BRUNO of SEGNI, Saint. — A native of Asti, apparently of noble birth, born between 1044 and 1048, died at Segni on 18 July 1123. A student in Bologna, then enrolled in the Roman clergy, he was appointed by Gregory VII bishop of Segni in Lazio. He took part with Urban II in the Council of Clermont in 1095; in 1106 he was legate of the Holy See in France and in 1110 in Sicily. From 1105, in the mystical fervor that animated the pontificate of Paschal II, he abandoned his episcopal see to retire as a monk to Montecassino: he was elected abbot of the great monastery in 1108. But the clash that soon thereafter arose with the Pope, over the latter’s renunciation at Sutri (the Concordat of Sutri) and over his attitude of passive humility in the face of the encroachments of Henry V, forced him to relinquish this 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 Investiture Controversy, one of the closest advisers to Hildebrand, he attacked simoniacs and heretics with fierce vehemence; yet he could move from the polemical vigor of his De Simoniacis to careful, learned, and meditative biblical exegesis (Expositio in Gen., Ex., Lev., Num., Deut.; in Iob, in Ps.; Expositio de multirii forte; Commentaria in IV Evangelia; in Apoc.) and to the mystical meanings of the liturgy (De ornamentis Ecclesiae; De Sacrificio azymi; De Sacramentis Ecclesiae, Mysteriorum atque ecclesiasticis ritibus).