Saint Bruno
Fondateur des
Chartreux (+ 1101)
Il avait tout pour faire une belle carrière d'universitaire ecclésiastique, ce fils d'un riche marchand des bords du Rhin. Originaire de Cologne, il avait étudié dans sa ville natale et puis l'avait quittée, âgé d'une quinzaine d'années pour aller se perfectionner à Reims. A 24 ans, le voilà devenu écolâtre, chargé d'étudiants. Sa réputation est si flatteuse qu'il devient chancelier de l'archevêque de Reims, Manassès de Gournay. Mais l'archevêque est indigne. Il a payé ses électeurs et Bruno le dénonce. On lui offre de lui succéder, Bruno refuse. Et c'est alors la rupture. Cette brillante carrière ne le comble pas, il ressent un vide dans son cœur, une soif le consume. Il n'est pas fait pour les 'combines', il veut être à Dieu seul. A 52 ans, en 1084, il vend tout ce qu'il possède et, avec quelques amis qui partagent ses aspirations, il tente un premier essai de vie érémitique au prieuré de Sèchefontaine*, une dépendance de l'abbaye de Molesme. La forme de vie dont il rêve ne s'y trouve pas. Il lui faut la créer. Saint Hugues, évêque de Grenoble, met à la disposition de Bruno et de ses compagnons une 'solitude' dans le massif alpin de la Grande Chartreuse. Bruno y élabore ce qui deviendra la Règle des Chartreux, faite de solitude en cellule, de liturgies communes et de travail manuel. Le pape Urbain II l'ayant appelé comme conseiller, il quitte à regret la Chartreuse pour Rome. Ne pouvant s'habituer à la vie 'du siècle', il obtient de se retirer en Calabre où il fonde une nouvelle communauté cartusienne à La Torre. C'est là qu'il mourra dans une solitude bienheureuse: "L'air y est doux, les prés verdoyants, nous avons des fleurs et des fruits, nous sommes loin des hommes, écrivait-il à un vieil ami de Reims. Comment dépeindre cette fête perpétuelle où déjà l'on savoure les fruits du ciel?".
*solitude que lui avait indiquée saint
Robert, futur fondateur de Cîteaux.
Saint Hugues et Saint Bruno:
Le diocèse de Grenoble voit naître ou s'établir de nombreuses communautés et de grandes figures religieuses.
En 1084 saint Bruno s'installe avec l'accord de saint Hugues, évêque de Grenoble, en Chartreuse et fonde l'ordre des Chartreux. Saint Hugues est lui-même connu pour avoir libéré l'Église du pouvoir des laïcs, et considéré comme le véritable fondateur du diocèse car il en fixe le territoire. Il fonde aussi le monastère de Chalais.
- Histoire du diocèse de Grenoble
Mémoire de saint Bruno, prêtre. Né à Cologne, il enseigna la théologie en
France, mais désireux d'une vie solitaire, il fonda, avec quelques disciples,
dans la vallée déserte de la Chartreuse, dans les Alpes, un Ordre où la
solitude des ermites serait tempérée par une certaine forme de cénobitisme.
Appelé à Rome par le bienheureux pape Urbain II, pour qu'il lui vienne en aide
dans les besoins que connaissait l'Église, il passa cependant les dernières
années de sa vie dans un ermitage, près du monastère de La Torre en Calabre, où
il mourut en 1101.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1969/Saint-Bruno.html
Saint
Bruno et ses six compagnons devant l'évêque Hugues de Grenoble dans la Grande
Chartreuse,
Manuscrit
du XVe siècle
Saint Bruno
Fondateur de l'Ordre des
Chartreux
(1035-1101)
Saint Bruno naquit à
Cologne d'une famille de première noblesse. Ses magnifiques succès
épouvantèrent son âme, désireuse de ne vivre que pour Dieu. Il songeait à
quitter ce monde, où il était déjà appelé aux grandeurs, quand un fait tragique
décida complètement sa vocation. Bruno comptait pour ami, à l'université de
Paris, le célèbre chanoine Raymond, dont tout le monde admirait la vertu non
moins que la science. Or cet ami vint à mourir, et pendant ses obsèques
solennelles, auxquelles Bruno assistait, à ces paroles de Job:
"Réponds-moi, quelles sont mes iniquités?" Le mort se releva et dit
d'une voix effrayante: "Je suis accusé par un juste jugement de
Dieu!" Une panique indescriptible s'empara de la foule, et la sépulture
fut remise au lendemain; mais le lendemain au même moment de l'office, le mort se
leva de nouveau et s'écria: "Je suis jugé par un juste jugement de
Dieu!" Une nouvelle terreur occasionna un nouveau retard. Enfin, le
troisième jour, le mort se leva encore et cria d'une voix plus terrible:
"Je suis condamné au juste jugement de Dieu!"
Bruno brisa dès lors les
derniers liens qui le retenaient au monde, et, inspiré du Ciel, il se rendit à
Grenoble, où le saint évêque Hugues, répondant à ses aspirations vers la
solitude la plus profonde, lui indiqua ce désert affreux et grandiose à la fois,
si connu sous le nom de Grande-Chartreuse. Il fallut franchir de dangereux
précipices, s'ouvrir un chemin à coups de hache dans des bois d'une végétation
puissante, entremêlés de ronces épaisses et d'immenses fougères; il fallut
prendre le terrain pied à pied sur les bêtes sauvages, furieuses d'être
troublées dans leur possession paisible. Quelques cellules en bois et une
chapelle furent le premier établissement. Le travail, la prière, un profond
silence du côté des hommes, tel fut pour Bruno l'emploi des premières années de
sa retraite.
Il dut aller, pendant
plusieurs années, servir de conseiller au saint Pape Urbain II, refusa avec
larmes l'archevêché de Reggio, retourna à sa vie solitaire et alla fonder en
Calabre un nouveau couvent de son Ordre. À l'approche de sa dernière heure,
pendant que ses frères désolés entouraient son lit de planches couvert de
cendres, Bruno parla du bonheur de la vie monastique, fit sa confession
générale, demanda humblement la Sainte Eucharistie, et s'endormit paisiblement
dans le Seigneur.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_bruno.html
Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652). Saint
Bruno, 1643, 38 x 27, Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte
Vie de Saint Bruno
Bruno qui appartenait à
une famille noble (celle, croit-on, des Hartenfaust, de duro pugno), né à
Cologne entre 1030 et 1035. Il commença ses études dans sa ville natale, à la
collégiale de Saint-Cunibert, et fit ensuite des études de philosophie et de théologie
à Reims et, peut-être aussi à Paris. Vers 1055, il revint à Cologne pour
recevoir de l’archevêque Annon, avec la prêtrise, un canonicat à
Saint-Cunibert.
En 1056 ou 1057, il fut
rappelé à Reims par l’archevêque Gervais pour y devenir, avec le titre
d'écolâtre, professeur de grammaire, de philosophie et de théologie ; il devait
garder une vingtaine d'années cette chaire, où il travailla à répandre les
doctrines clunisiennes et, comme on allait dire bientôt, grégoriennes ; parmi
ses élèves, étaient Eudes de Châtillon, le futur Urbain II, Rangérius, futur
évêque de Lucques, Robert, futur évêque de Langres, Lambert, futur abbé de
Pothières, Pierre, futur abbé de Saint-Jean de Soissons, Mainard, futur prieur
de Cormery, et d'autres personnages de premier plan. Maître Bruno dont on
conserve un commentaire des psaumes et une étude sur les épitres de saint Paul
est précis, clair et concis en même temps qu’affable, bon et souriant « il est,
dire ses disciples, éloquent, expert dans tous les arts, dialecticien,
grammairien, rhéteur, fontaine de doctrine, docteur des docteurs. »
Sa situation devint
difficile quand l'archevêque Manassès de Gournay, simoniaque avéré, monta en
1067 sur le siège de Reims ; ce prélat qui n'ignorait pas l'opposition de
Bruno, tenta d'abord de se le concilier, et le désigna même comme chancelier du
Chapitre (1075), mais l'administration tyrannique de Manassès, qui pillait les
biens d'Eglise, provoqua des protestations, auxquelles Bruno s'associa ; elles
devaient aboutir à la déposition de l'indigne prélat en 1080 ; en attendant,
Manassès priva Bruno de ses charges et s'empara de ses biens qui ne lui furent
rendus que lorsque l'archevêque perdit son siège[1].
Bruno, réfugié d'abord au
château d'Ebles de Roucy, puis, semble-t-il, à Cologne, chargé de mission à
Paris, et redoutant d'être appelé à la succession de Manassès, décida de
renoncer à la vie séculière. Cette résolution aurait été fortifiée en lui, d'après
une tradition que répètent les historiens chartreux, par l'épisode parisien
(1082) des funérailles du chanoine Raymond Diocrès qui se serait trois fois
levé de son cercueil pour se déclarer jugé et condamné au tribunal de Dieu[2].
En 1083, Bruno se rendit
avec deux compagnons, Pierre et Lambert, auprès de saint Robert de Molesme,
pour lui demander l'habit monastique et l'autorisation de se retirer dans la
solitude, à Sèche-Fontaine. Mais ce n'était pas encore, si près de l'abbaye, la
vraie vie érémitique. Sur le conseil de Robert de Molesme et, semble-t-il, de
l'abbé de la Chaise-Dieu, Seguin d'Escotay, Bruno se rendit, avec six
compagnons[3] auprès du saint évêque Hugues de Grenoble qui accueillit avec
bienveillance la petite colonie. Une tradition de l'Ordre veut que saint Hugues
ait vu les sept ermites annoncés dans un songe sous l'apparence de sept
étoiles. Il conduisit Bruno et ses compagnons dans un site montagneux d'une
sévérité vraiment farouche, le désert de Chartreuse (1084) [4]. En 1085 une première
église s'y élevait. Le sol avait été cédé en propriété par Hugues aux religieux
qui en gardèrent le nom de Chartreux. Quant à l'appartenance spirituelle, il
paraît que la fondation eut d'abord quelque lien avec la Chaise-Dieu, à qui
Bruno la remit quand il dut se rendre en Italie ; mais l'abbé Seguin restitua
la Chartreuse au prieur Landuin quand celui-ci, pour obéir à saint Bruno,
rétablit la communauté, et il reconnut l'indépendance de l'ordre nouveau (1090)
[5].
Au début de cette année
1090, Bruno avait été appelé à Rome par un de ses anciens élèves, le pape
Urbain II, qui voulait s'aider de ses conseils et qui lui concéda, pour ceux de
ses compagnons qui l'avaient suivi, l'église de Saint-Cyriaque. Le fondateur
fut à plusieurs reprises convoqué à des conciles [6]. Le pape eût voulu lui
faire accepter l'archevêché de Reggio de Calabre, mais Bruno n'abandonnait pas
son rêve de vie érémitique. Il avait reçu en 1092 du comte Roger de Sicile un
terrain boisé à La Torre, près de Squillace, où Urbain II autorisa la
construction d'un ermitage et où une église fut consacrée en 1094. Roger aurait
affirmé, dans un diplôme de 1099, que Bruno l'aurait averti dans un songe d'un
complot durant le siège de Padoue en 1098.
Bruno, le 27 juillet
1101, recevait du pape Pascal II la confirmation de l'autonomie de ses ermites.
Le 6 octobre suivant, après avoir émis une profession de foi et fait devant les
frères sa confession générale, il rendit l'âme à la chartreuse de San Stefano
in Bosco, filiale de La Torre, où il fut enseveli. Les cent soixante-treize
rouleaux des morts, circulant d'abbaye en abbaye et recevant des formules
d'éloges funèbres, attestent précieusement, dès le lendemain de sa mort, sa
réputation de sainteté, accrue par les miracles attribués à son intercession.
Son corps, transféré en 1122 à Sainte-Marie du Désert, la chartreuse principale
de La Torre, y fut l'objet d'une invention en 1502 et d'une récognition en
1514. Le culte fut autorisé de vive voix dans l'ordre des Chartreux par Léon X,
le 19 juillet 1514. La fête, introduite en 1622 dans la liturgie romaine et
confirmée en 1623 comme semi-double ad libitum, est devenue de précepte et de
rite double en 1674 à la date anniversaire de sa mort, le 6 octobre ; saint
Bruno n'a donc été l'objet que d'une canonisation équipollente.
En 1257, saint Louis
demanda des moines au prieur de la Grande Chartreuse, qui lui envoya Dom Jean
de Jossaram, prieur du Val-Sainte-Marie, près de Valence, et quatre autres
religieux. Ils habitèrent d'abord Gentilly, puis vinrent près de Paris, au
château de Vauvert, dès 1258. Saint Louis fit commencer leur grande église, qui
ne fut dédiée qu'en 1325, à la Sainte Vierge et à saint Jean-Baptiste. Elle
avait sept chapelles latérales dans la clôture et une huitième chapelle extérieure,
dont l'accès était permis aux femmes. Vingt-huit cellules, chacune composée de
deux ou trois pièces et accompagnée d'un jardin, étaient groupées autour du
grand cloître. Il y vivait quarante religieux, sans compter les Frères. Le
petit cloître était décoré des fameux tableaux de la vie de saint Bruno
d'Eustache Lesueur : il n'y en avait que trois, disait-on, de sa main. La
Révolution détruisit ce monastère pour faire passer des rues et agrandir le
jardin du Luxembourg.
Les Chartreux de Paris
achetèrent une rente sur des biens sis à Saulx que saint Louis leur confirma en
1263. L’année suivante, les Chartreux achètent à Saulx la dîme du blé avec une
partie du fief des Tournelles où était le four banal. En 1265, les Chartreux
achètent à Saulx la dime du vin. En 1285, les Chartreux achètent le fief des
Tournelles avec le four banal. En 1657 le prieuré Notre-Dame de Saulx est cédé
aux Chartreux et ils nomment le curé de la paroisse.
Le 14 mai 1984,
l'occasion du neuvième centenaire de la fondation de leur Ordre le Saint-Père
adressait aux Chartreux la lettre Silentio et solitudini, rappelant qu’en l'an
1084, aux alentours de la fête de saint Jean-Baptiste, Bruno de Cologne, au
terme d’une brillante carrière ecclésiastique, marquée notamment par un courage
indomptable dans la lutte contre les abus de l'époque, entrait avec six
compagnons au désert de Chartreuse. Il s’agit d’une vallée étroite et resserrée
des Préalpes, à 1175 mètres d'altitude, où de grands sapins laissent à peine
pénétrer la lumière, et que les neiges isolent presque complètement du monde
extérieur durant l'hiver interminable. Ce cadre austère paraissait approprié à
la forme de vie entièrement centrée sur Dieu qu'ils désiraient chercher par le
moyen de la solitude. Le monastère fut fait de petits ermitages, reliés par une
galerie pour se rendre en toute saison à l'église. Les moines ne se
rencontraient habituellement qu’aux Matines et aux Vêpres, parfois à la messe
qui n’était pas alors quotidienne, mais ils prenaient ensemble le repas du dimanche,
suivi du chapitre. Saint Bruno avait en propre de savoir unir une soif intense
de la rencontre de Dieu dans la solitude, avec une capacité exceptionnelle de
se faire des amis, et de faire naître parmi eux un courant d'intense affection.
