Theobald of Provins was a 11th-century French Benedictine monk and hermit born into the nobility of Champagne. After declining a life of military service or courtly politics, he chose a path of asceticism, traveling alongside a companion to undertake pilgrimages to Rome and eventually toward the Holy Land. He spent his final years in Italy, where he joined a group of hermits led by Romuald, the founder of the Camaldolese order, and was later ordained as a priest by the Bishop of Vicenza.