PAOLO GIUSTINIANI, Bl., (1476–1528), born Tommaso Giustiniani on 14 June into a Venetian family, renewed the eremitic tradition within the Camaldolese order through the foundation of the Congregation of the Camaldolese Hermits of Monte Corona.

After studies in theology, philosophy, and law at the University of Padua he felt a call to religious life after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1507, prompting him to renounce his inheritance and enter the (cenobitic) Camaldolese monastery of San Michele di Murano in Venice in 1510.

At the time, there were problems and disagreements in monastic observance between the hermits and monks in Camaldoli, which Prior General Peter Delfino was unable to resolve. Giustiniani was friends with Pope Leo X, who granted Giustiniani the authority to institute reform of the order. He was elected Prior of the hermitage and cenobium of Camaldoli in 1516. In 1520 he published the Regula Vitae Eremiticae.

Opposition to his reforms led him to resign as prior and depart Camaldoli with several followers and establish a hermitage at Monte Cucco in 1521. A second foundation near Massaccio was followed by Cupramontana, San Leonardo de Monte Volubrio (diocese of Fermo) and San Benedetto de Monte Conero, near Ancona.  In 1523 these hermnitages were recognized as the Congregation of Camaldolese Hermits of Monte Corona, a strict reform branch emphasizing solitude, manual labor, and a spirituality ofdivine intimacy.

His reforms addressed broader ecclesiastical issues, influencing early Counter-Reformation efforts by promoting austerity and spiritual renewal amid the challenges posed by Renaissance humanism and moral decline in the Church.  Giustiniani's writings, including his Rule for the Eremetical Life and treatises on ascetic theology and mysticism, blended practical monastic guidance with the notion of solitude as the best path to union with God.

He corresponded with popes and bishops on matters of reform and died on 28 June 1528 at the hermitage of San Silvestro de Monte Soratte from the plague; Although often referred to as Blessed by his followers, he was never beatified. The Monte Corona congregation he exists as a separate order from the Camaldolese Congregation that is part of the Benedictine Confederation.

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