St. Bruno

St. Bruno was born about 1030 at Cologne in Germany and became a renowned scholar and teacher at the cathedral school of Reims, where his pupils included a future pope. Esteemed for his learning and holiness, he might have risen to high office, but a longing for solitude and a scandal over an unworthy archbishop turned his heart from worldly advancement toward a life hidden in God.

In 1084, with a few companions, he withdrew to a remote and mountainous valley in the French Alps granted by St. Hugh of Grenoble, and there founded the Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the Carthusian order, whose life uniquely blends the solitude of the hermit with the bonds of community in silence, prayer, and penance. Later called by the pope to serve the Church in Rome, he obtained leave to found a second charterhouse in Calabria, where he died on 6 October 1101. Uniquely, the Carthusians have never needed reform, and their founder is celebrated on 6 October.