Parmi les six compagnons
de saint Bruno figuraient deux laïcs ou convers ; leur solitude devait
incorporer un certain travail hors de la cellule, principalement agricole.
Aujourd'hui encore un monastère cartusien comporte des moines du cloître, voués
à la solitude de la cellule, et des moines convers, qui partagent leur temps
entre cette solitude et la solitude du travail dans les obédiences : on
pratique ainsi deux manières, étroitement solidaires et complémentaires, de
vivre la vie de chartreux ou de chartreuse.
Les historiens de la vie
monastique ont relevé la sagesse qui a su unir les différents aspects de la vie
cartusienne en un équilibre harmonieux : le soutien de la vie fraternelle aide
à affronter l'austérité de l'érémitisme ; la coexistence de deux manières de
vivre l'érémitisme (moines du cloître et moines convers) permet à chacune des
deux de trouver sa formule la meilleure ; un facteur équilibrant, aussi, est
joué par l'importance de l'office liturgique de Matines, célébré à l'église au
cours de la nuit. Ou encore, liberté spirituelle et obéissance sont étroitement
unies... Cette sagesse de vie, les chartreux la doivent à saint Bruno lui-même,
et c'est elle qui a assuré la persévérance de leur Ordre à travers les siècles.
Sagesse et équilibre.
Il reste vrai qu'une
telle vie n'a de sens qu'en référence à Dieu. Le Saint-Père, dans sa lettre,
rappelait aux Chartreux que c'est là leur responsabilité, leur fonction propre
dans le Corps mystique, au sein duquel ils doivent exercer un rayonnement
invisible : ils sont, disait-il, des témoins de l'absolu, spécialement utiles
aux hommes d'aujourd'hui, souvent profondément troublés par le tourbillon des
idées et l'instabilité qui caractérisent la culture moderne. Pour l'Eglise
elle-même, ajoute le Pape, en tant qu'elle est absorbée dans les difficultés du
labeur apostolique, les solitaires signifient la certitude de l'Amour immuable
de Dieu ; et c'est au nom de toute l'Eglise qu'ils font monter vers Lui un
hymne de louange ininterrompue.
[1] Quelques clercs de Reims
avaient porté plainte contre Manassès de Gournay auprès de Hugues de Die, légat
du pape Grégoire VII, qui le cita à comparaître au concile d’Autun (1077).
Manassès ne parut pas au concile d’Autun qui le déposa, mais s’en fut se
plaindre à Rome où il promit tout ce que l’on voulut. C’est alors qu’il priva
de leurs charges et de leurs biens tous ses accusateurs dont Bruno. Voyant que
Manassès de Gournay ne s’amendait pas, Hugues de Die le cita à comparaître au
concile de Lyon (1080) ; l’archevêque écrivit pour se défendre mais, cette
fois, il fut déposé et, le 27 décembre 1080, Grégoire VII ordonna aux clercs de
Reims de procéder à l’élection d’un nouvel archevêque. Manassès s’enfuit et ses
accusateurs rentrèrent en possession de leurs charges et de leurs biens.
[2] Jean Long d'Ypres :
Chronique de Saint-Bertin.
[3] Les six compagnons de
Bruno étaient le toscan Landuin, théologien réputé, qui lui succéda comme
prieur de la Chartreuse, Etienne de Bourg et Etienne de Die, chanoines de
Saint-Ruf en Dauphiné, le prêtre Hugues qui fut leur chapelain, André et
Guérin. Les deux derniers des six compagnons de saint Bruno étaient deux laïcs
ou convers ; leur solitude devait incorporer un certain travail hors de la
cellule, principalement agricole. Aujourd'hui encore un monastère cartusien
comporte des moines du cloître, voués à la solitude de la cellule, et des
moines convers, qui partagent leur temps entre cette solitude et la solitude du
travail dans les obédiences : on pratique ainsi deux manières, étroitement
solidaires et complémentaires, de vivre la vie de chartreux ou de chartreuse.
[4] Il s’agit d’une
vallée étroite et resserrée des Préalpes, à 1175 mètres d'altitude, où de
grands sapins laissent à peine pénétrer la lumière, et que les neiges isolent
presque complètement du monde extérieur durant l'hiver interminable. Ce cadre
austère paraissait approprié à la forme de vie entièrement centrée sur Dieu
qu'ils désiraient chercher par le moyen de la solitude. Le monastère fut fait
de petits ermitages, reliés par une galerie pour se rendre en toute saison à
l'église. Les moines ne se rencontraient habituellement qu’aux Matines et aux
Vêpres, parfois à la messe qui n’était pas alors quotidienne, mais ils
prenaient ensemble le repas du dimanche, suivi du chapitre. Saint Bruno avait
en propre de savoir unir une soif intense de la rencontre de Dieu dans la
solitude, avec une capacité exceptionnelle de se faire des amis, et de faire
naître parmi eux un courant d'intense affection.
[5] Les historiens de la
vie monastique ont relevé la sagesse qui a su unir les différents aspects de la
vie cartusienne en un équilibre harmonieux : le soutien de la vie fraternelle
aide à affronter l'austérité de l'érémitisme ; la coexistence de deux manières
de vivre l'érémitisme (moines du cloître et moines convers) permet à chacune
des deux de trouver sa formule la meilleure ; un facteur équilibrant, aussi,
est joué par l'importance de l'office liturgique de Matines, célébré à l'église
au cours de la nuit. Ou encore, liberté spirituelle et obéissance sont
étroitement unies... Cette sagesse de vie, les chartreux la doivent à saint
Bruno lui-même, et c'est elle qui a assuré la persévérance de leur Ordre à
travers les siècles. Sagesse et équilibre. Il reste vrai qu'une telle vie n'a
de sens qu'en référence à Dieu. Le Saint-Père, dans sa lettre, rappelait aux
Chartreux que c'est là leur responsabilité, leur fonction propre dans le Corps
mystique, au sein duquel ils doivent exercer un rayonnement invisible : ils
sont, disait-il, des témoins de l'absolu, spécialement utiles aux hommes
d'aujourd'hui, souvent profondément troublés par le tourbillon des idées et
l'instabilité qui caractérisent la culture moderne. Pour l'Eglise elle-même,
ajoute le Pape, en tant qu'elle est absorbée dans les difficultés du labeur
apostolique, les solitaires signifient la certitude de l'Amour immuable de Dieu
; et c'est au nom de toute l'Eglise qu'ils font monter vers Lui un hymne de
louange ininterrompue.
[6] Bénévent, 1091 ; Troja,
1093 ; Plaisance, 1095.
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/10/06.php
HOMÉLIE DU PAPE BENOÎT
XVI
Chers frères et soeurs,
Je n'ai pas préparé de
véritable homélie, mais seulement quelques notes pour guider la méditation. La
mission de saint Bruno, le saint du
jour, apparaît avec clarté, elle est - pouvons-nous dire - interprétée dans la
prière de ce jour qui, même si elle est assez différente dans le texte italien,
nous rappelle que sa mission fut faite de silence et de contemplation. Mais
silence et contemplation ont un but: ils servent à conserver, dans la
dispersion de la vie quotidienne, une union permanente avec Dieu. Tel est le
but: que dans notre âme soit toujours présente l'union avec Dieu et
qu'elle transforme tout notre être.
Silence et contemplation
- une caractéristique de saint Bruno
- servent à pouvoir trouver dans la dispersion de chaque jour cette union
profonde, continuelle, avec Dieu. Silence et contemplation: la belle
vocation du théologien est de parler. Telle est sa mission: dans la
logorée de notre époque, et d'autres époques, dans l'inflation des paroles,
rendre présentes les paroles essentielles. Dans les paroles, rendre présente la
Parole, la Parole qui vient de Dieu, la Parole qui est Dieu.
Mais comment pourrions-nous,
en faisant partie de ce monde avec toutes ses paroles, rendre présente la
Parole dans les paroles, sinon à travers un processus de purification de notre
pensée, qui doit surtout être également un processus de purification de nos
paroles? Comment pourrions-nous ouvrir le monde, et tout d'abord nous-mêmes, à
la Parole sans entrer dans le silence de Dieu, duquel procède sa Parole? Pour
la purification de nos paroles, et donc pour la purification des paroles du
monde, nous avons besoin de ce silence qui devient contemplation, qui nous fait
entrer dans le silence de Dieu et arriver ainsi au point où naît la Parole, la
Parole rédemptrice.
Saint Thomas d'Aquin,
s'inscrivant dans une longue tradition, dit que, dans la théologie, Dieu n'est
pas l'objet dont nous parlons. Telle est notre conception normale. En réalité,
Dieu n'est pas l'objet; Dieu est le sujet de la théologie. Celui qui parle dans
la théologie, le sujet parlant, devrait être Dieu lui-même. Et nos paroles et
nos pensées devraient uniquement servir pour que Dieu qui parle, la Parole de
Dieu puisse être écoutée, puisse trouver un espace dans le monde. Et ainsi,
nous sommes invités à nouveau sur ce chemin du renoncement à nos propres
paroles; sur ce chemin de la purification, pour que nos paroles ne soient que
l'instrument par l'intermédiaire duquel Dieu puisse parler, et que Dieu soit
ainsi réellement non pas l'objet, mais le sujet de la théologie.
Dans ce contexte, il me
vient à l'esprit une très belle parole de la Première Lettre de saint Pierre,
dans le premier chapitre, verset 22. En latin, elle dit ceci: "Castificantes
animas nostras in oboedentia veritatis". L'obéissance à la vérité doit
"rendre chaste" notre âme, et conduire ainsi à la parole juste et à
l'action juste. En d'autres termes, parler pour susciter les applaudissements,
parler en fonction de ce que les hommes veulent entendre, parler en obéissant à
la dictature des opinions communes, cela est considéré comme une sorte de
prostitution de la parole et de l'âme. La "chasteté" à laquelle fait
allusion l'Apôtre Pierre est de ne pas se soumettre à ces règles, ne pas
rechercher les applaudissements, mais rechercher l'obéissance à la vérité.
Telle est, selon moi, la vertu fondamentale du théologien, cette discipline
quelquefois difficile de l'obéissance à la vérité qui fait de nous des
collaborateurs de la vérité, bouche de la vérité, parce que nous ne parlons pas
nous-mêmes dans ce fleuve de paroles d'aujourd'hui, mais réellement purifiés et
rendus chastes par l'obéissance à la vérité, pour que la vérité parle en nous.
Et nous pouvons vraiment être ainsi des porteurs de la vérité.
Cela me fait penser à
saint Ignace d'Antioche et à l'une de ses belles expressions: "Qui a
compris les paroles du Seigneur comprend son silence, parce que le Seigneur
doit être connu dans son silence". L'analyse des paroles de Jésus arrive
jusqu'à un certain point, mais elle demeure dans notre pensée. C'est uniquement
lorsque nous arrivons à ce silence du Seigneur, dans sa présence avec le Père
dont proviennent les paroles, que nous pouvons réellement commencer à
comprendre la profondeur de ces paroles. Les paroles de Jésus sont nées dans
son silence sur la Montagne, comme le dit l'Ecriture, dans sa présence avec le
Père. C'est de ce silence de la communion avec le Père, de l'immersion dans le
Père, que naissent les paroles et ce n'est qu'en arrivant à ce point, et en
partant de ce point, que nous arrivons à une véritable profondeur de la Parole
et que nous pouvons être d'authentiques interprètes de la Parole. Le Seigneur
nous invite, en parlant, à gravir avec Lui la Montagne, et dans son silence, à
apprendre ainsi, à nouveau, le véritable sens des paroles.
En disant cela, nous
sommes arrivés aux deux lectures d'aujourd'hui. Job avait crié vers Dieu, il
avait également combattu avec Dieu face aux évidentes injustices avec
lesquelles il le traitait. A présent, il est confronté à la grandeur de Dieu.
Et il comprend que, face à la véritable grandeur de Dieu, toutes nos paroles ne
sont que pauvreté et elles sont même très loin d'arriver à la grandeur de son
être et il dit ceci: "J'ai parlé deux fois, je n'ajouterai
rien" (Jb 40, 5). Silence devant la grandeur de Dieu, parce que nos
paroles deviennent trop petites. Cela me fait penser aux dernières semaines de
la vie de saint Thomas. Au cours de ces dernières semaines, il n'a plus écrit,
il n'a plus parlé. Ses amis lui demandent: Maître, pourquoi ne parles-tu
plus, pourquoi n'écris-tu pas? Et il dit: Devant ce que j'ai vu, à
présent, toutes mes paroles me semblent comme paille. Le grand spécialiste de
saint Thomas, le Père Jean-Pierre Torrel, nous dit de ne pas mal interpréter
ces paroles. La paille, ce n'est pas rien. La paille porte le blé et cela est
la grande valeur de la paille. Elle porte le blé. Et la paille des paroles
aussi demeure valable comme porteuse de blé. Mais cela est aussi pour nous,
dirais-je, une relativisation de notre travail et, en même temps, une
valorisation de celui-ci. C'est aussi une indication, afin que notre manière de
travailler, notre paille, porte réellement le blé de la Parole de Dieu.
L'Evangile finit avec les
mots: "Qui vous écoute, m'écoute" (Lc 10, 16). Quelle mise
en garde, quel examen de conscience que ces paroles! Est-il vrai que celui qui
m'écoute, écoute réellement le Seigneur? Prions et travaillons pour qu'il soit
toujours plus vrai que celui qui nous écoute, écoute le Christ. Amen!
© Copyright 2006 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Nicolas
MIGNARD. Saint Bruno en prière dans le désert,
1638,
huile sur toile, 220 x 144,5, Avignon, Musée Calvet
Prières
"O Dieu,
montrez-nous votre visage
qui n'est autre que votre
Fils,
puisque c'est par lui que
vous vous faites connaître
de même que l'homme tout
entier est connu par son seul visage.
Et par ce visage que vous
nous aurez montré,
convertissez-nous ;
convertissez les morts
que nous sommes
des ténèbres à la
lumière,
convertissez-nous des
vices aux vertus,
de l'ignorance à la
parfaite connaissance de vous."
Saint Bruno
"Vous êtes mon
Seigneur,
vous dont je préfère les
volontés aux miennes propres ;
puisque je ne puis
toujours prier avec des paroles,
si quelque jour j'ai prié
avec une vraie dévotion,
comprenez mon cri :
prenez en gré cette
dévotion
qui vous prie comme une
immense clameur ;
et pour que mes paroles
soient de plus en plus
dignes d'être exaucées de vous,
donnez intensité et
persévérance à la voix de ma prière.
