Saint Bruno was born at Cologne, about 1030. He was well known for being the founder of the Carthusian Order, a teacher at Rheims and was wanted as a personal advisor for his former student, Pope Urban II. But he declined due to his vow to live a simple life.
St. Bruno with six companions moved to La Grande Chartreuse where they lived in poverty. They worked hard manually for their lives. They lived in poverty. He prayed and transcribed manuscripts. He wrote several commentaries on St. Paul epistles and the psalms. Bruno tried to live there as he had lived in the desert; but the echoes of the great city disturbed his solitude and after refusing high dignities, he wrung from Pope permission to resume his monastic life in Calabria. There he lived in humility and mortification. He died in 1101. Bruno was buried in the little cemetery of the hermitage of Santa Maria. Saint Bruno has long been regarded as the patron saint of Calabria and one of the patron saints of Germany.
In Catholic art, saint Bruno is recognized by a skull that holds and contemplates, with a book and a cross. He may be crowned with a halo of seven stars. 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 after being canonized by Pope Gregory XV. His feast day is October 6.