Bruno was born in 1030 at Cologne in Germany. From from his very cradle he gave great promise of future sanctity. Favoured by divine grace, the gravity of his character made him shun all childishness so that, even at that age one might have foreseen in him the future father of monks and restorer of the anchoretical life. His parents, who were distinguished for virtue and nobility, sent him to Paris where he made great progress in philosophy and theology, and took the degrees of doctor and master in both faculties. Soon after this, he was, for his remarkable virtue, appointed to a canonry in the church of Rheims.
After some years, Bruno, with six of his friends, renounced the world and betook himself to Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble. On learning the cause of their coming, the Bishop understood that they had been signified by the seven stars he had seen falling at his feet in his dream of the previous night. He therefore made over to them some wild mountains called the Chartreuse, belonging to his diocese, and himself conducted them there. After having there lived an eremitical life for several years, Bruno was summoned to Rome by Pope Urban II who had been his disciple. In the great trials through which the Church was then passing, the Pontiff availed himself of the Saint’s prudence and knowledge for some years, until Bruno, refusing the archbishopric of Reggio, obtained leave to retire. Attracted by the love of solitude he went to a desert place near Squillace in Calabria. Count Roger of Calabria was one day hunting when his dogs began to bark round the Saint’s cave. The Count entered and found Bruno at his prayers. He was so struck by his holiness that from then on he greatly honoured him and his companions and supplied their needs. His generosity met with its reward. A little later, when Count Roger was besieging Capua, and Sergius, an officer of his guard, had determined to betray him, Bruno, who was still living in his desert, appeared to the Count in sleep, revealed the treason to him, thus saving him from imminent peril.
At length, full of virtues and merits, and as renowned for holiness as for learning, Bruno fell asleep in our Lord in 1101, and was buried in the monastery of Saint Stephen built by Count Roger, where he is greatly honoured to this day. He was canonised by Pope Gregory XV in 1623.
In art Saint Bruno is represented contemplating the crucifix, with the words on a scroll issuing from his mouth, “O bonitas!” (O goodness!) or, “Ecce elongavi fugiens, et mansi in solitudine” (Behold, I wander far off, and I abode in the wilderness) (Psalm liv. 8). Sometimes he is shown bearing an olive-branch, or a crucifix the ends of which are foliated with olive leaves, on account of an antiphon in the Carthusian Breviary, which likens him to the olive taking root and bearing fruit in the most barren soil.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Among the divers religious families, none is held in higher esteem by the Church than the Carthusian. The prescriptions of the corpus juris determine that a person may pass from any other order into this without deterioration. And yet it is of all the least given to active works. Is not this a new, and not the least convincing proof that outward zeal, however praiseworthy is not the only, nor the principal thing, in God’s sight? The Church, in her fidelity, values all things according to the preferences of her divine Spouse. Now our Lord esteems His elect not so much by the activity of their works, as by the hidden perfection of their lives — that perfection which is measured by the intensity of the divine life, and of which it is said: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Maathew v. 48). Again, it is said of this divine life: “You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians iii. 3). The Church then considering the solitude and silence of the Carthusian, his abstinence even to death, his freedom to attend to God through complete disengagement from the senses and from the world, sees in it the guarantee of a perfection which may indeed be met with elsewhere, but here appears to be far more secure. Hence, though the field of labour is ever widening, though the necessity of warfare and struggle grows ever more urgent, she does not hesitate to shield with the protection of her laws, and to encourage with the greatest favours, all who are called by grace to the life of the desert. The reason is not far to seek. In an age when every effort to arrest the world in its headlong downward career seems vain, has not man greater need than ever to fall back upon God? The enemy is aware of it, and therefore the first law he imposes upon his votaries is to forbid all access to the way of the counsels, and to stifle all life of adoration, expiation and prayer. For he well knows that, though a nation may appear to be on the verge of its doom, there is yet hope for it as long as the best of its sons are prostrate before the Majesty of God.
