Since St. Paul’s Community works in collaboration with St.
Bruno Parish, I thought it might be interesting for our St.
Paul’s family to know something about the patron of our sister
parish in Dousman. He isn’t all that well known!
The Dousman parish was dedicated to the patronage of
St. Bruno back in 1852.
Bruno was born in Cologne, Germany around 1030. After doing his studies at the Cathedral School of Rheims, he became the director of theology studies and a teacher at that same school because of his exceptional knowledge and talents. After a few years he found himself drawn to solitude, so he and six learned companions began a new life style in the mountainous, wilderness region of Chartreuse, France in 1084. By 1087 their new community was identified as “The Carthusians,”
who lived individually in hermitages to pray and study, but gathered for community prayer a number of times a day. The community lives in silence except when they pray together and have one hour each week to socialize. (Any Carthusian “wanabees” out there?) [The Carthusian Order continues to
thrive today. There are 25 monasteries on three continents. There is only one monastery in the United States, in Vermont.] In 1090 Pope Urban II, a former student of Bruno’s, asked him
to come to Rome to be his personal spiritual director. Bruno reluctantly, but willingly accepted this assignment. After a couple of years he asked the Holy Father if he could return to his Carthusian way of life. He then established a new hermit community southeast of Rome, at Calabria. He remained there until his death on October 6!", 1101. One of St. Bruno’s most powerful statements was, “
While the world changes, the cross stands firm.”
Other facts:
-----Chartreuse liqueur, which is available in many liquor stores, has been produced at the Carthusian Monastery at Chartreuse since the 1700’s in order to support the monastery and its mission.
No one person knows the whole recipe for the liqueur that contains over 120 herbs. Two monks each know half of the recipe. The whole recipe is held in a vault.
------- A beautiful vestment with the image of St. Bruno on it in leather was donated to St. Bruno Parish by Mrs. Fred Miller over 50 years ago.