Saint of the Day – 10 March – Saint Andrew OSB Vall (Died 1097) Abbot of the Vallombrosian Monastery in Strumi in Florence, writer, peacemaker. Born in Parma, Italy and died in 1097 of natural causes in his Monastery in Florence. Also known as – Andrew the Ligurian (or Genoese).
In the mid-11th Century, the Italian City of Milan, was ruled by a corrupt Archbishop named Guido, who took a permissive attitude toward the Ecclesiastical abuses of simony (the buying or selling of Ecclesiastical Offices) and clerical immorality (Priests living with concubines).
Those working to stop these abuses, were led by the Martyred Deacon Saint Arialdo (C1010-1066), supported by his close friend, Andrew, from Parma. The Holy See naturally supported Arialdo and excommunicated the Archbishop himself, charging him with the crime of simony. Guido retaliated by having Arialdo tortured and murdered.
Arialdo’s friend Andrew, attended to his honourable burial, and afterward entered the Vallombrosan Order. He subsequently became the Abbot of the Vallombrosan Monastery of Strumi, where he took up his pen to write a biography of his Martyred friend Arialdo and another of the Vallombrosans’Founder, Saint John Gualbert.
Sadly, most of Andrew’s writings were later lost in a 16th Century fire at the Vallombrosans’ Monastery in Florence. Andrew was a peacemaker, credited with reconciling, in his lifetime, the opposing cities of Florence and Arezzo.
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