Look at the history of the West in the eleventh century. If there ever was a time when it seemed urgent that the cloister, far from increasing the number of its inmates, should send them forth to the last man for the active service of the Church, it was surely the epoch when the flesh, victorious over the spirit, posted up its triumphs even in the sanctuary: when, for each other’s sake, Caesar and Satan held the pastors of the people in bondage. Nevertheless, at that very time, not only Cluny became the stronghold of Christianity, but Camaldoli, Vallombrosa, the Charterhouse, and finally Citeaux, were founded and grew strong. So great was the demand even in the monastic life itself, for still closer retreat, by souls athirst for immolation and penance. And yet, so far from complaining of being abandoned, the world reckoned among its most glorious deliverers Romuald, John Gualbert, Bruno and Robert of Molesmes. Moreover the century was great in the faith, and in that energy of faith which knew how to apply fire and steel to the festering wounds of humanity, great in the uprightness with which it recognised the necessity of expiation for such crying evils. Society, represented by its choicest members before the feet of God, received new life from Him.
This Feast, then, is the world’s homage to one of its greatest benefactors. The reader may learn more about our Saint by having recourse to his works: his letters, breathing the fragrance of solitude and written in the beautiful style known to the monks of that heroic age, and his commentaries on Saint Paul and on the Psalms, which are clear and concise, revealing at once his science and his love of Jesus and of the Church. According to the custom of the time, the breve depositionis announcing his death was sent round from church to church, and returned covered with testimonies of universal veneration. Nevertheless his disciples were more intent on imitating his holiness than on having it recognised by the Apostolic See. Four centuries after his death, Leo X without any process, on the simple evidence of the cause, authorised the Carthusians to pay public honour to their Father. A hundred years later, in 1622, Gregory XV extended his feast to the entire world.
* * * * *
BLESS, O Bruno, the grateful joy of God’s children. With their whole hearts they acquiesce in the judgement of their Mother the Church when, among the beautiful, rich fruit-trees in our Lord’s garden, she hides not her predilection for those whose silent shade attracts the preference of her divine Spouse. “Show me, O you whom my soul loves where you feed, where you lie in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions” (Canticles i. 6). Thus speaks the Bride in the sacred Canticle. And hearing the divine answer extolling the better part, you mingle your voice with the song of our Lord and the Church, saying: “O solitude and silence of the desert. Hidden joy. Good things unknown to the multitude, but known to the valiant. There are the young shoots of virtue carefully cultivated: there labour and rest are one and the same, and are nourished with fruits of Paradise: There the eye acquires that look which wounds the Bridegroom’s heart (Canticles iv. 9) and that purity, which beholds God (Matthew v. 8). There is Rachel in all her beauty, more loved by Jacob than Lia, although less fruitful. And her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, are their father’s favourites.”
Your sons cherish, in their hereditary peace, this privilege of the perfect even in these days of feverish excitement. Simple as themselves is the history of their Order: full of the supernatural, yet seeming to eschew the marvellous and the miraculous, while the heroism of all is so great, that very few stand out from the rest as remarkable for sanctity. Preserve this your own spirit in your children, O Bruno, and make us profit by their example. For their life silently preaches to the world the Apostle’s doctrine: “Concerning spiritual things... I show to you yet a more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, and have not charity... if I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains... and if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity never falls away: whether prophecies will be made void, or tongues will cease, or knowledge will be destroyed. Do not become children in sense, but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect” (1 Corinthians xii. xiii. xiv.)Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Laodicea, the blessed bishop and martyr Sagar, one of the first disciples of the blessed Apostle St. Paul.
At Capua, the birthday of the holy martyrs Marcellus, Castus, Æmilius and Saturninus.
At Agen in France, the birthday of St. Faith, virgin and martyr, whose example encouraged blessed Caprasius so much that he happily terminated his combat by martyrdom.
Also St. Erotis, martyr, who, being inflamed with the love of Christ, triumphed over the violence of the flames.
At Treves, the commemoration of almost numberless martyrs who were put to death for the faith in various manners under the governor Rictiovarus in the persecution of Diocletian.
At Auxerre, St. Eomanus, bishop and martyr.
At Oderzo, St. Magnus, bishop, whose body rests at Venice.
At Naples, the decease of St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Our Lord, a nun of the Third Order of St. Francis. On account of her reputation for virtues and the working of miracles, she was placed among the holy virgins by Blessed Pius IX.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
