BRUNO (Brunone), Saint. - Founder of the Carthusians, b. at Cologne of the noble family Hartefaust (Latinized de duro pugno) around 1030, d. at Serra S. Bruno (Catanzaro) on 6 Oct. 1101, he is one of the great figures of the 11th century. As a young man he was sent to the famous school of Reims, where he applied himself to study with ardor. Having returned to Cologne, he was ordained a priest and obtained a canonry in the church of St. Cunibert. In 1057 Gervase, archbishop of Reims, called him to direct that school, an office he held brilliantly for about twenty years, contributing not a little to the renewal of the ecclesiastical spirit. Among his pupils were St. Hugh, later bishop of Grenoble, and the future pope Urban II. The anti-canonical and simoniacal conduct of the notorious Manasses de Gournay, Gervase's successor, who had at first favored him by appointing him chancellor of the archbishopric, placed him in opposition and forced him to abandon the school and also the city of Reims. Only after the deposition of Manasses (1080) could B. return to Reims, where he also held a canonry. But the affair of Manasses had shown him all the wretchedness of the world, and the disgust he felt at it induced him to make a vow to withdraw and live solely for God. This was the true reason for his resolution, and not the supposed macabre miracle that was said to have occurred in Paris, where a canon, at the moment of his own funeral office, was said to have proclaimed his own condemnation to hell — a story that took shape only in the 13th century.
At first B. withdrew with some companions to Sèche-Fontaine (diocese of Langres) under the direction of Robert of Molesme, the future founder of the Cistercians, but then, not finding that dwelling sufficiently solitary, the saint with six companions, among them Landuin of Lucca, went to Grenoble, where he begged St. Hugh to assign him a place suited to his purpose. The bishop granted him the alpine valley called Cartusia, in the mountains of the Dauphiné to the northeast of Grenoble. There in 1084 arose the first Charterhouse, later called the "Grande Chartreuse." In 1091 Urban II wished to have at his side as counselor his former teacher from Reims, and commanded him to come to Rome. B. had to obey, and leaving Landuin as superior at the Charterhouse, he set out with some companions on the road to Rome. But at the Curia the hermits found themselves ill at ease and, except for B., obtained permission to return to their Charterhouse.
Finding himself with the Pontiff in southern Italy, and feeling himself irresistibly drawn to solitude, B. obtained permission to withdraw to the Sila, in a locality called La Torre, in the diocese of Squillace (province of Catanzaro). The count of Calabria, Roger, granted the land and endowed the hermitage that was rising there and that was blessed by the archbishop of Palermo (1094). The influx of disciples was such that soon a second hermitage had to be built in the vicinity, dedicated to St. Stephen, inaugurated in 1099 by the bishop of Squillace, and governed by the prior of La Torre. The two localities are today included in the commune of Serra S. Bruno. The saint died at La Torre, and was buried in S. Stefano, which later became a monastery of Cistercians, until Leo X in 1513 restored it to the Carthusians, to whom the same pope in 1514 orally granted the divine office in honor of St. Bruno, later extended by Gregory XV (1623) to the whole Church and raised to the rite of double by Clement X. The feast falls on 6 Oct.
Two works of the saint survive, dating from the time of his teaching at Reims, and two letters written at La Torre: Expositio in Psalmos (PL 152, 637-1420); Expositio in epistolas Pauli (PL 153, 11-566); a letter to Rudolph, provost at Reims, written after 1094 (PL 152, 420-23); Acta SS. Octobris, III, ed. Paris 1868, pp. 675-77); a letter to the hermits of the Grande Chartreuse (ca. 1091: PL 152, 418 ff.; Acta SS. Octobris, III, Paris 1868, p. 674 ff.). To these may be added a Latin poem from his youthful period (PL 152, 38; Acta SS. Octobris, III, Paris 1868, p. 503 ff.). Other works attributed to the saint in the editions of his works, Cologne 1509 and 1510, Paris 1524, are either by St. Bruno of Segni (v.), or by St. Bruno of Carinthia (v.), two contemporary writers.
Bibliography10 works
Livario Oliger