St. Bruno

I can't exactly be sure when or why I started becoming a dévoté of the saintly founder of the Carthusian order (1030-1101), but through the years I've visited (i.e. looked on from the outside, since you only get in if you plan to stay) Bruno's original Charterhouse--la Grande Chartreuse--in a stark mountain pass of the lower French Alps; toured the Chartreuse distillery nearby (with a taste test, of course); read a few books about him; collected a number of books by and about his monks; purchased and watched the stunningly beautiful film, Into Great Silence, documenting Carthusian life where it was born; made several hermitage retreats with the Sisters of Bethlehem (who follow a version of his Carthusian rule) in the Catskills; and keep his statue nearby.  I'm fairly certain I'm not cut out for the rigors of the Carthusian vocation...but the silence and wilderness solitude do have their appeal...and have been huge blessings for me in week-long doses.

Bruno was widely recognized for his great learning--having been a teacher of nobles, several future bishops, and even a pope.  But his smarts were not all.  Upon his death in Calabria, his brothers wrote:

Bruno deserves to be praised for many things, but especially for this: his life was always the same. That was typical of him.  He always had a smile on his face, always a prudent word. To the severity of a father he joined the tenderness of a mother. Great he was, but everyone found him gentle as a lamb. In truth, he was the Israelite praised in the Gospel [cf. Jn 1:47].

Bruno was never formally canonized; such honors are strictly shunned by humble Carthusian sensibilities.  But the devotion shown him by his brothers eventually spread through the whole Church.

Over the years, I've lifted a few quotes from the writings of Saint Bruno which have survived the near millennium since his death...all words to live by...

"Only those who have experienced the solitude and the silence of the wilderness can know the benefit and divine joy they bring to those who love them." 

"No act is charitable if it is not just." 

"In the solitude and silence of the wilderness..., for their labor in the contest, God gives his athletes the reward they desire: a peace that the world does not know and joy in the Holy Spirit." 

"If the bow is stretched for too long, it becomes slack and unfit for its purpose."

--Saint Bruno