O Dieu, qui êtes puissant
et dont je me suis fait le serviteur,
quant à moi je vous prie
et vous prierai avec persévérance
afin de mériter et de
vous obtenir ;
ce n'est pas pour obtenir
quelque bien terrestre :
je demande ce que je dois
demander, Vous seul."
Saint Bruno
SOURCE : http://jubilatedeo.centerblog.net/6069037-Saint-Bruno-Fondateur-des-Chartreux-p-1101
Saint BRUNO
Né vers 1030, mort en
1101. Culte autorisé en 1514, fête en 1674.
Leçons des Matines (avant
1960)
Quatrième leçon. Bruno,
fondateur de l’Ordre des Chartreux, naquit à Cologne. Dès le berceau, il montra
de tels indices de sa sainteté future, par la gravité de ses mœurs, par le soin
qu’il mettait, avec le secours de la grâce divine, à fuir les amusements
frivoles de cet âge, qu’on pouvait déjà reconnaître en lui le père des moines,
en même temps que le restaurateur de la vie anachorétique. Ses parents, qui se
distinguaient autant par leur noblesse que par leurs vertus, l’envoyèrent à
Paris, et il y fit de tels progrès dans l’étude de la philosophie et de la
théologie, qu’il obtint le titre de docteur et de maître dans l’une et l’autre
faculté. Peu après, il se vit, en raison de ses remarquables vertus, appelé à
faire partie du Chapitre de l’Église de Reims.
Cinquième leçon. Quelques
années s’étant écoulées, Bruno renonçant au monde avec six de ses amis se
rendit auprès de saint Hugues, Évêque de Grenoble. Instruit du motif de leur
venue, et comprenant que c’était eux qu’il avait vus en songe, la nuit
précédente, sous l’image de sept étoiles se prosternant à ses pieds, il leur
concéda, dans son diocèse, des montagnes très escarpées connues sous le nom de
Chartreuse. Hugues lui-même accompagna Bruno et ses compagnons jusqu’à ce
désert, où le Saint mena pendant plusieurs années la vie érémitique. Urbain II,
qui avait été son disciple, le fit venir à Rome, et s’aida quelques années de
ses conseils dans les difficultés du gouvernement de l’Église, jusqu’à ce que,
Bruno ayant refusé l’archevêché de Reggio, obtint du Pape la permission de
s’éloigner.
Sixième leçon. Poussé par l’amour de la solitude, il se retira dans un lieu désert, sur les confins de la Calabre, près de Squillace. Ce fut là que Roger, comte de Calabre, étant à la chasse, le découvrit en prière, au fond d’une caverne où ses chiens s’étaient précipités à grand bruit. Le comte, frappé de sa sainteté, commença à l’honorer et à le favoriser beaucoup, lui et ses disciples. Les libéralités de Roger ne demeurèrent pas sans récompense. En effet, tandis qu’il assiégeait Capoue, Sergius, un de ses officiers, ayant formé le dessein de le trahir, Bruno, vivant encore dans le désert susdit, apparut en songe au comte et, lui découvrant tout le complot, le délivra d’un péril imminent. Enfin, plein de mérites et de vertus, non moins illustre par sa sainteté que par sa science, Bruno s’endormit dans le Seigneur et fut enseveli dans le monastère de Saint-Etienne, construit par Roger, où son culte est resté jusqu’ici en grand honneur.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/06-10-St-Bruno-confesseur
Profile
Educated in Paris and
the seminary of Rheims, France, Bruno
was ordained a priest c.1055, and
began to teach theology;
one of his students later became Pope Blessed Urban II. Father Bruno
presided over the cathedral school at Rheims from 1057 to 1075. He
criticized the worldliness he saw in his fellow clergy,
and opposed Manasses, Archbishop of Rheims,
because of his laxity and mismanagement. He served as chancellor of
the archdiocese of Rheims.
Following a vision he
received of a secluded hermitage where
he could spend his life becoming closer to God, he retired to a mountain near
Chartreuse in Dauphiny (in modern France)
in 1084,
and with the help of Saint Hugh of
Grenoble, he founded what became the first house of the Carthusian Order.
He and his brother Carthusians supported
themselves as manuscript copyists. Bruno became an assistant to Pope Urban II in 1090, and
supported the pope‘s
efforts at reform.
Retiring from public
life, Bruno and his companions built a hermitage at Torre, Italy where, 1095,
the monastery of Saint Stephen
was built.
Bruno combined in the religious life the eremetical and
the cenobitic,
both hermit and monk. His
learning and insight are apparent from his scriptural
commentaries.
Born
1101 at Torre, Calabria, Italy of
natural causes
buried in
the church of
Saint Stephen at Torre
death’s head
man holding a book and being
illuminated by a ray of light
crucifix with leaves and flowers
star on his breast
globe under his
feet
chalice with
the Sacred Host
man refusing a mitre
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Readings
Rejoice, my dearest
brothers, because you are blessed and because of the bountiful hand of God’s
grace upon you. Rejoice, because you have escaped the various dangers and
shipwrecks of the stormy world. Rejoice because you have reached the quiet and
safe anchorage of a secret harbor. Many wish to come into this port, and many
make great efforts to do so, yet do not achieve it. Indeed many, after reaching
it, have been thrust out, since it was not granted them from above. By your
work you show what you love and what you know. When you observe true obedience
with prudence and enthusiasm, it is clear that you wisely pick the most
delightful and nourishing fruit of divine Scripture. – from a letter by
Saint Bruno to the Carthusians
MLA
Citation
“Saint Bruno“. CatholicSaints.Info.
5 October 2023. Web. 6 October 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-bruno/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-bruno/
St. Bruno
St. 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. The Cathusians are one of the strictest in the Church.
Carthusians follow the Rule of St. Benedict, but accord it a most austere
interpretation; there is perpetual silence and complete abstinence from flesh
meat (only bread, legumes, and water are taken for nourishment).
Bruno sought to revive
the ancient eremitical way of life. His Order enjoys the distinction of never
becoming unfaithful to the spirit of its founder, never needing a reform.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 as Papal Adviser in the reformation of the clergy.
Pope Urban II had been a student of Bruno’s at Rheims and is perhaps most well
known as the Pope who called for the first crusade.
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. St. Bruno is the patron of diabolic possession and Ruthenia (parts of modern day Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, & Poland).
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-bruno/
San
Bruno, vetrata nel chiostro della Certosa di Serra San Bruno
São
Bruno, vitral no claustro da Cartuxa da Serra de São Bruno
St. Bruno
Confessor, ecclesiastical writer,
and founder of the Carthusian
Order. He was born at Cologne about
the year 1030; died 6 October, 1101. He is usually represented with a death's
head in his hands, a book and a cross, or crowned with
seven stars; or with a roll bearing the device O Bonitas. His feast is
kept on the 6th of October.
According
to tradition, St.
Bruno belonged to the family of Hartenfaust,
or Hardebüst, one of the principal families of
the city, and it is in remembrance of this origin that different members of
the family of Hartenfaust have
received from the Carthusians either
some special prayers
for the dead, as in the case
of Peter Bruno Hartenfaust in 1714,
and Louis Alexander Hartenfaust, Baron of Laach, in 1740;
or a personal affiliation with the order, as
with Louis Bruno of Hardevüst, Baron
of Laach and Burgomaster of the town of
Bergues-S. Winnoc, in the Diocese
of Cambrai, with whom the Hardevüst family in
the male line became extinct on 22 March, 1784.
We have little
information about the childhood and youth of St.
Bruno. Born at Cologne,
he would have studied at the city college, or collegial of St.
Cunibert. While still quite young (a pueris) he went to complete his education at Reims,
attracted by the reputation of the episcopal school and
of its director, Heriman. There he finished his classical studies
and perfected himself in the sacred
sciences which at that time consisted principally of the study
of Holy
Scripture and of the Fathers.
He became there, according to the testimony of his contemporaries, learned both
in human and in Divine science.
His education completed, St.
Bruno returned to Cologne,
where he was provided with a canonry at St.
Cunibert's, and, according to the most probable opinion, was elevated to
the priestly dignity.
This was about the year 1055. In 1056 Bishop Gervais recalled him to Reims,
to aid his former master Heriman in the direction of the school.
The latter was already turning his attention towards a
more perfect form of life, and when he at last left the
world to enter the religious
life, in 1057, St.
Bruno found himself head of the episcopal school,
or écolâtre, a post difficult as it was elevated, for it then included the
direction of the public schools and
the oversight of all the educational
establishments of the diocese.
For about twenty years, from 1057 to 1075, he maintained the prestige which
the school of Reims has
attained under its former masters, Remi
of Auxerre, Hucbald
of St. Amand, Gerbert, and lastly Heriman. Of the excellence of his
teaching we have a proof in
the funereal titles composed in his honour,
which celebrate his eloquence, his poetic, philosophical,
and above all his exegetical and theological,
talents; and also in the merits of his pupils, amongst whom
were Eudes of Châtillon, afterwards Urban
II, Rangier, Cardinal and Bishop of Reggio,
Robert, Bishop of Langres,
and a large number of prelates and abbots.
In 1075 St.
Bruno was appointed chancellor of the church of Reims,
and had then to give himself especially to the administration of the diocese.
Meanwhile the pious Bishop
Gervais, friend of St.
Bruno, had been succeeded by Manasses de Gournai, who quickly became odious
for his impiety and violence.
The chancellor and two other canons were commissioned to bear to
the papal
legate, Hugh of Die, the complaints of the indignant clergy,
and at the Council of Autun,
1077, they obtained the suspension of the unworthy prelate.
The latter's reply was to raze the houses of his accusers, confiscate
their goods, sell their benefices,
and appeal to the pope. Bruno then
absented himself from Reims for
a while, and went probably to Rome to
defend the justice of
his cause. It was only in 1080 that a
definite sentence, confirmed by a rising of the
people, compelled Manasses to withdraw and take refuge with the Emperor
Henry IV. Free then to choose another bishop,
the clergy were
on the point of uniting their vote upon the chancellor. He, however, had far
different designs in view. According to a tradition preserved in
the Carthusian
Order, Bruno was persuaded to abandon the world by the
sight of a celebrated prodigy, popularized by the brush of Lesueur--the
triple resurrection of the Parisian doctor,
Raymond Diocres. To this tradition may be opposed
the silence of contemporaries, and of the first biographers of
the saint;
the silence of Bruno himself in his letter
to Raoul le Vert, Provost of Reims;
and the impossibility of proving that he ever visited Paris.
He had no need of such an extraordinary argument to cause him to
leave the world. Some time before, when in conversation with two of his
friends, Raoul and Fulcius, canons of Reims like
himself, they had been so enkindled with the love of God and
the desire of eternal goods that they had made a vow to abandon the
world and to embrace the religious
life. This vow,
uttered in 1077, could not be put into execution until 1080, owing to
various circumstances.
The first idea of St.
Bruno on leaving Reims seems
to have been to place himself and his companions under the direction of an
eminent solitary, St. Robert, who had recently (1075) settled at Molesme in
the Diocese
of Langres, together with a band of other solitaries who were
later on (1098) to form the Cistercian
Order. But he soon found that this was not his vocation, and after a short
sojourn at Sèche-Fontaine near Molesme, he left two of his
companions, Peter and Lambert, and betook himself with six
others to Hugh of Châteauneuf, Bishop of Grenoble,
and, according to some authors, one of his pupils. The bishop,
to whom God had
shown these men in a dream, under the image of seven stars,
conducted and installed them himself (1084) in a wild spot on the Alps of Dauphiné
named Chartreuse, about four leagues from Grenoble,
in the midst of precipitous rocks and mountains almost always covered with
snow. With St.
Bruno were Landuin, the two Stephens of Bourg and
Die, canons of Sts. Rufus, and Hugh the Chaplain,
"all, the most learned men of their time", and two laymen, Andrew and Guérin,
who afterwards became the first lay
brothers. They built a little monastery where
they lived in deep retreat and poverty, entirely occupied
in prayer and
study, and frequently honoured by
the visits of St.
Hugh who became like one of themselves. Their manner of life has been
recorded by a contemporary, Guibert of Nogent, who visited them in
their solitude. (De Vitâ suâ, I, ii.)
Meanwhile, another pupil
of St.
Bruno, Eudes of Châtillon, had become pope under
the name of Urban
II (1088). Resolved to continue the work of reform commenced
by Gregory
VII, and being obliged to
struggle against the antipope, Guibert
of Ravenna, and the Emperor
Henry IV, he sought to surround himself with devoted allies and
called his ancient master ad Sedis Apostolicae servitium. Thus
the solitary found himself obliged to
leave the spot where he had spent more than six years in retreat, followed
by a part of his community, who could not make up their minds to live
separated from him (1090). It is difficult to assign the place which he then
occupied at the pontifical court, or his influence in contemporary
events, which was entirely hidden and confidential. Lodged in the palace of
the pope himself
and admitted to his councils, and charged, moreover, with other
collaborators, in preparing matters for the numerous councils of this
period, we must give him some credit for their results. But he took care always
to keep himself in the background, and although he seems to have assisted at
the Council of Benevento (March,
1091), we find no evidence of his having been present at
the Councils of Troja (March, 1093), of Piacenza (March,
1095), or of Clermont (November,
1095). His part in history is effaced. All that we can say with certainty is
that he seconded with all his power the sovereign
pontiff in his efforts for the reform of the clergy,
efforts inaugurated at the Council of Melfi (1089) and
continued at that of Benevento.
A short time after the arrival of St.
Bruno, the pope had
been obliged to abandon Rome before
the victorious forces of the emperor and the antipope.
He withdrew with all his court to the south of Italy.
During the voyage, the
former professor of Reims attracted
the attention of the clergy of Reggio in
further Calabria, which had just lost its archbishop Arnulph (1090),
and their votes were given to him. The pope and
the Norman prince, Roger, Duke of Apulia, strongly approved of
the election and pressed St.
Bruno to accept it. In a similar juncture at Reims he
had escaped by flight; this time he again escaped
by causing Rangier, one of his former pupils, to be elected, who
was fortunately near by at the Benedictine Abbey
of La Cava near Salerno.
But he feared that such attempts would be renewed; moreover he was
weary of the agitated life imposed upon him, and solitude ever
invited him. He begged, therefore, and after much trouble obtained, the pope's permission
to return again to his solitary life. His intention was to
rejoin his brethren in Dauphiné, as a letter addressed to them makes clear. But
the will of Urban
II kept him in Italy,
near the papal court,
to which he could be called at need. The place chosen for his
new retreat by St.
