Bruno of Cologne

Who they were

Bruno was born in Cologne around 1030 to a well-known family. He studied at the cathedral school of Reims, became a canon there, and in 1056 was made rector of the school, one of the most prestigious of its day; he directed its teaching for more than twenty years, and among his pupils was the future Pope Urban II.

After resisting the corruption of the Archbishop of Reims, he gave up his possessions and honours to seek God in solitude. In June 1084 he came with six companions to the young Bishop Hugh of Grenoble, who led them into the mountain wilderness of the Chartreuse, where they built the first charterhouse: the beginning of the Carthusian Order. In 1090 Urban II called him to Rome to advise him. Bruno refused the archbishopric of Reggio and withdrew instead to a hermitage in Calabria, at a place called La Torre. There, after a last profession of faith in the Holy Trinity and in Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, he died on Sunday 6 October 1101.

The miracles

No single miracle was ever formally examined for Bruno. Many miracles were reported at his tomb in Calabria, where his relics are still carried in procession from the charterhouse to the hermitage each Pentecost, but the Church's recognition of him did not rest on a trial of any one of them.

Why that counted as sanctity

Bruno was never canonised through the full formal process, partly because the Carthusians have always shunned public honours. His holiness was recognised in three stages. First by those who knew him: when he died, the Carthusians sent a messenger with a mortuary roll through Italy, France, Germany and England, and 178 churches and communities, many of whose members had known him, wrote tributes on it to his learning and the fruitfulness of his teaching. Then by the devotion of the faithful at his tomb. And finally by the Popes: on 19 July 1514 Leo X authorised the Carthusians to keep his feast, an 'equipollent' canonisation made on the Pope's own authority without the usual trial, and on 17 February 1623 Gregory XV extended his feast, 6 October, to the whole Church.

Connected on this site

• Urban II Blessed Pupil
  “He was a celebrated teacher at Reims and a close advisor of his former pupil, Pope Urban II.” — Wikipedia
• Matilda of Ringelheim Saint
  “She was mother of Emperor Otto I and St Bruno of Cologne.” — this site's research
• Mariantonia Samà Blessed
  “Samà was healed after the convent's prior put her in front of a statue of Bruno of Cologne and lived in relative peace for a while before being bedridden with another illness that she never recovered from.” — Wikipedia