Romano Bottegal

Romano Bottegal (Lamon, 28 December 1921 – Beirut, 19 February 1978) was an Italian religious priest of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance). Bottegal joined the order in the 1940s and lived as a hermit in Lebanon. He studied in Belluno and Rome before he was ordained as a priest and following this lived in Rome among his peers; he moved to Lebanon to oversee a new project there but was forced to return to Rome after it failed. But he was later granted permission to return there in order to live as a hermit where he remained in seclusion until his death.

The beatification process for Bottegal launched in 2000. On 9 December 2013 he became titled as venerable once Pope Francis confirmed that Bottegal had lived a life of heroic virtue.