Bruno and some followers who had joined him was in the Diocese
of Squillace, on the eastern slope of the great chain
which crosses Calabria from north to south, and in a high valley
three miles long and two in width, covered with forest. The
new solitaries constructed a little chapel of
planks for their pious reunions
and, in the depths of the woods, cabins covered with mud for their habitations.
A legend says that St.
Bruno whilst at prayer was
discovered by the hounds of Roger, Great Count of Sicily and
Calabria and uncle of the Duke of Apulia, who was then hunting in the
neighbourhood, and who thus learnt to know and venerate him;
but the count had no need to wait for that occasion to know him,
for it was probably upon his invitation that the
new solitaries settled upon his domains. That same year (1091) he
visited them, made them a grant of the lands they occupied, and a close
friendship was formed between them. More than once St.
Bruno went to Mileto to take part in the joys and
sorrows of the noble family,
to visit the count when sick (1098 and 1101), and to baptize his
son Roger (1097), the future King of Sicily.
But more often it was Roger who went into the desert to
visit his friends, and when, through his generosity, the monastery of St.
Stephen was built, in 1095, near the hermitage of St. Mary, there was
erected adjoining it a little country house at which he loved to
pass the time left free from governing his State.
Meanwhile the friends
of St.
Bruno died one after the other: Urban
II in 1099; Landuin, the prior of
the Grand Chartreuse, his first companion, in 1100; Count Roger in 1101.
His own time was near at hand. Before his death he gathered for the
last time his brethren round him and made in their presence a profession of
the Catholic Faith,
the words of which have been preserved. He affirms with special
emphasis his faith in the
mystery of the Holy Trinity, and in the real
presence of Our Saviour in the Holy
Eucharist--a protestation against the two heresies which
had troubled that century, the tritheism of Roscelin,
and the impanation of Berengarius.
After his death, the Carthusians of
Calabria, following a frequent custom of the Middle
Ages by which the Christian
world was associated with the death of its saints,
dispatched a rolliger, a servant of the convent laden
with a long roll of parchment, hung round his neck, who passed through Italy, France, Germany,
and England.
He stopped at the principal churches and communities to announce the
death, and in return, the churches, communities,
or chapters inscribed upon his roll, in prose or verse, the
expression of their regrets, with promises of prayers.
Many of these rolls have been preserved, but few are so extensive or so full of
praise as that about St.
Bruno. A hundred and seventy-eight witnesses, of whom many
had known the deceased, celebrated the extent of his knowledge and
the fruitfulness of his instruction. Strangers to him were above all struck by
his great knowledge and
talents. But his disciples praised his three chief virtues--his
great spirit of prayer,
an extreme mortification,
and a filial devotion
to the Blessed Virgin. Both the churches built by him in
the desert were dedicated to
the Blessed Virgin: Our Lady of Casalibus in Dauphiné,
Our Lady Della Torre in Calabria; and, faithful to his
inspirations, the Carthusian Statutes
proclaim the Mother
of God the first and chief patron of all the houses of the
order, whoever may be their particular patron.
St.
Bruno was buried in the little cemetery of the
hermitage of St. Mary, and many miracles were
worked at his tomb.
He had never been formally canonized.
His cult, authorized for the Carthusian
Order by Leo
X in 1514, was extended to the whole church by Gregory
XV, 17 February, 1623, as a semi-double feast, and elevated to the
class of doubles by Clement
X, 14 March, 1674. St.
Bruno is the popular saint of Calabria; every year a great
multitude resort to the Charterhouse of St. Stephen, on the
Monday and Tuesday of Pentecost, when his relics are
borne in procession to the hermitage of St. Mary, where he
lived, and the people visit the spots sanctified by his presence. An immense
number of medals are
struck in his honour and
distributed to the crowd, and the little Carthusian habits,
which so many children of the neighbourhood wear, are blessed. He is
especially invoked, and successfully, for the deliverance of those
possessed.
As a writer and founder
of an order, St.
Bruno occupies an important place in the history of the
eleventh century. He composed commentaries on
the Psalms and on the Epistles of St.
Paul, the former written probably during his professorship at Reims,
the latter during his stay at the Grande Chartreuse if we may believe an
old manuscript seen
by Mabillon--"Explicit
glosarius Brunonis heremitae super Epistolas B. Pauli." Two letters of his
still remain, also his profession of faith,
and a short elegy on contempt for the world which shows that he
cultivated poetry. The "Commentaries" disclose to us a man of
learning; he knows a little Hebrew and Greek and
uses it to explain, or if need be, rectify the Vulgate;
he is familiar with the Fathers, especially St.
Augustine and St.
Ambrose, his favourites. "His style", says Dom Rivet,
"is concise, clear, nervous and simple, and
his Latin as good as could be expected of that century: it
would be difficult to find a composition of this kind at once more solid and
more luminous, more concise and more clear". His writings have been
published several times: at Paris,
1509-24; Cologne, 1611-40; Migne, Latin Patrology,
CLII, CLIII, Montreuil-sur-Mer, 1891. The Paris edition
of 1524 and those of Cologne include
also some sermons and homilies which
may be more justly attributed to St.
Bruno, Bishop of Segni.
The Preface of the Blessed Virgin has also been wrongly
ascribed to him; it is long anterior, though he may have contributed to
introduce it into the liturgy.
St.
Bruno's distinction as the founder of an order was that he introduced into
the religious
life the mixed form, or union of the eremitical and cenobite modes
of monasticism, a medium between the Camaldolese Rule and
that of St. Benedict. He wrote no rule, but he left behind him two
institutions which had little connection with each other--that of Dauphiné and
that of Calabria. The foundation of Calabria, somewhat like the Camaldolese,
comprised two classes of religious: hermits,
who had the direction of the order, and cenobites who did not feel
called to the solitary life; it only lasted a century, did
not rise to more than five houses, and finally, in 1191, united with
the Cistercian
Order. The foundation of Grenoble,
more like the rule
of St. Benedict, comprised only one kind of religious, subject to a
uniform discipline, and the greater part of whose life was spent
in solitude, without, however, the complete exclusion of
the conventual life. This life spread throughout Europe,
numbered 250 monasteries,
and in spite of many trials continues to this day.
The great figure of St.
Bruno has been often sketched by artists and
has inspired more than one masterpiece: in sculpture,
for example, the famous statue by Houdon,
at St. Mary of the Angels in Rome,
"which would speak if his rule did not compel him to silence";
in painting,
the fine picture by Zurbaran,
in the Seville museum, representing Urban
II and St.
Bruno in conference; the Apparition of the Blessed
Virgin to St.
Bruno, by Guercino at Bologna; and above all the twenty-two pictures
forming the gallery of St.
Bruno in the museum of the Louvre, "a masterpiece of Le
Sueur and of the French school".
Mougel,
Ambrose. "St. Bruno." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 31 Mar.
2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03014b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03014b.htm
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI
At the beginning of the
Liturgy, Cardinal William J. Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, greeted the Holy Father, who responded:
Thank you, Your Eminence,
for your deeply cordial words. Thank you for your work and for your prayers. In
the joy of our common faith, let us now begin the Celebration of the Holy
Mysteries.
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
I have not prepared a
real Homily, only a few ideas for meditation.
As clearly appears, the
mission of St Bruno, today's saint,
is, we might say, interpreted in the prayer for this day, which reminds us,
despite being somewhat different in the Italian text, that his mission was
silence and contemplation.
But silence and
contemplation have a purpose: they serve, in the distractions of daily life, to
preserve permanent union with God. This is their purpose: that union with God
may always be present in our souls and may transform our entire being.
Silence and
contemplation, characteristic of St
Bruno, help us find this profound, continuous union with God in the
distractions of every day. Silence and contemplation: speaking is the beautiful
vocation of the theologian. This is his mission: in the loquacity of our day
and of other times, in the plethora of words, to make the essential words
heard. Through words, it means making present the Word, the Word who comes from
God, the Word who is God.
Yet, since we are part of
this world with all its words, how can we make the Word present in words other
than through a process of purification of our thoughts, which in addition must
be above all a process of purification of our words?
How can we open the
world, and first of all ourselves, to the Word without entering into the
silence of God from which his Word proceeds? For the purification of our words,
hence, also for the purification of the words of the world, we need that
silence which becomes contemplation, which introduces us into God's silence and
brings us to the point where the Word, the redeeming Word, is born.
St Thomas Aquinas, with a
long tradition, says that in theology God is not the object of which we speak.
This is our own normal conception.
God, in reality, is not
the object but the subject of theology. The one who speaks through theology,
the speaking subject, must be God himself. And our speech and thoughts must
always serve to ensure that what God says, the Word of God, is listened to and
finds room in the world.
Thus, once again we find
ourselves invited to this process of forfeiting our own words, this process of
purification so that our words may be nothing but the instrument through which
God can speak, and hence, that he may truly be the subject and not the object
of theology.
In this context, a
beautiful phrase from the First Letter of St Peter springs to my mind. It is
from verse 22 of the first chapter. The Latin goes like this:
"Castificantes animas nostras in oboedentia veritatis". Obedience to
the truth must "purify" our souls and thus guide us to upright speech
and upright action.
In other words, speaking
in the hope of being applauded, governed by what people want to hear out of
obedience to the dictatorship of current opinion, is considered to be a sort of
prostitution: of words and of the soul.
The "purity" to
which the Apostle Peter is referring means not submitting to these standards,
not seeking applause, but rather, seeking obedience to the truth.
And I think that this is
the fundamental virtue for the theologian, this discipline of obedience to the
truth, which makes us, although it may be hard, collaborators of the truth,
mouthpieces of truth, for it is not we who speak in today's river of words, but
it is the truth which speaks in us, who are really purified and made chaste by
obedience to the truth. So it is that we can truly be harbingers of the truth.
This reminds me of St
Ignatius of Antioch and something beautiful he said: "Those who have
understood the Lord's words understand his silence, for the Lord should be
recognized in his silence". The analysis of Jesus' words reaches a certain
point but lives on in our thoughts.
Only when we attain that
silence of the Lord, his being with the Father from which words come, can we
truly begin to grasp the depth of these words.
Jesus' words are born in
his silence on the Mountain, as Scripture tells us, in his being with the
Father.
Words are born from this
silence of communion with the Father, from being immersed in the Father, and
only on reaching this point, on starting from this point, do we arrive at the
real depth of the Word and can ourselves be authentic interpreters of the Word.
The Lord invites us verbally to climb the Mountain with him and thus, in his
silence, to learn anew the true meaning of words.
In saying this, we have
arrived at today's two Readings. Job had cried out to God and had even argued
with God in the face of the glaring injustice with which God was treating him.
He is now confronted with God's greatness. And he understands that before the
true greatness of God all our speech is nothing but poverty and we come nowhere
near the greatness of his being; so he says: "I have spoken... twice, but
I will proceed no further" [Jb 40: 5].
We are silent before the
grandeur of God, for it dwarfs our words. This makes me think of the last weeks
of St Thomas' life. In these last weeks, he no longer wrote, he no longer
spoke. His friends asked him: "Teacher, why are you no longer speaking?
Why are you not writing?". And he said: "Before what I have seen now
all my words appear to me as straw".
Fr Jean-Pierre Torrel,
the great expert on St Thomas, tells us not to misconstrue these words. Straw
is not nothing. Straw bears grains of wheat and this is the great value of
straw. It bears the ear of wheat. And even the straw of words continues to be
worthwhile since it produces wheat.
For us, however, I would
say that this is a relativization of our work; yet, at the same time, it is an
appreciation of our work. It is also an indication in order that our way of
working, our straw, may truly bear the wheat of God's Word.
The Gospel ends with the
words: "He who hears you, hears me". What an admonition! What an
examination of conscience those words are! Is it true that those who hear me
are really listening to the Lord? Let us work and pray so that it may be ever
more true that those who hear us hear Christ. Amen!
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Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
_02.jpg)
Manuel
Pereira (1588–1683), Saint Bruno, 1652, 169 × 70 × 60, Real Academia de Bellas
Artes de San Fernando, Madrid
October 6
St. Bruno, Confessor,
Founder of the Carthusians
From the short chronicle
of the four first priors of the Chartreuse, compiled by Guigo, the fifth prior,
as it seems, whose eulogy is added in MSS. ap. Labb. Bibl. MSS. t. 1, p. 638,
and the Bollandists; from the larger chronicle called Chronica de exordio
Ordinis Carthusiensis, or Tr. de Narratione historiæ inchoationis et
promotionis Ordinis Carthus, containing the history of the five first priors,
written about the year 1250, according to F. Bye; from St. Bruno’s life by Fr.
du Puitz or Puteanus, general of the Order, in 1508, printed at Basil in 1515;
from his life compiled by Guibert of Nogent, in 1101, and the life of St. Hugh
of Grenoble, written by Guy, the fifth general of the Carthusians. See
Mabillon, Annal. Bened. t. 5, p. 202, et Act. Ben. t. 9. Camillus Tutinus, in
Ordinis Carth. historiæ prospectu; Columbius, Diss. de Carthusianorum initiis;
Masson, the learned general of the Order, l. 1. Annalium Carthus. Hercules
Zanotti in Italica historia S. Brunonis, printed at Bologna in
1741. Continuators of the Hist. Littéraire de la France, t. 9, p. 233. F.
Longueval, Hist. de l’Eglise de France, l. 22, t. 8, p. 117. Bye the
Bollandist, t. 3, Oct. p. 491 to 777.
A.D. 1101.
