Faroald II of Spoleto

Faroald II of Spoleto (Faruald) was the Lombard duke of Spoleto in Umbria from 703 or 705 until 719 or 720, and died as a monk in the year 728. In the West he is commemorated as blessed on 23 March.

He was the son of Transamund I, whom he succeeded; according to Paul the Deacon he shared the rule with Wachilap, Transamund's brother. Around 716 he took the Byzantine port of Classis, near Ravenna, on his own authority, but had to give it back at the order of King Liutprand. He founded and endowed the monastery of San Pietro in Valle at Ferentillo. In 719 or 720 his son Transamund II rebelled, took the duchy and made him a cleric, that is, banished him to a monastery.

His later fate is not certain. It is said that he withdrew as a monk to San Pietro in Valle, the Benedictine abbey he had founded, and died there in 728. Another legend tells that he rebuilt the abbey of Farfa for Saint Thomas of Maurienne, entered it as a monk as early as 720 after a vision of the Mother of God, and died in it on 19 February 728.