Saint Bruno

He lived by the work of his hands and often ate only twice a week, on Sunday and Thursday; he always went barefoot, and sometimes rolled himself in nettles and thorns, showing a great ardor for martyrdom.

Upon leaving Emperor Otto, he attached himself to Saint Romuald, whom he follow ed first to M saint Romuald Founder of the Camaldolese Order and spiritual guide to Bruno. onte Cassino, then to Pere um, near Ra Mont-Cassin Reference monastery for the Benedictine Rule. venna, and after having long led the eremitic life, wishing to preach to the infidels, he went to Rome to ask permission from the Pope. He made this journey barefoot, walking far ahead of the others, and continually singing psalms. He ate every day to sustain the fatigue of the journey, but only half a loaf of bread, adding to it, on feast days, fruits or roots, and drank only water.

The Pope granted him permission, not only to preach, but to be consecrated archbishop, giving him the pallium in advance. Returning to Germany, he traveled on horseback, but always barefoot, even in the greatest cold, so that sometimes hot water was needed to detach his frozen foot from the stirrup. He came to Merseburg to find the holy King Henry and, with his permission, Ta saint roi Henri King of Germany (Henry II) who authorized the coronation of Bruno. gino, Archbishop of Magd eburg, Tagnon Archbishop of Magdeburg who consecrated Bruno. consecrated him and gave him the pallium, which he himself had brought. Since his consecration, he recited both the monastic office and the canonical office every day, and continued to mortify his body through fasting and vigils, notwithstanding his long journeys.

Boleslaw, Duke of Poland Boleslas, duc de Pologne Duke of Poland who ransomed the bodies of the martyrs. , and the other lords gave him great gifts, but he gave everything to the churches, to his friends, and to the poor, without reserving anything for himself. Finally, in the twelfth year of his conversion (103 8), he Prusse Mission territory of Bruno. went to preach in Prussia and was at first very successful. He arrived, still preaching, at the Russie occidentale Place of the martyrdom of Bruno. borders of Western Russia, and began to announce the Gospel there, without stopping at the prohibition of the inhabitants who opposed him. In the end, as he continued regardless, they took him and cut off his head along with eighteen of his own, on February 14 of the year 1009. The bodies of these martyrs remained without burial until Boleslaw ransomed them at a considerable price, to be the protection of his house.

He is depicted: 1° walking through a burning pyre, for it was to the success of this ordeal that a Slavic prince had attached his conversion: Bruno indeed passed through the fire without being harmed, and the infidel was converted; 2° blessing the chalice of the Mass with his severed hand hanging from his arm. While the holy bishop was celebrating the divine sacrifice, furious pagans threw themselves upon him and one of them cut off his wrist with a blow of a saber: the man of God continued without being moved, and his assassin, struck by such calm, threw himself at his knees to ask for baptism; but the armed crowd rushed upon Saint Bruno and cut off his head.

Acta Sanctorum; Caractéristiques des Saints.