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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
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.
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
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
Nicolas MIGNARD. Saint Bruno en prière dans le désert,
1638, huile sur toile, 220 X 144,5, Avignon, Musée Calvet
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/
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.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03014b.htm
Rev.
Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/10/061.html
Bruno the Great of Cologne B (AC)
Born in 925; died at Rheims, France, in 965; cultus confirmed in 1870. Bruno was the youngest son of Emperor Henry the Fowler and Saint Matilda. He was sent to the cathedral school of Utrecht at the age of four, where he benefitted from the ministrations of Bishop Baldericus. His bedside reading as a child was Prudentius--he was definitely a young man devoted to learning. At the age of 14, Bruno joined the imperial court and, in 940, he became personal secretary to Emperor Otto I, his brother.
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1011.shtml
October
6
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St. Bruno, Confessor, Founder of the Carthusians
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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. 18
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St.
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.
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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
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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]
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Note 6. See Brevissima Ordinis Carthus. historia ap.
Martenne, t. 6, Ampliss. Collect. Puteanus in vitâ S Brunonis, &c. [back]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/10/061.html
Saint Bruno
et ses six compagnons devant l'évêque Hugues de Grenoble dans la Grande
Chartreuse,
Manuscrit du XVe siècle
Bruno the Great of Cologne B (AC)
Born in 925; died at Rheims, France, in 965; cultus confirmed in 1870. Bruno was the youngest son of Emperor Henry the Fowler and Saint Matilda. He was sent to the cathedral school of Utrecht at the age of four, where he benefitted from the ministrations of Bishop Baldericus. His bedside reading as a child was Prudentius--he was definitely a young man devoted to learning. At the age of 14, Bruno joined the imperial court and, in 940, he became personal secretary to Emperor Otto I, his brother.
He was ordained in
950, became Otto's chancellor, and in 953 was appointed archbishop of Cologne
until 961. He also was the commendatory of Lorsch and Corvey abbeys. For Bruno
there was no conflict between his religious duties and those as a secular
prince. He saw both callings as requiring an attempt to rebuild the heavenly
Jerusalem on earth. As bishop he insisted on high ecclesiastical standards,
reformed monasteries, and encouraged learning.
Bruno founded the
abbey church of Saint Pantaleon at Cologne, the finest memorial to the
archbishop's religious impulse. Bruno wished to found a Benedictine monastery
in his native city. He rebuilt a small church outside the city gates as its
basis. The building marked the beginning of a new age of architecture in
Cologne. Although work on it did not begin until 15 years after Bruno's death,
the inspiration was his. Saint Pantaleon's represented the Romanesque ideal of
the Holy City.
He was made duke of
Lorraine by Otto when the emperor deposed Duke Conrad the Red for leading a
rebellion, played a leading role in imperial as well as ecclesiastical affairs,
helped settle numerous political disputes, and influenced the consolidation of
the German states. Bruno served as coregent of the empire with his half-
brother when Otto travelled to Rome to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the
pope. Later they were appointed guardians of the young king of the Romans. (He
should not be confused with Saint Bruno founder of the Carthusians) (Attwater,
Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1011.shtml
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.
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
Voir aussi : http://saint.bruno.free.fr/
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
