St. Bruno
Feast 10-06 · Canonized 1514
Patron of
About
Bruno was born in Cologne around 1030 and became a renowned teacher at the cathedral school of Reims. Disillusioned with the worldliness around him, he withdrew with six companions in 1084 to a remote valley in the French Alps called Chartreuse.
There he founded the Carthusian Order, whose monks live in solitude, silence, and prayer, combining the eremitical and cenobitic traditions. The order has never been reformed because it has never needed reform, a saying that reflects its fidelity to Bruno's original vision.
He died in 1101 in Calabria, where he had been called to advise the pope. His cult was confirmed in 1514, and he is venerated as a patron of contemplatives.
Suggested prayer
O God, who led Bruno from the schools of Reims to the silence of Chartreuse, grant through his intercession that contemplatives and hermits may find Your face in solitude and silence. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
