St. Bruno (about 1030–1101) was a renowned teacher and chancellor of the cathedral school of Reims, in France, who in his fifties left honors and a likely bishopric behind to seek God in solitude, and with six companions founded in 1084 the hermitage of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps, the beginning of the Carthusian Order. The Carthusians, who live in silence and prayer in individual cells, are proverbially “never reformed because never deformed,” and their life was shown to the world in the film Into Great Silence (2005). His feast day is October 6. Below are his story, the Carthusian motto, Scripture and a prayer to St. Bruno.
A short prayer to St. Bruno, written for this page:
St. Bruno, you left the noise of the world to listen to God in silence.
Pray for monks and nuns, for all who live hidden lives of prayer,
and help me to find a little silence each day to be alone with God. Amen.
Who was St. Bruno?
Bruno was born in Cologne, in Germany, around 1030, and studied at Reims, where he became head of the famous cathedral school and taught many future leaders of the Church, among them Odo of Châtillon, who would become Pope Urban II. He opposed a simoniacal archbishop of Reims and suffered for it. When the clergy wanted him as their archbishop, he chose instead the life of a hermit.
In 1084, with six companions, he went to Bishop St. Hugh of Grenoble, who had dreamed of seven stars leading him to a wild valley in the mountains. Hugh led them to the Chartreuse, where they built small cells around a chapel and lived in silence, prayer, study and manual work, especially copying books. In 1090 his former pupil, now Pope Urban II, called Bruno to Rome as his adviser. Bruno obeyed, but soon asked leave to return to solitude and founded a new hermitage at La Torre, in Calabria, in southern Italy, where he died on October 6, 1101.
“The Cross stands while the world turns”
The Carthusian motto is Stat crux dum volvitur orbis, “the Cross stands firm while the world turns.” God’s word through the prophet Osee expresses the call to the desert (Osee 2:14, Douay-Rheims; Hosea 2:14 in other Bibles):
Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart.
Feast day
The optional memorial of St. Bruno, priest, is October 6, the day of his death.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded the Carthusians?
St. Bruno, with six companions, at the Grande Chartreuse near Grenoble in 1084.
What is the Carthusian motto?
Stat crux dum volvitur orbis: “The Cross stands firm while the world turns.”
When is St. Bruno’s feast day?
October 6.
More saints
- St. Benedict prayer
- St. Anthony the Abbot
- St. Peter Damian
- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
- Jesus Prayer
- Saint of the day
Texts and sources
- Osee 2:14 (Douay-Rheims).