Bruno le Chartreux

v. 1030-1101 11th century Feast day: October 6

Inhabited silence; solitude as the place where one becomes available again.

Who was Bruno le Chartreux?

A renowned master of the school of Reims, he left his career and went with six companions into an Alpine valley, the Chartreuse. There he invented a life in which solitude and brotherhood hold each other up. Recalled to Rome by a former pupil become pope, he obtained leave to go back, and died in Calabria without ever writing a rule.

In their own words

What the solitude and silence of the desert bring to those who love them, only those who have experienced it can know.

Letter to Raoul le Verd, 6

There, as the wage of the struggle, one receives the longed-for fruit: a peace the world does not know, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Letter to Raoul le Verd, 6