Saint Romuald

Between 1438 and 1442, Fra Angelico, a Dominican friar, painted one of his most important commissions in Florence, an altarpiece for his own monastery's church, San Marco. The San Marco altarpiece was dismantled and sold in the 19th century. The central panel and predella scenes are now in the church museum, but the eight small panels of standing saints representing other monastic orders, which originally decorated side pilasters of the polyptych, were dispersed.  Saint Romuald (950-1027) founded the Camaldolese order of monks, a austere branch of the Benedictines. He is represented with a book and reed staff in the form of a cross, signifying his wisdom and strict adherence to the Christian life.