THE MOST pious and learned Cardinal Bona, one of the greatest lights, not only of the Cistercian Order, but of the whole church, speaking of the Carthusian monks, of whose institute St. Bruno was the founder, calls them, “the great miracles of the world; men living in the flesh as out of the flesh; the angels of the earth, representing John the Baptist in the wilderness; the principal ornament of the church; eagles soaring up to heaven, whose state is justly preferred to the institutes of all other religious Orders.” 1 St. Bruno was descended of an ancient and honourable family, and born at Cologn, not after the middle of the eleventh century, as some mistake, but about the year 1030, as the sequel of his life demonstrates. In his infancy he seemed above the usual weaknesses of that age, and nothing childish ever appeared in his manners. His religious parents hoping to secure his virtue by a good education, placed him very young in the college of the clergy of St. Cunibert’s church, where he gave extraordinary proofs of his piety, capacity, and learning, insomuch that St. Anno, then bishop of Cologn, preferred him to a canonry in that church. He was yet young when he left Cologn, and went to Rheims for his greater improvement in his studies, moved probably by the reputation of the school kept by the clergy of that church. 2 Bruno was received by them with great marks of distinction. He took in the whole circle of the sciences; was a good poet for that age, but excelled chiefly in philosophy and theology, so that these titles of poet, philosopher, and divine, were given him by contemporary writers by way of eminence, and he was regarded as a great master and model of the schools. The historians of that age speak still with greater admiration of his singular piety. 3 Heriman, canon and scolasticus of Rheims, resigning his dignities, and renouncing the world to make the study of true wisdom his whole occupation, Gervasius, who was made archbishop of Rheims in 1056, made Bruno scholasticus, to which dignity then belonged the direction of the studies and all the great schools of the diocess. The prudence and extraordinary learning of the saint shone with great lustre in this station; in all his lessons and precepts he had chiefly in view to conduct men to God, and to make them know and respect his holy law. Many eminent scholars in philosophy and divinity did him honour by their proficiency and abilities, and carried his reputation into distant parts; among these Odo became afterwards cardinal bishop of Ostia, and at length pope, under the name of Urban II. Robert of Burgundy, bishop of Langres, brother to two dukes of Burgundy, and grandson to King Robert; Rangier, cardinal archbishop of Reggio, (after St. Bruno had refused that dignity,) and many other learned prelates and abbots of that age mention it as a particular honour and happiness, that they had been Bruno’s scholars. Such was his reputation that he was looked upon as the light of churches, the doctor of doctors, the glory of the two nations of Germany and France, the ornament of the age, the model of good men, and the mirror of the world, to use the expressions of an ancient writer. He taught a considerable time in the church of Rheims; and is said, by the author of his life to have been a long time the support of that great diocess; by which expression he seems to have borne the weight of the spiritual government under the archbishop Gervasius. That prelate dying in 1067, Manasses I. by open simony got possession of that metropolitical church, and oppressed it with most tyrannical vexations and enormities. Bruno retained under him his authority and dignities, particularly that of chancellor of the diocess, in which office he signed with him the charter of the foundations of St. Martin aux Jumeaux, and some other deeds of donations to monasteries. Yet he vigorously opposed his criminal projects. Hugh of Die, the pope’s legate, summoned Manasses to appear at a council which he held at Autun in 1077, and upon his refusing to obey the summons, declared him suspended from his functions. St. Bruno, Manasses the provost, and Poncius, a canon of Rheims, accused him in this council; in which affair our saint behaved with so much prudence and piety, that the legate writing to the pope, exceedingly extolled his virtue and wisdom, styling him the most worthy doctor of the church of Rheims, 4 and recommending him to his holiness as one excellently qualified to give him good counsel, and to assist him in the churches of France in promoting the cause of God. The simoniacal usurper, exasperated against the three canons who appeared in the council against him, caused their houses to be broken open and plundered, and sold their prebends. The persecuted canons took refuge in the castle of the count of Rouci, and remained there till August 1078, as appears by a letter which the simoniacal archbishop at that time wrote against them to the pope.
Before this time St.
Bruno had concerted the project of his retreat, of which he gives the following
account in his letter to Raoul or Ralph, provost of Rheims, to which dignity he
was raised in 1077, upon the resignation of Manasses. St. Bruno, this Ralph,
and another canon of Rheims named Fulcius, in a conversation which they had one
day together in one Adam’s garden, discoursed on the vanity and false pleasures
of the world, and on the joys of eternal life, and being strongly affected with
their serious reflections, promised one another to forsake the world. They
deferred the execution of this engagement till Fulcius should return from Rome,
whither he was going; and he being detained there, Ralph slackened in his
resolution, and continuing at Rheims, was afterwards made archbishop of that
see. But Bruno persevered in his resolution of embracing a state of religious
retirement. Serious meditation increased in him daily his sense of the
inestimable happiness of a glorious eternity, and his abhorrence of the world.
Thus he forsook it in a time of the most flattering prosperity, when he enjoyed
in it riches, honours, and the favour of men, and when the church of Rheims was
ready to choose him archbishop in the room of Manasses, who had been then
convicted of simony and deposed. He resigned his benefice, quitted his friends,
and renounced whatever held him in the world, and persuaded some of his friends
to accompany him into solitude, who were men of great endowments and virtue,
and who abundantly made up the loss of his two first companions in this design;
he seems first to have retired to Reciac or Roe, a fortified town and castle on
the Axona or Aisne in Champagne, the seat of Count Ebal, who had zealously
joined St. Bruno and others in opposing the impiety of Manasses. After some
time he went to Cologn, his native country; and some time after, was called
back to his canonry at Rheims; but making there a very short stay, he repaired
to Saisse-Fontaine, in the diocess of Langres, where he lived some time with
some of his scholars and companions. Two of these, named Peter and Lambert,
built there a church, which was afterwards united to the abbey of Molesme.
In this solitude Bruno,
with an earnest desire of aiming at true perfection in virtue, considered with
himself, and deliberated with his companions, what it was best for him to do,
spending his time in the exercises of holy solitude, penance, and prayer. He
addressed himself for advice to a monk of great experience and sanctity, that
is, to St. Robert, abbot of Molesme, who exhorted him to apply to Hugh, bishop
of Grenoble, who was truly a servant of God, and a person better qualified than
any other to assist him in his design. 5 St.
Bruno followed this direction, being informed that in the diocess of Grenoble,
there were woods, rocks, and deserts most suitable to his desires of finding
perfect solitude, and that this holy prelate would certainly favour his design.
Six of those who had accompanied him in his retreat, attended him on this
occasion, namely, Landwin, who afterwards succeeded him in the office of prior
of the great Chartreuse; Stephen of Bourg, and Stephen of Die, both canons of
St. Rufus in Dauphine; Hugh, whom they called the chaplain, because he was the
only priest among them, and two laymen, Andrew and Guerin. St. Bruno and these
six companions arrived at Grenoble about midsummer in 1084, and cast themselves
at the feet of St. Hugh, begging of him some place in his diocess, where they
might serve God, remote from worldly affairs, and without being burdensome to
men. The holy prelate understanding their errand, rejoiced exceedingly, and
received them with open arms, not doubting but these seven strangers were
represented to him in a vision he had the night before in his sleep; wherein he
thought he saw God himself building a church in the desert of his diocess
called the Chartreuse, and seven stars rising from the ground, and forming a
circle which went before him to that place, as it were, to shew him the way to
that church. 6 He
embraced them very lovingly, thinking he could never sufficiently commend their
generous resolution; and assigned them that desert of Chartreuse for their
retreat, promising his utmost assistance to establish them there; but to the
end they might be armed against the difficulties they would meet with, lest
they should enter upon so great an undertaking without having well considered
it: he, at the same time, represented to them the dismal situation of that
solitude, beset with very high craggy rocks, almost all the year covered with snow
and thick fogs, which rendered them not habitable. This relation did not daunt
the servants of God: on the contrary, joy, painted on their faces, expressed
their satisfaction for having found so convenient a retirement, cut off from
the society of men. St. Hugh having kept them some days in his palace,
conducted them to this place, and made over to them all the right he had in
that forest; and some time after, Siguin, abbot of Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne, who
was joint lord of the same. Bruno and his companions immediately built an
oratory there, and very small cells, at a little distance one from the other,
like the ancient Lauras of Palestine. Such was the original of the Order of the
Carthusians, which took its name from this desert of Chartreuse. 7 Some
have dated its institution in 1086, others in 1085; but it is clearly proved by
Mabillon 8 that
St. Bruno retired to this wilderness in June, 1084, as one of his epitaphs, and
Sigebert of Gemblours, a contemporary writer, expressly mention. St. Hugh, by a
charter dated in the month following, forbade any woman to go into their lands,
or any person to fish, hunt, or drive cattle that way. They first built a
church on a summit, and cells near it, in which they lived two together in each
cell, soon after single, meeting in church at matins and vespers: other hours,
prime, tierce, sext, none, and compline, they recited in their cells. They never
took two refections in a day except on the greater festivals, on which they ate
together in a refectory. On other days they ate in their cells as hermits.
Pulse was given them in a certain measure on days when it was allowed them.
It is hard to
represent the wonderful life of those holy anchorites in their desert. Guibert
of Nogent 9 says,
they passed the six days of the week in their separate cells, but spent the
Sunday together. At parting, each took with him one loaf and one kind of pulse
for his subsistence the rest of the week. Every thing amongst them was
extremely mean and poor; even in their church they had neither gold nor silver,
except a silver chalice. They scarcely ever spoke to one another but by signs;
for they obliged themselves to perpetual silence, that their whole conversation
might be with God. They spent a considerable part of the day in reciting his
praises, and seemed to have no other use of their bodies than to afflict and
humble them with austerities. Labour succeeded prayer. It was their chief
employ to copy pious books, by which they endeavoured to earn their
subsistence, that they might not be burdensome to any. Peter the Venerable,
abbot of Cluni, fifty years after St. Bruno, writes of them: “Their dress is
meaner and poorer than that of other monks; so short and scanty, and so rough,
that the very sight affrights one.—They wear coarse hair shirts next their
skin, fast almost perpetually; eat only bran bread; never touch flesh, either
sick or well; never buy fish, but eat it if given them as an alms; eat eggs and
cheese on Sundays and Thursdays; on
Tuesdays and Saturdays
their fare is pulse or herbs boiled; on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays they
take nothing but bread and water; and they have only one meal a day, except
within the octaves of Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, Epiphany, and some other
festivals. Their constant occupation is praying, reading, and manual labour,
which consists chiefly in transcribing books. They say the lesser hours of the
divine office in their cells at the times when the bell rings; but meet
together at vespers and matins with wonderful recollection. They say mass only
on Sundays and Festivals.” 10 This
manner of life they followed without any written rule; though Mabillon thinks
they conformed to that of St. Benedict in most points, which were compatible
with their plan of an eremitical life. 11 But
others, with Bue the Bollandist, find no resemblance, and say the practices
were peculiar to their institute without being borrowed from any other in
particular. St. Bruno left his disciples fervent observers of those customs and
practices which he had established among them. Guigo or Guy, fifth prior of the
Chartreuse, in 1228, drew up in writing an abstract of their customs. 12 Several
general chapters have added new statutes; of which a complete code was compiled
in 1581, and approved by Innocent XI. in 1688. This may be called the Rule of
the Carthusians. Voltaire copies this remark of Fleury, of the Maurist monks in
the Literary History of France and others, that this is the only ancient
religious Order in the Church which never had any reform, and has never stood
in need of any, which is owing to their entire sequestration from commerce with
the world, and to the extreme vigilance of superiors and visitors in never
allowing a door to be opened for mitigations and dispensation to creep in. “The
Carthusians,” says Voltaire, “entirely consecrate their time to fasting, to
silence, to solitude, and prayer; perfectly quiet in the midst of a tumultuous
world, the noise of which scarcely ever reaches their ears; knowing their
respective sovereigns no otherwise than by their prayers in which their names
are inserted.” This institute has been regarded by the pastors of the Church as
the most perfect model of a penitential and contemplative state, in which
persons devote themselves to the most perfect sanctification of their souls,
and by their tears and prayers endeavour to draw down the divine mercy on
sinners and on the whole world. 13
St. Bruno is styled by
the writers of that age Master of the Chartreuse, and sometimes prior; for
being the person who led the rest into that course of life, he was looked upon
by them as their superior; and as he was the most learned, so he also excelled
them in the fervour of his charity, compunction, and humility. St. Hugh, who at
first received him as his child, became so great an admirer of his virtue that
he took him for his father and spiritual director; and without regard to the
difficulty of the ways, he often went from Grenoble to the Chartreuse, to enjoy
the heavenly conversation of St. Bruno, and improve himself by his advice and
example. That holy prelate felt an inexpressible joy in his heart as often as
he heard any new novice had joined these true disciples of the cross; a joy
which was often renewed in him; for their example awakened many from their
spiritual lethargy in the world, and persons of all ages, even young boys, ran
to the desert to take up the cross of Christ in their company. The Count of
Nevers, a lord of singular piety, made a long stay with them to learn to serve
God with new fervour, and returned praising God for the wonders which his
right-hand works in the hearts in which he dwells. He sent them soon after a
rich present of plate, but they sent it back with excuses that it was useless
to them. He then sent them a large quantity of leather and parchment for their
books.
St. Bruno had not
governed this congregation six years when Pope Urban II. who had formerly been
his scholar at Rheims, being informed of the holy life which he led, and being,
from his own personal acquaintance, fully convinced of his great prudence and
learning, sent him a severe order to repair to Rome, that he might assist him
by his counsels in the government of the Church. The humble monk could have scarcely
met with a more severe trial of his obedience, or made a greater sacrifice.
Nevertheless, without further deliberation, he set out in 1089, having
nominated Landuin prior at the Chartreuse. The Pope himself at the same time
had recommended that house to the protection of Siguin, abbot of Chaise Dieu.
The departure of the Saint was an inexpressible grief to his disciples. They to
whom the greatest austerities were pleasures, and the most hideous desert a
paradise, whilst they enjoyed the presence of such a guide and master, found
their rocks insupportable without him. The saint endeavoured in vain to comfort
them, promising them he would do whatever lay in his power to return to them as
soon as possible. Several of them protested they would never be parted from
him, and these he took with him to Rome. The rest, soon after he had quitted
them, left the Chartreuse; but, as they continued to live together, they were
soon prevailed upon by Landuin to return to their former habitations, of which
the monks of Chaise Dieu had taken possession upon their leaving it. St. Bruno
was received by the Pope with all imaginable tokens of esteem and affection.
His holiness kept him in his palace near his person, and consulted him in all
weighty affairs of religion and conscience. By his order also the saint’s
companions had an apartment assigned them in the city where they endeavoured to
live as they had done in the desert; but they soon found it was not so easy a
matter there to devote themselves wholly to their holy meditations, pious
reading, singing psalms, and fervent prayer, in which consisted all their
satisfaction. They could not shun distracting visits, nor observe such silence
as they had done among the rocks, which was so useful to them. This alteration
drew tears from their eyes, and made them sigh for the solitude they had
quitted. They complained to St. Bruno that they found not in the city what they
sought. The saint ardently desired to conduct them back to the mountain of the
Chartreuse; but not being able to obtain that leave for himself, he prevailed
that they might return to that desert, where the rest of their companions had
already recovered the possession of their former cells, which were restored to
them by the abbot of Chaise-Dieu to the great joy of St. Hugh, and of Hugh
archbishop of Lyons, legate of the holy see, who both conducted them back, and
saw them again settled there.
