GUALBERTO, gwiil-bia,r'to, GIOVAINNI: Florentine nobleman, founder of the Order of Vallombrosa; b. in Florence 985; d. July 12, 1073. According to tradition, his father sent him to avenge the murder of a kinsman, and on Good Friday he found the assassin in a defile. The murderer, however, in his prayer for mercy, raised his arms in the form of a cross, whereupon his life was spared. Gualberto then hastened to the church of the Benedictine monastery of San Miniato near Florence, where he knelt in prayer before the crucifix. In recognition of his act of mercy, the head of Jesus bowed to him, and he then resolved to consecrate himself to the Church and the service of God. In 1038 he became a monk, but before long joined the hermits of Camaldoli (see Cexelrnorrr>,s), only

to leave them shortly afterward.with the intention of founding an order of his own for contemplative piety. With two other hermits, he began the exe' cution of his plane in the valley of Aquabella or Vallombrosa (whence his order was to take its name) near Camaldoli, and there he was soon joined by others. Gualberto's order won such approval that it soon attained considerable strength, and was divided by its founder into religious, lay brothers, and laity, the second class being apparently first introduced by him. At the time of the founder's death, the order possessed seven monasteries, and when be was canonized by Celeatine III. in 1193 they had increased to about sixty, all in Italy, except the French abbey of Corneillac near Or l6ans. A reform in the discipline of the order, which had become lax, was begun by Eugenius IV. and completed by Pius II. in 1463, while from 1662 to 1680 the monks were united with the Sylvee trians. The original habit of the monks of Vallom brosa was gray, but under Abbot Blasius of Milan they assumed a brown habit, which was temporarily changed to black during their union with the Sylveatriana. In the thirteenth century Rosana, Altimonte (Sister Humilitaa; d. 1310) founded at Faenza a female branch of the order of Vallombroea., whose last cloister of San Salvi existed in Florence until 1869.

(O. Zöckler†.)

Bibliography: The early Yitce, with the Miracula and commentary, are in A$B, July, iii. 311-458. Consult also: F. UBhelli, Italia sacra, iii. 294, 10 vols., Venice. 1717-22; O. Delarc, in Rev" des questions historiVes, aliii (1888), b-80: E. Aoerbi, vita di s. Giovanni tTualberto, Florence, 1889; Neander, Christian Church, iii. 398-399. On the order consult: Helyot, Ordru nwnar tiquea, v. 298-321; Heimbucher. Orden und Kongregationen, i. 408-414.