Eremiticae vitae descriptio

A description of the eremitic life.

O nimis felix sacra solitudo, Quis tuas laudes valeat referre, Vita, dulcedo, requies, asylum, Semita portus. Antra deserti coluere sancti, Montibus sylvisque Camaldulenses Nunc Eremitae satagunt beatam Ducere vitam.

Singuli plane rigide seorsum, In suis cellis bene separatis Iugiter degunt, comedunt, et orant Crimina plangunt. Septies templum repetunt silenter, Rite devote celebrant synaxim, Ac Deum laudant, pariter canentes, Nocte dieque.

Si diu solus cupit esse quisquam, Et frui vita penitus remota, Is domi clausus remanet quietus, Celica cernens. Regulam servant pietate multa, Quam tulit Divus Benedictus olim, Postmodum sanctus quoque Romualdus Ordinis auctor.

Hic Ravenatum procerum propago Tesqua, vel saltus coluit rigentes, Gratia, signis meritisque claris Regnat olympo. Appetant omnes nemorum recessus, Labilis temnant bona cuncta mundi, Eligant soli Domino placere His in Eremis.

 

O holy solitude, happy beyond measure,

Who could be worthy to relate thy praises? Thou who art life, 

sweetness, rest and asylum,

path to safe haven.

Once the saints cultivated caves in the desert,

Now the Camaldolese, on mountains and in forests, 

Are occupied, diligent, busy with leading, 

The blest life of hermits.

Each on equal footing, strictly and in private,

Keeps to his own cell, widely separated,

Yet joined to the others-all eating or praying,

Or mourning offences.

Seven times in silence they go forth to their temple, 

Duly and devoutly to celebrate, assembled, 

They praise God, as but with one voice chanting, 

At night and in daytime.

If one of them longs for more time in seclusion,

Wanting to enjoy a life of full removal,

Thinks only of heaven, Shut up as a recluse,

he with quite discernment.

They keep the Rule with a very pious observance, 

That Rule that so long ago, Benedict gave divinely, 

And that Saint Romuald also passed on later, 

In founding the order.

Here once the offspring of Ravenna's nobles,

Cultivated strictly, this wasteland of the forest,

Now by grace of their clear signs and merits,

They reign from heaven.

All should be craving this wooded retirement,

Disdaining all the goods of this world fleeting,

Would that many might choose to please God, and Him only, 

Here in the desert.