Short Cuts
Bruno was born in Cologne of the prominent Hartenfaust family. He studied at the Cathedral school at Rheims, and on his return to Cologne about 1055, was ordained and became a Canon
at St. Cunibert's. He returned to Rheims in 1056 as professor of
theology, became head of the school the following year, and remained
there until 1074, when he was appointed chancellor of Rheims by its
archbishop, Manasses. Bruno was forced to flee Rheims when he and
several other priests denounced Manasses in 1076 as unfit for the office of Papal Legate. Bruno later returned to Cologne but went back to Rheims in 1080 when Manasses
was deposed, and though the people of Rheims wanted to make Bruno
archbishop, he decided to pursue an eremitical life. He became a hermit
under Abbot St. Robert of Molesmes (who later founded Citeaux) but then moved on to Grenoble
with six companions in 1084. They were assigned a place for their
hermitages in a desolate, mountainous, alpine area called La Grande
Chartreuse, by Bishop St. Hugh of Grenoble, whose confessor Bruno became. They built an oratory and individual cells, roughly followed the rule of St. Benedict, and thus began the Carthusian Order. They embraced a life
of poverty, manual work, prayer, and transcribing manuscripts, though
as yet they had no written rule. The fame of the group and their founder
spread, and in 1090, Bruno was brought to Rome, against his wishes, by
Pope Urban II
(whom he had taught at Rheims) as Papal Adviser in the reformation of
the clergy. Bruno persuaded Urban to allow him to resume his eremitical
state, founded St. Mary's at La Torre in Calabria, declined the Pope's
offer of the archbishopric of Reggio, became a close friend of Count
Robert of Sicily, and remained there until his death on October 6. He
wrote several commentaries on the psalms
and on St. Paul's epistles. He was never formally canonized because of
the Carthusians' aversion to public honors but Pope Leo X granted the
Carthusians permission to celebrate his feast in 1514, and his name was
placed on the Roman calendar in 1623. His feast day is October 6
