St Bruno
was born in Cologne around 1030. He studied at the university in Rheims, where he later taught, and was Rector of Studies for nearly twenty years. Chosen in 1080 as the new Archbishop, Bruno had other plans ̶ he had decided to follow Christ to the desert ̶ and with six of his companions settled in a mountainous and uninhabited spot in the lower Alps, in a place named Chartreuse, under the guidance of the young bishop of Grenoble, Hugh Châteauneuf. They built an oratory with small individual cells at a distance from each other where they lived isolated and in poverty, entirely occupied in prayer and study.
For six years, Bruno was able to enjoy the life he had chosen with his brothers, but early in 1090, he was summoned to Rome by a former pupil, Pope Urban II, to help him in the reform of the Church. The Pope would only countenance his longed-for return to the eremitic life, if he would establish his hermitage closer to the papal court. Bruno chose a forested valley in Calabria for his foundation, and he died there on October 6
th
1101. He wrote two letters full of tender love which have been inspiring Carthusians, as his followers are called, for nine centuries.