Bruno of Cologne

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bruno in the habit of the Carthusians, depiction from the Breviarium Cartusiani ordinis (1642)
Gherardo Starnina - hll. Stephanus and Bruno (around 1400)
Gaspar de Crayer - Bruno as a Hermit (around 1655)

Bruno of Cologne (* between 1027 and 1030 (1035?) In Cologne ; † October 6, 1101 in the La Torre Charterhouse in Calabria ) was the founder of the Carthusian Order and is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church . Similar to St. Romuald von Camaldoli , the founder of the Camaldolese order , consolidated Bruno of Cologne at the beginning of the 2nd millennium, the complete devotion to God and renunciation of the world in the hermitic life. His feast day in the liturgy of the Catholic Church is October 6th.

biography

According to church tradition, Bruno is said to come from an old patrician family in Cologne , probably from the Hardevust family . Descendants of this family often later had special relationships with the Order and the name Bruno was common in the family.

Bruno studied philosophy and theology at the cathedral schools in Cologne and Reims . In 1056 he became head of the Reims Cathedral School. In the investiture dispute between the church and the secular rulers, he defended the position of the church. When the secular Manasses I. de Gourney became Archbishop of Reims , Bruno had to flee from him and leave Reims. After Manasses I was deposed in 1080, Bruno did not return to Reims, but entered the Molesme Abbey as a Benedictine .

In 1084 his abbot allowed him to build a hermitage in the nearby wasteland of Sèche-Fontaine . Soon more hermits joined Bruno and the Sêche-Fontaine site became too small. Bishop Hugo von Grenoble gave Bruno an area in the Chartreuse Mountains in the French Alps , where Bruno and six companions built a larger hermitage, La Grande Chartreuse .

In 1090 Bruno was called to Rome by one of his former students, the newly elected Pope Urban II , as his advisor . Bruno renounced the diocese of Reggio offered to him . As early as 1091 Bruno founded another charterhouse in La Torre in Calabria, today's monastery of Santo Stefano del Bosco in Serra San Bruno, where he stayed until his death. Bruno died on October 6, 1101. His pupil and companion Lanuinus was chosen to succeed him.

Pope Leo X canonized Bruno in 1514 .

Adoration

To St. Few churches are dedicated to Bruno. He is against obsession and the plague called .

presentation

High medieval representations of St. Bruno are unknown. In the numerous modern portraits he is shown with a book , a skull , a crucifix , the ends of which turn into leaves, and seven stars (these are both a reference to a vision of the saint as well as to the special connection between the Carthusians and the Blessed Mother ).

As part of the redesign of the sculpture program for the Cologne town hall tower in the 1980s, Bruno von Cologne was honored with a figure by Andreas Rosenkranz on the fourth floor on the west side of the tower.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bruno von Köln  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ambrose Mougel:  St Bruno . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 3, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1908.
  2. ↑ stadt-koeln.de: Sculptures on the fourth floor , accessed on January 15, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Bruno of Cologne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bruno the Carthusian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Monk, Carthusian, founder of the Carthusian order
DATE OF BIRTH between 1027 and 1035
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1101
Place of death La Torre