The tumult of
a court grew every day more insupportable to St. Bruno, who had tasted the
sweets of solitude and uninterrupted contemplation, and trembled amidst the
distractions of the world. The pope had too great a value for such a friend to
grant his request of returning to the Chartreuse; he even pressed him to accept
the archbishopric of Reggio in Calabria; but the holy man excused himself with
so great earnestness, and redoubled his importunities for the liberty of living
to himself in solitude, that his holiness at length thought he could no longer
offer violence to his holy inclinations, and consented that he might retire
into some wilderness in the mountains of Calabria. The saint found a convenient
solitude in the diocess of Squillaci, where he settled in 1090, with some new
disciples whom he had gained in Rome. Here he betook himself to the exercises
of a solitary life with more joy and fervour than ever. Remembering the
engagement which his ancient friend, Ralph, the provost of Rheims, had made to
embrace a solitary life, he wrote him from this desert an elegant and tender
letter, inviting him to his hermitage, putting him
in mind of his promise
and the obligation he had taken upon himself, and giving him an agreeable and
cheerful description of his desert, and of the uninterrupted scenes of pure joy
and delights which he and his companions found in it. From the turn of this
letter it sufficiently appears how far the saint was from the least disposition
of melancholy, moroseness, or harsh severity. Gaiety of soul, which always
attends virtue, is particularly necessary in all who are called to a life of
perfect solitude, in which nothing is more pernicious than sadness, and to
which nothing is more contrary than an inclination to excessive pensiveness.
Those who labour under that weakness, ought generally to be judged unfit for a
state of strict perpetual solitude; for which great fervour, which allows no
moments for sloth, is likewise an essential disposition. Landuin, prior of the
Chartreuse, went into Calabria to consult St. Bruno about the form of living
which our saint had instituted at the Chartreuse; for those disciples were
desirous not to depart in the least point from the spirit and rule of their
holy master. 14 St.
Bruno wrote them an admirable letter, full of tender charity and the spirit of
God, which he sent them by Landuin when he returned in 1099. In this letter he
instructed them in all the practices of a solitary life, solved the
difficulties which they proposed to him, comforted them in their afflictions,
and encouraged them to perseverance and watchfulness against all the attacks of
their enemies. 15
The principal works of
St. Bruno are Comments on the Psalter, and on St. Paul’s Epistles, both of
which are demonstrated 16 to
be the genuine productions of our saint, and answer the character given of St.
Bruno, that he was one of the most learned men, not only of the age in which he
lived, but of most others. He understood both the Hebrew and Greek languages,
and was versed in the writings of the fathers, especially those of St. Ambrose
and St. Austin. He is a strenuous advocate for the doctrine of St. Austin with
regard to the mysteries of divine grace. In his Exposition of the Psalms he
clears the literal sense, but always refers it to the spiritual, applying every
thing to Christ and his Church, as the sense principally meant by the Holy
Ghost. A judicious modern critic writes thus of this work: 17 “Whoever
shall attentively read this Commentary, will agree that it would be hard to
find a work of this kind which is at the same time more clear, solid, and full,
and more concise. If it were better known it would be more made use of. Persons
would be convinced that it is an excellent work to give the key for the true
understanding of the psalms, and that the author was master of all the
sciences, and filled with the spirit of God.—It were to be wished that this
Commentary were put into the hands of all the faithful, especially of persons
dedicated by their state to the duty of public prayer.” The elegy in fourteen
verses, On the contempt of the World, or on the last things, which was composed
by St. Bruno, is engraved under the picture of the saint in the choir of the famous
Chartreuse of Dijon. It is a feeling complaint of the general insensibility of
men in thinking so little on a happy and a miserable eternity, and is inserted
in several Latin prayer-books. Several other comments on the scripture and
other writings, have been ascribed to this saint, but belong some to St. Bruno,
bishop of Segni, others to St. Bruno, bishop of Wurtzbourg, who both flourished
in the same age. 18St.
Bruno being settled in his desert in the diocess of Squillaci had no thoughts
but of living unknown to men; but, as retired as he was, had not been long in
this new hermitage, when Roger, sovereign count of Sicily and Calabria,
discovered him one day as he was hunting in that wood. The prince having conversed
with him, was so moved by his virtue, that he was extremely desirous to testify
his esteem for him by some remarkable favours; but a love of poverty, and a
spirit of disinterestedness would not permit the holy man to take advantage of
his generosity in accepting any rich presents. The monastery De la Torre in
Calabria, was the second of the Order. 19 St.
Bruno established in it the most perfect spirit of humility, contempt of the
world, retirement, and mortification, continuing by his counsels and
instructions at a distance, to direct the monks of the Great Chartreuse in all
spiritual and temporal emergencies. The time being come when God had decreed to
reward the labours of his servant, he visited him with a sickness about the
latter end of September, 1101. When the holy man perceived his death to draw
near, he gathered his monks about his bed, and in their presence, made, as it
were, a public confession of his life; then made a profession of his faith,
which his disciples copied from his mouth, and preserved. It is very clear and
explicit on the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation, and in condemning the
heresy of Berengarius, which had lately raised great troubles in the Church.
The holy man thus expressed his faith of the sacrament of the altar: “I believe
the sacraments which the Church believeth, and in particular that the bread and
wine consecrated on the altar are the true body of our Lord Jesus Christ; his
true flesh, and his true blood, which we receive for the remission of our sins,
and in the hope of eternal life.” 20 He
had more fully explained this doctrine of the Church against Berengarius, in
his comments on St. Paul. 21 He
resigned his soul to God on Sunday the 6th of October, 1101. An account of his
death was sent by his monks of La Torre in an encyclical letter to all the
neighbouring churches and monasteries, according to the custom, to recommend
the souls of persons deceased to their prayers. 22 Near
two hundred answers to this letter are extant, and contain the highest
eulogiums of the extraordinary virtue, wisdom, and learning of St. Bruno. 23 Lanuin,
a disciple of our saint in Calabria, succeeded him in the government of the
monastery De la Torre, and was highly esteemed by Pope Paschal II. Fleury is
mistaken, 24 in
confounding this Lanuin with Landuin of Lucca, whom St. Bruno left Prior of the
Great Chartreuse, and who was succeeded by Peter, a native of Bethune in Flanders,
who had been the saint’s disciple at Saisse Fontaine, with Lambert, who was
prior at De la Torre after the death of Lanuin. 25 St.
Bruno was interred in the cemetery of the church of the blessed Virgin de
Torre; said by some to have been translated to that of St. Stephen; but
improbably; for they were discovered in the former place in 1515. Pope Leo X.
had granted in the preceding year an office in his honor to his Order; which is
called an equipollent beatification, his eminent sanctity and many miracles
after his death not standing in need of the formalities of a scrutiny. In 1623,
Gregory XV. by an equipollent canonization extended his office to the whole
Church. A bone of his jaw with two teeth was sent to the Great Chartreuse; a
finger to the Chartreuse at Paris; and little portions to the Chartreuses of
Cologne, his native city, and Friburg.
The motto of St. Bruno
are these words of the Psalmist. 26 My
eyes prevented the watches: I was troubled, and I spoke not. I had in my mind
the eternal years. Lo! I have gone far off, flying away, and I abode in the
wilderness. 27 This
constant meditation on eternity often broke his rest, and made sleep to flee
from his eyes; this animated him with fervour in his retirement, and perpetual
penance, and made him watch whole nights in sighs and tears to implore the
divine mercy. In this solitude his employment was sometimes to pour forth his
soul in songs of praise, and to entertain himself on the sweet motives of the
divine love; sometimes the remembrance of eternal joys comforted his soul, and
gave him already a kind of foretaste of them; and he often considered the
terrors of the divine judgments, and the eternal torments prepared for sinners,
being strongly affected with the dread of that which is of all others the most
grievous, the pain of loss, or the everlasting privation of God. In a feeling
meditation on this subject, he puts the following words in the mouth of a
damned soul: “Add new tortures to the racks which I endure: may a million of
fresh executioners tear me for all eternity, provided I be not totally deprived
of my God. The most piercing flames will be to me soft roses; the fury of
devils agreeable embraces; the horrible shrieks of those dungeons a pleasant
harmony; these frightful prisons delightful palaces, could I but be freed from
what I feel by the loss of God.” 28
Note
1. Card. Bona, De divin. Psalmod. c. 18, § 5, p. 897. [back]
Note
2. Baldericus, abbot of Bourgueil, in the same age, assures us that
St. Bruno performed his studies at Rheims. From a doubtful passage in the
Chronicle of the abbey of St. Maxentius, some say that St. Bruno studied
philosophy some time under Berengarius at Tours. He could never study at Paris,
or take there the degree of doctor. Some writers two hundred years after St.
Bruno’s time, from whom Gerson copied this account, whom Launoy falsely
pretends to be the first that relates it, (Diss. de Secess. Brun.) ascribed his
conversion to a miraculous apparition of a noted doctor of Paris, where St.
Bruno might pass, though he never lived in that city. They relate that a
certain eminent doctor’s body being carried to the church in Paris in order to
be buried, while the canons were singing the office for the dead, he lifted up
his head upon the bier, and said, with a dreadful voice, “By the just judgment
of God I am accused.” That at a second time he said, “I am judged.” At a third
time, “lam condemned.” This story was inserted in the Roman Breviary, but left
out by an order of Urban VIII. It is defended by two Jesuits, F. Theophilus
Raynaudi and F. Colombi, Diss. De Carthus. Initiis; also, though cooly, by F.
Innocent Masson, general of the Carthusians, Annales Ord. Carthus. anno 1687.
It is rejected by Dr. Launoy, (Diss. de Recessu Brunonis,) Mabillon, (Act. t.
9, pr.) F. Dubois, the Oratorian, Hist. Paris. l. 11, c. 2, n. 6, 8, &c.
The first mention of this story is found in the larger Chronicle written in
1250, and in the Chronicle of St. Bertin, compiled in the close of the
thirteenth century, by John of Ipres, &c. about two hundred years after St.
Bruno. The saint himself, in the letter he wrote from Calabria to Ralph,
provost of Rheims, assigns other motives of his conversion mentioned above;
Guigo, prior of the Chartreuse, in his life of St. Hugh, gives an account of
St. Bruno’s retreat without any mention of such a circumstance; Guibert, abbot
of Nogent, (who wrote in the same age and diocess,) ascribes it to the horror
with which St. Bruno was struck at the scandalous life of the archbishop
Manasses I. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny. l. 2, c. 28, mentions the
institution of this Order without speaking of this prodigy, though his
intention was to collect a history of miracles. Neither is it mentioned by
Sigebert who had then begun his Chronicle of Metz; nor by the author of the
Chronicle of St. Maxentius, who often speaks of St. Bruno, &c. This story
therefore seems a mere hearsay fiction, injudiciously credited by those who
committed it to writing. [back]
Note
3. Rob. Altiss. Chron. p. 77, &c. [back]
Note
4. Conc. t. 10, p. 365, and Hugo Flaviac. in Chron. p. 199. [back]
Note
5. See Mabill. Annal. l. 66, n. 66, and Martenne, Nova Collectio Mon.
t. 6, pr. n. 30. [back]
Note
6. See Brevissima Ordinis Carthus. historia ap. Martenne, t. 6,
Ampliss. Collect. Puteanus in vitâ S Brunonis, &c. [back]
Note
7. The Great Chartreuse is situated three long leagues or ten miles
from Grenoble to the north, which take up six hours’ tedious travelling, over
rugged mountains, which were formerly looked upon as almost impassible; the
present roads, bad as they are, have been cut with incredible pains. The
monastery stands in a barren plain, in a narrow valley, between two cliffs. The
place afforded nothing but wood, stones, and iron; some mills are built upon a
rapid torrent, and several woods being cut down, some meadows and gardens have
been made with much labour and art. The cells and church are neat, but not
stately, though the revenues are said at present to amount to thirty thousand
livres a year. The prior never goes out of the inclosure; is general of the
Order, but only styled prior of the Great Chartreuse. The name of Chartreuse is
given to all other convents of this Order, which by some has been corruptly
called in English Charter-house. [back]
Note
8. Act. Ben. t. 9, pr. n. 86. [back]
Note
9. Guib. de Nov. Vit. Brun. [back]
Note
10. Petrus Venerab. [back]
Note
11. Mabill. Annel. Bened. ad an. 1084, 1101, l. 66, n. 65, et
Act. Bened. t. 9, pr. p. 87. See Bue, § 28, p. 621, 622. [back]
Note
12. Carthusians are never allowed to eat flesh, even in the most
dangerous sicknesses, which rule Gerson has defended in his Apology for this
Order, (Op. t. 2, p. 718, ed. nov.) it being better that some few particulars
should bear an extraordinary inconvenience, than that the discipline of an
Order should be relaxed by dispensations which soon become too easy and
superfluous; neither does flesh ever seem absolutely necessary to health,
especially in constitutions formed to a contrary diet. In other Orders, as St.
Bennet’s, in which flesh meat is allowed in grievous illnesses, many great and
holy men have refused to make use of that indulgence. (See Martenne, in Regul.
S. Bened. p. 477.) Carthusians fast eight months in the year; and in Lent,
Advent, and on all Fridays eat no white meats, as eggs, milk, butter, or
cheese. On Sundays and holidays, they go to the choir at all the hours of the
divine office, except compline, and eat together in a common refectory: on
other days they go to choir only to sing matins, and lauds at midnight, high
mass, and vespers; and recite the other hours privately in their cells, and
dine in them alone, their diet being carried to them by a lay-brother, who puts
it into each cell at a little window, without speaking a word. Women are not
only excluded their inclosure, but even their church; and therefore their
church is generally within their house. They are usually permitted to walk
abroad together in private roads once a week, but never to eat out of doors,
nor to drink anything but water. Only superiors, or others when they address
themselves to superiors, are allowed to speak, except on certain days after
none. Except at the times appointed, they never stir out of their cells, which
are so many houses with three or four little rooms for all necessary purposes,
and a little garden. They work in their garden or at some handicraft or art, or
they study, being furnished with proper tools and with books. Besides the
office of the church, they say every day the office of our Lady, and almost
every day the office for the dead, and are obliged to other prayers, vocal and
mental.
