BRUNO di SEGNI, saint. — Apparently a native of Asti and of noble family, born between 1044 and 1048, he died at Segni on 18 July 1123. A student at Bologna, and subsequently enrolled among the Roman clergy, he was appointed by Gregory VII bishop of Segni, in Latium. In 1096 he took part with Urban II in the Council of Clermont; in 1106 he was a legate of the Holy See in France, and in 1110 in Sicily. From 1105, amid the mystical fervor that animated the pontificate of Paschal II, he abandoned his episcopal see to retire as a monk at Montecassino; he was elected abbot of the great monastery in 1108. But the conflict that arose there a few years later with the Pontiff, because of the latter’s renunciation at Sutri (Concordatum Sutrinum) and his attitude of passive humility in the face of Henry V’s overbearing power, forced him to relinquish the high office. He then retired to Segni and remained there until his death. Lucius III canonized him in 1181. Feast day: 18 July.
A tenacious defender of the Church in the struggle over Investitures and one of Ildebrando’s closest advisers, he attacks simoniacs and heretics with harsh vehemence; yet he knows how to pass from the polemical vigor of De Simoniacis to careful, spoken, and meditated biblical exegesis (Expositio in Gen., Ex., Lev., Num., Deut.; in Iob, in Ps.; Expositio de muliere forte; Commentaria in IV Evangelia; in Apoc.) and to the mystical meanings of the liturgy (De ornamentis Ecclesiae; De Sacrificio azymi; De Sacramentis Ecclesiae, Mysteriis atque ecclesiasticis ritibus).