Saint Who?
Saints Who Taught about Prayer
Saint Bruno
Priest and founder († 1101) Feast: October 6
Bruno was born in Cologne, Germany, but he completed his education in France. He returned home and was ordained a priest, but the bishop of Rheims asked him to come back to France and serve as the director of the diocese’s schools. Over the next eighteen years, Bruno became widely known as a philosopher and a theologian.
Then a new bishop named Manasses was appointed in Rheims. Bruno and other leaders soon realized that Manasses was not only uninterested in priestly duties, but also corrupt, violent, and tyrannical. When Bruno urged that Manasses be deposed at a public council, Manasses retaliated against him. Although Manasses was eventually forced out of his position, Bruno decided to leave his secular career behind and join the Cistercian order. A few years later, he left the Cistercians and took a few companions with him to establish his own community in a remote region called Chartreuse.
In the Carthusian order which Bruno founded, men came together for community life, but they lived in individual cells. Bruno himself was revered for his love of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his life of mortification, and—most importantly—his desire for solitude and silence in order to draw close to God in prayer. Carthusian monks and nuns seek to emulate Bruno’s example to this day.
Lord Jesus Christ, grant us a love for silence in prayer.