They always
wear a platted hair shirt, and out of modesty sleep in a kind of half dress
(different, for the sake of cleanliness and health, from the habit which they
wear in the day) on straw beds laid on boards: go to bed at five, six, or seven
o’clock; rise again at ten or thereabouts to their double matins of the church
office, and our Lady’s; return to rest towards three, and rise at five or six
in the morning. St. Bruno was careful to provide a good library of useful and
pious books; and this Order has produced several eminent writers on spiritual
matters. (See Hist. Littéraire de la France, t. 7, pref. n. 14, et t. 9,
pref. n. 150, 151, 152, 153.) Among the works of English Carthusians,
those of Walter Hilton, a Carthusian of Bethlehem monastery on the Thames, in
1433, deserve particular esteem for excellent experimental lessons of an
interior life. His Ladder of Perfection, published by Mr. A. Woodhead, is well
known. Besides his tracts that are printed, several others, not inferior in
sentiments of piety, are found in several public and private libraries in the
kingdom, particularly in that of Westminster abbey. [back]
Note
13. The church allows religious men of any of the mendicant Orders to
exchange their Order for that of the Carthusians, as a state of greater
austerity and perfection; but no one can pass from the Carthusians to any other
Order, as Fagnanus, the learned canonist, proves at large from several decretals,
&c. In Cap. Sane, t. 2, p. 356. [back]
Note
14. Mabill. Annal. l. 69, n. 109. [back]
Note
15. See these two letters of St. Bruno, printed in the incomplete
edition of his works at Cologn in 1611, and prefixed to the most inaccurate
History of the Order of the Carthusians, published by Corbin, a lawyer, at
Paris, in 1653, and in Mabillon’s Annales Ben. l. 68, n. 112; l. 69, n. 109,
and in the Bollandists, § 41, p. 675. [back]
Note
16. The Maurist monks in Hist. Littéraire de la France, t. 9, p.
242. They are proved genuine by Bue the Bollandist, § 42, p. 676,
&c. [back]
Note
17. Fr. Littér. ib. p. 245. [back]
Note
18. St. Bruno of Segni, a native of Asti, in Piemont, and canon of the
same place, distinguished himself by his zeal against Berengarius in the time
of Pope Gregory VII. Being chosen bishop of Segni, in the Campagna di Roma, he
endeavoured first to shun that dignity, and afterwards resigned it, becoming a
monk at Mount Cassino in 1104. He was chosen abbot of that famous monastery in
1107; but after three years and ten months, was compelled by the pope to return
to his episcopal charge. He died at Segni in 1125, on the 18th of July, and was
canonized by Lucius III. See Chronicon Cassin. l. 4, c. 31, ap. Muratori, Rerum
Ital. Scriptor. t. 4, p. 512. Also Petrus Cassinensis, De Vir. Illustr.
Cassin. c. 35, ib. t. 6, p. 49. His works were published at Venice, in 2
vols. in 1650, by Dom Maur. Marchesius, monk and dean of Mount Cassino. Among
them are found the Sermons, which have been sometimes ascribed to the founder
of the Chartreuse. Muratori, (Not. in Chron. Cassin. t. 4, p. 512,) proves very
well that the Commentary on the Book of Canticles, which begins, Solomon
inspiratus, &c. among the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, is older than
that theologian, and belongs to St. Bruno of Segni; but the other, which begins Sonet
vox tua, is the work of Aquinas.
Bruno, bishop
of Wurtzbourg (Herbipolis) in Franconia, was uncle to the Emperor Conrad II.
and a pious and learned prelate. He died on the 17th of May, 1045. Several of
his comments on the scriptures, and tracts of piety, have been sometimes
printed among the works of the great St. Bruno. [back]
Note
19. The Order of Carthusians contains one hundred and seventy-two
convents, which are divided into sixteen provinces, of which each has two
visitors. There are said to be only five nunneries of this Order, all situated
in the Catholic Netherlands. The nuns of this Order have longer vocal prayers
and church offices than the monks, and less silence, the rules of extreme
retirement not agreeing generally to that sex. See Arn. Raissii Origines
Carthusiarum Belgii, Duaci, 1632. The Carthusians had in England nine
monasteries; the most remarkable were that called of Jesus of Bethlehem at
Shene upon the Thames in Surrey, founded by Henry V. in 1414, (see Dugdale’s
Monasticon, t. 1, p. 973,) and that in London, near West-Smithfield, founded by
Sir Walter Manny, created knight of the garter by Edward III. It was dissolved
in the twenty-ninth of Henry VIII. John Houghton, prior, was hanged and
quartered at Tyburn, the 27th of April, 1535, the twenty-seventh of Henry VIII.
one of his quarters being set up at his own gate, for denying the king’s
supremacy. Humphry Middlemore, William Exmewe, and Sebastian Newdegate suffered
in the same manner on the 18th of June, 1535, and William Horn, on the 4th of
August, all monks of this house; eight others died in Newgate. William
Trafford, who succeeded Houghton as prior, surrendered the house, which Henry
VIII. bestowed on Sir Thomas Audley, speaker of that parliament which dissolved
religious houses. By his sole daughter and heiress it passed to Thomas Howard,
duke of Norfolk. It was bought, in 1611, for thirteen thousand pounds, of
Thomas Howard, earl of Suffolk, by Thomas Sutton, Esq.; who founded there a
rich hospital for eighty decayed gentlemen, a head master, and a second master
for a free-school, and forty-four boys to be maintained at school for eight
years, with forty pounds then to bind them apprentices; and twenty pounds
a-year for eight years, for twenty-nine scholars sent to the universities. The
governors are sixteen; the present revenues five thousand three hundred and
ninety-one pounds per annum. See Samuel Hearne’s Domus Carthusiana, or history
of this house; Stowe’s Survey, Maitland’s London, and Steven’s Monast. Dr.
Bearcroft’s Historical Account of Thomas Sutton, and his Foundation in the
Charter-house, 1737. Augustin Webster, prior of the Chartreuse of Beauval in
Nottinghamshire, was hanged for opposing Henry VIII’s supremacy, May 4, 1535,
and others of this Order suffered on that account. F. Maurice Chauncey, a monk
of the Chartreuse in London, was imprisoned with them, but released after their
execution. He lived abroad in Flanders some time; but Queen Mary ascending the
throne June 6, 1553, F. Chauncey with several others of the Order leaving
Bruges arrived at London, June 29, 1555; and on the 17th of November, 1556,
were put in possession of their ancient house at Shene, and confirmed in it by
the letters of Cardinal Pole, dated the 31st of December, 1556.—F. Chauncey was
prior. Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole, dying the 17th of November, 1558, the
English Carthusians, being fifteen monks and three lay-brothers, by a
particular favour, through the mediation of Don Gomez de Figueroa, duke of
Feria, the Spanish ambassador in England, were permitted to depart the kingdom
unmolested. They arrived in Flanders the 1st of July, 1559, and were
entertained in the Flemish Chartreuse at Bruges till they got a house in that
town in St. Clare’s-street, in 1569; were driven out of Bruges by the Calvinist
faction the 19th of April, 1578, and travelling through Lille, Douay, and
Cambray, stopped at St. Quintin’s till the 1st of July, and in the Chartreuse
at Noyon till the 5th of July. By Namur they came to Louvain on the 17th of
July, and remained in the Chartreuse there from the 17th of July, 1578, till the
end of 1590. F. Walter Pytts, then prior, went with his community to Antwerp,
and thence to Mechlin where they took a large house in Bleeke-street, 1591.
This convent removed to Nieuport in September, 1626, the charter for their
settlement there being granted by King Philip IV. at Brussels the 20th of June,
1626. By the interest of the same Spanish ambassador the Brigittin nuns of Sion
also had leave to retire abroad. They landed in Zealand; went to Antwerp, into
Normandy, and to Lisbon, where they remain. This nunnery of Sion, and the
Carthusians of Shene, are the only two English Orders which were never
dispersed. In Scotland King James I. in 1430, founded the Chartreuse in the
suburb of Perth, called Vallis or Domus Virtutum. Speed calls it the fairest
abbey of that realm, and says, that at the preaching of John Knox and his
fellows, the mob demolished it; and soon after, the monasteries of St. Andrew’s
Scone, Striveling, and Linlithgow.—Speed, Hist. of England, 1137. F. Maurice
Chauncey died in the Chartreuse at Paris on the 12th of July, 1581, in his
return from Spain, whither he had made a journey about the settlement of his
community. His history of the martyrdom of eighteen Carthusians in England, was
printed at Mentz, in 1550. [back]
Note
20. Ap. Mabill. Analect. t. 4, p. 400. [back]
Note
21. In 1 Cor. xi. p. 305, 306. [back]
Note
22. Epist. Encycl. de Morte Brunonis. [back]
Note
23. In an appendix to the life of St. Bruno, printed in folio in
1516. [back]
Note
24. Fleury, l. 13, p. 518. See F. Longueval and Hist. Littéraire,
p. 241. [back]
Note
25. St. Bruno’s works, with his life by Puteanus, were beautifully
printed at Paris in folio, in 1524, by the accurate and elegant printer, Jodoc
Badius, surnamed from his country, Ascensius. And more completely at Cologn, in
three tomes, usually bound in one volume, in 1611 and 1640. The greater part of
the sermons belong to St. Bruno of Segni, in whose works they also appear; but
others seem the genuine work of this holy patriarch. [back]
Note
28. S. Bruno, op. p. 511. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/10/061.html
Sebastiano
Ricci, La Vierge Marie et l'Enfant Jésus apparaissant à saint Bruno , 1725-1730 Chartreuse
de Vedana, Sospirolo25
Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), The
Apparition of Mary before Saints Bruno and Hugo, 218 x 114,4, Certosa di Vedana
San Bruno (Brunone) Sacerdote
e monaco
- Memoria Facoltativa
Colonia (Germania),
intorno al 1030 - Serra San Bruno (Vibo Valentia), 6 ottobre 1101
Nato in Germania nel 1030
e vissuto poi tra il suo Paese, la Francia e l'Italia, dove morì nel 1101,
Bruno o Brunone, professore di teologia e filosofia, sceglie ben presto la
strada della vita eremitica. Trova così sei compagni che la pensano come lui e
il vescovo Ugo di Grenoble li aiuta a stabilirsi in una località selvaggia
detta «chartusia» (chartreuse in francese). Lì si costruiscono un ambiente per
la preghiera comune, e sette baracche dove ciascuno vive pregando e lavorando:
una vita da eremiti, con momenti comunitari. Quando Bruno insegnava a Reims,
uno dei suoi allievi era il benedettino Oddone di Châtillon. Nel 1090 se lo
ritrova papa col nome di Urbano II, che lo sceglie come consigliere. Ottiene da
lui riconoscimento e autonomia per il monastero fondato presso Grenoble, poi
noto come Grande Chartreuse. In Calabria nella Foresta della Torre (ora in
provincia di Vibo Valentia) fonda una nuova comunità. Più tardi, a poca
distanza, costruirà un altro monastero per la vita comunitaria. È il luogo
accanto al quale sorgeranno poi le prime case dell'attuale Serra San
Bruno. (Avvenire)
Etimologia: Bruno =
allude al colore della carnagione
Martirologio Romano: San
Bruno, sacerdote, che, originario di Colonia in Lotaringia, nel territorio
dell’odierna Germania, dopo avere insegnato la teologia in Francia, desideroso
di condurre vita solitaria, fondò con pochi discepoli nella deserta valle di
Chartroux un Ordine, in cui la solitudine eremitica si combinasse con una
minima forma di vita comunitaria. Chiamato a Roma dal papa beato Urbano II,
perché lo aiutasse nelle necessità della Chiesa, riuscì tuttavia a trascorrere
gli ultimi anni della sua vita in un eremo vicino al monastero di La Torre in
Calabria.
Bruno è un bambino tedesco e nasce in una famiglia di nobili, a Colonia, nel 1030. È molto bravo a scuola. Va in Francia, a Reims, per studiare e qui si laurea in teologia. È talmente intelligente che, dopo essere stato ordinato sacerdote, viene subito nominato, dal vescovo di Reims, professore di filosofia della prestigiosa Scuola di Teologia in cui lo stesso Bruno ha studiato. Bruno per vent’anni ricopre con successo questo ruolo, ma quando un nuovo vescovo arriva a Reims, Bruno si allontana dalla città perché non approva pubblicamente il suo comportamento avido e disonesto.
Intanto il sacerdote si sente attratto dalla vita monastica, modesta, fatta di preghiera, solitudine, lettura e studio dei Libri Sacri. Infatti Bruno potrebbe diventare arcivescovo, ma rifiuta l’incarico. Assieme ad altri sei suoi amici monaci si reca a Grenoble (Rodano-Alpi) a trovare il vescovo Ugo, suo ex allievo. Il vescovo, prima dell’arrivo di Bruno, fa un sogno: vede sette stelle che guidano sette uomini verso un luogo di montagna vicino a Grenoble, chiamato Chartreuse (Certosa). Il vescovo capisce che i desideri di Bruno e dei suoi sei compagni sono ispirati da Dio e così li conduce verso il luogo che ha sognato: una valle immersa nella natura, dove poter pregare e stare in contatto con Dio.
La Chartreuse si trova nelle Alpi della Francia meridionale (Midi) dove Bruno
costruisce un monastero, “Grande Chartreuse”, con la chiesa e le celle per i
monaci. Qui egli crea l’Ordine dei Certosini che si diffondono ben presto in
tutta Europa: essi indossano un saio bianco, vivono in povertà e dedicano il
loro tempo a pregare e a lavorare la terra, in completa solitudine, parlando
tra di loro il meno possibile. Nel 1088 il suo ex allievo papa Urbano II lo
chiama a Roma per nominarlo consigliere della Santa Sede. Bruno accontenta il
papa, ma dopo un po’ di tempo chiede il permesso di ritirarsi di nuovo in un
monastero. Per volere del pontefice deve restare in Italia, e perciò si
trasferisce in Calabria nella Foresta della Torre (Vibo Valentia) dove fonda
due nuovi monasteri. In questo luogo sorge un paese che si chiama Serra San
Bruno, in onore del monaco. Qui Bruno (chiamato anche Brunone), trascorre gli
ultimi anni seguendo la Regola dei certosini, in contatto con Dio e in
solitudine. Muore il 6 ottobre 1101.
Autore: Mariella Lentini
Houdon, Saint Bruno, Église Santa Maria degli
Angeli, Rome.
Marble
statue of Bruno of Cologne by Jean-Antoine Houdon (between 1766 and 1768).
Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (Rome).
Houdon, Saint Bruno, Église Santa Maria degli Angeli, Rome.
Marble statue of Bruno of Cologne by Jean-Antoine Houdon (between 1766 and 1768). Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (Rome).
Nato in Germania, e
vissuto poi tra il suo Paese, la Francia e l’Italia, il nobile renano Bruno o
Brunone è vero figlio dell’Europa dell’XI secolo, divisa e confusa, ma pure a
suo modo aperta e propizia alla mobilità. Studente e poi insegnante a Reims, si
trova presto faccia a faccia con la simonia, cioè col mercato delle cariche
ecclesiastiche che infetta la Chiesa.
Professore di teologia e
filosofia, esperto di cose curiali, potrebbe diventare vescovo per la via onesta
dei meriti, ora che papa Gregorio VII lotta per ripulire gli episcopi. Ma lo
disgusta l’ambiente. La fede che pratica e che insegna è tutt’altra cosa, come
nel 1083 gli conferma Roberto di Molesme, il severo monaco che darà vita ai
Cistercensi.
Bruno trova sei compagni
che la pensano come lui, e il vescovo Ugo di Grenoble li aiuta a stabilirsi in
una località selvaggia detta “chartusia” (chartreuse in francese). Lì si
costruiscono un ambiente per la preghiera comune, e sette baracche dove ciascuno
vive pregando e lavorando: una vita da eremiti, con momenti comunitari. Ma non
pensano minimamente a fondare qualcosa: vogliono soltanto vivere radicalmente
il Vangelo e stare lontani dai mercanti del sacro.
