini family, was born in the year 985 or 995. His brother was murdered, and it was his duty was to avenge the deceased. He met the murderer in a narrow lane on Good Friday and was about to slay him, but when the man threw himself upon the ground with arms outstretched in the form of a cross and begged mercy for the love of Christ, John forgave him. The name "Vallombrosa" means "shady glen".
Mabillon estimates its foundation at a little before 1038. Here, it is said, that John and his first companions lived for some years as
hermits, but this is rejected by Martène as inconsistent with the reason for leaving Camaldoli. The chronology of the early days of Vallombrosa has been much disputed. The dates given for the founder's conversion vary between 1004 and 1039, and a Vallumbrosan writer places his arrival at Vallombrosa as early as 1008. The church was consecrated by
Rotho,
Bishop of Paderborn, in 1038, and Itta, the abbess of the neighbouring monastery of Sant' Ellero, donated the site of the new foundation in 1039. The abbess retained the privilege of nominating the superiors, but this right was granted to the monks by
Pope Victor II, who confirmed the order in 1056. Two centuries later, in the time of
Pope Alexander IV, the nunnery was united with Vallombrosa in spite of the protests of the nuns. is now that of other Benedictines.
Development After the founder's death, the order spread rapidly. A
bull of
Urban II in 1090, which took Vallombrosa under the protection of the
Holy See, enumerated 15 monasteries aside from the motherhouse. Twelve more are mentioned in a bull of
Paschal II in 1115, and 24 others in those of
Anastasius IV (1153) and
Adrian IV (1156). By the time of
Innocent III, they numbered over 60. All were situated in Italy, except two monasteries in Sardinia (now part of Italy). In 1090,
Peter Igneus founded the
Abbey of Santa Maria in Montepiano in Tuscany. In 1087, Andrew of Vallombrosa (d. 1112) founded the monastery of Cornilly in the
Diocese of Orléans, and in 1093 the Abbey of
Chezal-Benoît, which later became the head of a considerable Benedictine congregation. There are no grounds for the legend given by some writers of the order of a great Vallombrosan congregation in France with an abbey near Paris, founded by King St. Louis. The Vallombrosan congregation was reformed in the middle of the fifteenth century by
Cassinese Benedictines, and again by
John Leonardi at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Certain abbeys, headed by that of San Salvi of Florence, had formed a separate congregation. In 1485, these were reunited to the motherhouse by
Innocent VIII. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, an attempt was made by
Abbot-General Milanesi to found a house of studies on university lines at Vallombrosa; but in 1527 the monastery was burned by the troops of
Emperor Charles V. It was rebuilt by Abbot Nicolini in 1637, and in 1634 an observatory was established. From 1662–1680 the order was united to the
Sylvestrines. In 1808
Napoleon I's troops plundered Vallombrosa, and the monastery lay deserted till 1815. It was finally suppressed by the Italian Government in 1866. A few monks still remain to look after the church and meteorological station, but the abbey buildings have become a school of forestry that was founded in 1870 on the German model, the only one of its kind in Italy. Vallombrosa is also a health resort. The decline of the order may be ascribed to the hard fate of the motherhouse, to
the system of commendatory abbots, and to the constant wars which ravaged Italy. Practically all the surviving monasteries were suppressed during the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. ==Rule and functioning==