An order founded by St. Romuald, and Italian fanatic, in the eleventh century. The manner of life he enjoined his disciples to observe was this:
They dwelt in separate cells, and met together only at the time of prayer. Some of them, during the two Lents in the year, observed an inviolable silence, and others for the space of a hundred days. On Sundays and Thursdays they fed on herbs, and the rest of the week only on bread and water.