Quando Bruno insegnava a
Reims, uno dei suoi allievi era il benedettino Oddone di Châtillon. Nel 1090 se
lo ritrova papa col nome di Urbano II e deve raggiungerlo a Roma come suo
consigliere. Ottiene da lui riconoscimento e autonomia per il monastero fondato
presso Grenoble, poi noto come Grande Chartreuse. Però a Roma non resiste:
pochi mesi, ed eccolo in Calabria nella Foresta della Torre (ora in provincia
di Vibo Valentia); e riecco l’oratorio, le celle come alla Chartreuse, una
nuova comunità guidata col solito rigore. Più tardi, a poca distanza,
costruirà un altro monastero per chi, inadatto alle asprezze eremitiche,
preferisce vivere in comunità. E’ il luogo accanto al quale sorgeranno poi
le prime case dell’attuale Serra San Bruno. I suoi pochi confratelli (non ama
avere intorno gente numerosa e qualunque) devono essere pronti alla durezza di
una vita che egli insegna col consiglio e con istruzioni scritte, che dopo la
sua morte troveranno codificazione nella Regola, approvata nel 1176 dalla Santa
Sede.
E’ una guida
all’autenticità, col modello della Chiesa primitiva nella povertà e nella
gioia, quando si cantano le lodi a Dio e quando lo si serve col lavoro,
cercando anche qui la perfezione, e facendo da maestri ai fratelli, alle
famiglie, anche con i mestieri splendidamente insegnati. Sempre pochi e sempre
vivi i certosini: a Serra, vicino a Bruno, e altrove, passando attraverso
guerre, terremoti, rivoluzioni. Sempre fedeli allo spirito primitivo. Una
comunità "mai riformata, perché mai deformata". Come la voleva
Bruno, il cui culto è stato approvato da Leone X (1513-1521) e confermato da
Gregorio XV (1621-1623).
Autore: Domenico
Agasso
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/29400
OMELIA DI SUA SANTITÀ
BENEDETTO XVI
Cari Fratelli e Sorelle,
non ho preparato una vera
omelia, solo qualche spunto per fare la meditazione. La missione di san Bruno, il santo di oggi, appare con
chiarezza, è – possiamo dire - interpretata nell'orazione di questo giorno che,
pur alquanto variata nel testo italiano, ci ricorda che la sua missione fu
silenzio e contemplazione.
Ma silenzio e
contemplazione hanno uno scopo: servono per conservare, nella dispersione della
vita quotidiana, una permanente unione con Dio. Questo è lo scopo: che nella
nostra anima sia sempre presente l'unione con Dio e trasformi tutto il nostro
essere.
Silenzio e contemplazione
- caratteristica di san Bruno -
servono per poter trovare nella dispersione di ogni giorno questa profonda,
continua, unione con Dio. Silenzio e contemplazione: la bella vocazione del
teologo è parlare. Questa è la sua missione: nella loquacità del nostro tempo,
e di altri tempi, nell’inflazione delle parole, rendere presenti le parole
essenziali. Nelle parole rendere presente la Parola, la Parola che viene da
Dio, la Parola che è Dio.
Ma come potremmo, essendo
parte di questo mondo con tutte le sue parole, rendere presente la Parola nelle
parole, se non mediante un processo di purificazione del nostro pensare, che
soprattutto deve essere anche un processo di purificazione delle nostre parole?
Come potremmo aprire il mondo, e prima noi stessi, alla Parola senza entrare
nel silenzio di Dio, dal quale procede la sua Parola? Per la purificazione
delle nostre parole, e quindi per la purificazione delle parole del mondo,
abbiamo bisogno di quel silenzio che diventa contemplazione, che ci fa entrare
nel silenzio di Dio e così arrivare al punto dove nasce la Parola, la Parola
redentrice.
San Tommaso d'Aquino, con
una lunga tradizione, dice che nella teologia Dio non è l'oggetto del quale
parliamo. Questa è la nostra concezione normale. In realtà, Dio non è
l'oggetto; Dio è il soggetto della teologia. Chi parla nella teologia, il
soggetto parlante, dovrebbe essere Dio stesso. E il nostro parlare e pensare
dovrebbe solo servire perché possa essere ascoltato, possa trovare spazio nel
mondo, il parlare di Dio, la Parola di Dio. E così, di nuovo, ci troviamo
invitati a questo cammino della rinuncia a parole nostre; a questo cammino
della purificazione, perché le nostre parole siano solo strumento mediante il
quale Dio possa parlare, e così Dio sia realmente non oggetto, ma soggetto
della teologia.
In questo contesto mi
viene in mente una bellissima parola della Prima Lettera di San Pietro, nel
primo capitolo, versetto 22. In latino suona così: «Castificantes animas
nostras in oboedentia veritatis». L'obbedienza alla verità dovrebbe
"castificare" la nostra anima, e così guidare alla retta parola e
alla retta azione. In altri termini, parlare per trovare applausi, parlare
orientandosi a quanto gli uomini vogliono sentire, parlare in obbedienza alla
dittatura delle opinione comuni, è considerato come una specie di prostituzione
della parola e dell'anima. La "castità" a cui allude l’apostolo
Pietro è non sottomettersi a questi standard, non cercare gli applausi, ma
cercare l'obbedienza alla verità. E penso che questa sia la virtù fondamentale
del teologo, questa disciplina anche dura dell'obbedienza alla verità che ci fa
collaboratori della verità, bocca della verità, perché non parliamo noi in questo
fiume di parole di oggi, ma realmente purificati e resi casti dall'obbedienza
alla verità, la verità parli in noi. E possiamo così essere veramente portatori
della verità.
Questo mi fa pensare a
sant'Ignazio di Antiochia e ad una sua bella espressione: "Chi ha capito
le parole del Signore capisce il suo silenzio, perché il Signore va conosciuto
nel suo silenzio". L'analisi delle parole di Gesù arriva fino a un certo
punto, ma rimane nel nostro pensare. Solo quando arriviamo a quel silenzio del
Signore, nel suo essere col Padre dal quale vengono le parole, possiamo anche
realmente cominciare a capire la profondità di queste parole. Le parole di Gesù
sono nate nel suo silenzio sul Monte, come dice la Scrittura, nel suo essere
col Padre. Da questo silenzio della comunione col Padre, dell'essere immerso
nel Padre, nascono le parole e solo arrivando a questo punto, e partendo da
questo punto, arriviamo alla vera profondità della Parola e possiamo essere noi
autentici interpreti della Parola. Il Signore ci invita, parlando, di salire
con Lui sul Monte, e nel suo silenzio, imparare così, di nuovo, il vero senso
delle parole.
Dicendo questo siamo
arrivati alle due letture di oggi. Giobbe aveva gridato a Dio, aveva anche
fatto la lotta con Dio davanti alle evidenti ingiustizie con le quali lo
trattava. Adesso è confrontato con la grandezza di Dio. E capisce che davanti
alla vera grandezza di Dio tutto il nostro parlare è solo povertà e non arriva
nemmeno da lontano alla grandezza del suo essere e così dice: "Due volte
ho parlato, non continuerò". Silenzio davanti alla grandezza di Dio,
perché le parole nostre diventano troppo piccole. Questo mi fa pensare alle
ultime settimane della vita di san Tommaso. In queste ultime settimane non ha
più scritto, non ha più parlato. I suoi amici gli chiedono: Maestro, perché non
parli più, perché non scrivi? E lui dice: Davanti a quanto ho visto adesso
tutte le mie parole mi appaiono come paglia. Il grande conoscitore di san
Tommaso, il Padre Jean-Pierre Torrel, ci dice di non intendere male queste
parole. La paglia non è niente. La paglia porta il grano e questo è il grande
valore della paglia. Porta il grano. E anche la paglia delle parole rimane
valida come portatrice del grano. Ma questo è anche per noi, direi, una
relativizzazione del nostro lavoro e insieme una valorizzazione del nostro
lavoro. E’ anche un’indicazione, perché il modo di lavorare, la nostra paglia,
porti realmente il grano della Parola di Dio.
Il Vangelo finisce con le
parole: «Chi ascolta voi, ascolta me». Che ammonizione, che esame di coscienza
queste parole! È vero che chi ascolta me, ascolta realmente il Signore?
Preghiamo e lavoriamo perché sia sempre più vero che chi ascolta noi ascolta
Cristo. Amen!
© Copyright 2006 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
BRUNO o Brunone, san
di Mario Jona - Enciclopedia Italiana (1930)
Fondatore dell'ordine dei
certosini o cartusiani. Nato verso il 1030 a Colonia, dall'antica famiglia
patrizia degli Hartenfaust, venne inviato nella celebre scuola vescovile di
Reims. Tornato in patria per ricevere gli ordini sacri col titolo di canonico di
S. Cuniberto, ben tosto Gervasio, arcivescovo di Reims, lo richiese per
affidargli la direzione della scuola suddetta, a scopo di restituirle quello
splendore che godeva al tempo del famoso Gerberto, poi papa Silvestro II. Bruno
infatti vide ben presto accorrere alle sue lezioni i giovani meglio
promettenti, molti dei quali illustrarono poi la chiesa nelle cariche più
eminenti. Con questo suo apostolato, durato 20 anni, istillò nella gioventù
ecclesiastica quell'amore delle scienze sacre e delle virtù ecclesiastiche, di
cui grande era il bisogno in quei tempi; a questa pacifica lotta seguì poi una
guerra aperta e senza quartiere contro vizî detestabili, quali erano la
simonia, l'ambizione delle cariche, la mondanità dei costumi.
Il famigerato Manasse,
successo (1069) all'arcivescovo Gervasio durante otto anni, seppe nascondere il
vero suo animo, e sperando di guadagnare la connivenza di Bruno, lo nominò
cancelliere della diocesi (1075). Tuttavia quando si riseppe il patto simoniaco
avvenuto tra Manasse e il re Filippo di Francia, la compera, cioè, della
dignità metropolitana a prezzo d'oro; quando l'indegno prelato, togliendosi la
maschera, inaugurò la lunga serie dei suoi inauditi scandali, sfidando
ostinatamente le ammonizioni e censure del papa e del suo legato,
l'incorruttibile maestro insorse, con soli due amici, intrepido difensore dei
sacri canoni e dell'onore sacerdotale. In questo conflitto Bruno perdette tutto
il suo avere, i suoi titoli e prebende; corse inoltre pericolo, oltreché nella
sua illibata fama, anche nella sua vita. Infatti quando, in un convegno solenne
con Gregorio VII a Roma, l'astuto prelato riuscì con successo momentaneo a
convincere il pontefice rigettando ogni colpa sull'"ingrato canonico
straniero", allora gli stessi amici piegarono, e B., rimasto solo, non
ebbe più tregua in quella diocesi cui aveva dedicato il meglio dei suoi anni
(1080). Tornato dunque a Colonia, lasciò di nuovo ben presto questa città,
perché richiamato a Reims dopo la deposizione definitiva e l'espulsione del prevaricatore,
e quivi per ordine del papa fu reintegrato nelle sue dignità (1081). Con
l'appoggio del legato, i canonici di Reims, unanimi, lo vollero loro vescovo.
Lo cercarono però invano. B. era scomparso dalla scena del mondo.
Consigliato da S. Roberto
di Molesme, futuro patriarca dell'ordine cisterciense, fondava il monastero di
Sèche-Fontaine, la cui chiesa venne consacrata l'anno appresso (1082) dal
vescovo Ugone di Langres. Trovando però questo luogo troppo vicino alla strada
pubblica, l'abbandonò con 6 compagni per inoltrarsi nella solitudine perfetta,
e guidato dal suo antico scolaro, il vescovo Ugone di Grenoble, penetrò nel
luogo deserto di Certosa (Chartreuse, Alpi del Delfinato) dove il 24 giugno
1084 diede principio a quell'austera vita di solitudine, silenzio, preghiera e
lavoro, che doveva esser seguita in appresso da tante anime elette.
Quando Urbano II,
anch'esso già alunno di B. nella scuola di Reims, lo chiamò a Roma per valersi
dei suoi consigli (1090) la nuova istituzione monastica fu in pericolo. Il
santo si recò bensì a Roma; ma invano il papa gli fece dono della chiesa di S.
Ciriaco delle Terme, come pure inutilmente gli offriva l'arcivescovado di
Reggio in Calabria; Urbano dovette cedere davanti al persistente rifiuto del
suo "figlio prediletto", a condizione però che egli rimanesse in
Italia. Nel 1091 B. fondava presso l'odierna Serra S. Bruno (Catanzaro) una
seconda certosa su terre del conte Ruggero di Calabria; a costui battezzò egli
nel 1095 il figlio omonimo, futuro primo re delle Sicilie, e gli salvò cinque
anni dopo la vita denunziandogli la congiura di Sergio e di 200 complici, ai
quali faceva commutare la pena capitale in servitù perpetua al nuovo monastero.
Nel 1100 conferì con Landuino, suo successore nella casa madre, il quale nel
viaggio di ritorno cadeva nelle mani dei servi dell'antipapa Guiberto e moriva
protomartire del suo ordine. Di lì a poco, il 6 ottobre dell'anno 1101, morì
anche Bruno.
Degli scritti di S. Bruno
poca cosa ci è pervenuta. Dei suoi studî giovanili, un'elegia latina; del suo
insegnamento, il concetto del suo commento ai Salmi e alle lettere di
S. Paolo; degli altri anni di vita, una lettera a un amico di Reims (poi
arcivescovo di quella diocesi) e ai suoi religiosi della Grande Certosa.
Bibl.: Zanotti, Storia
di S. Brunone, Bologna 1741; Tromby, Storia del patriarca S. Brunone e del
suo ordine cartusiano, Napoli 1773; Le Couteulx, Annales Ordinis
Cartusiensis, Montreuil-sur-Mer 1887; Bohic, hronica Ordinis Cartusiensis,
Tornaci 1912; Vie de Saint Bruno, par un religieux de la Grande
Chartreuse, Montreuil-sur-Mer 1898; H. Löbbel, Der Stifter des
Carthäuser-Ordens, der Heilige Bruno aus Köln, Münster 1869.
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bruno-o-brunone-san_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/
Voir aussi : http://saint.bruno.free.fr/
https://chartreux.org/
http://liberius.net/livres/Saint_Bruno_et_l_Ordre_des_Chartreux_(tome_1)_000000862.pdf
http://liberius.net/livres/Saint_Bruno_et_l_Ordre_des_Chartreux_(tome_2)_000000901.pdf
http://www.sportnat.com/lapouneur/rando/grandsom/chartreuse/chartreux.htm#bruno
