Subj : June 19th - St. Bruno of Querfurt
To   : All
From : rich
Date : Fri Jun 18 2021 10:19:50

From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

June 19th - St. Bruno of Querfurt
(Also called Brun and Boniface).

Second Apostle of the Prussians and martyr, born about 970; died 14
February, 1009. Bruno was a member of the noble family of Querfurt and
is commonly said to have been a relative of the Emperor Otto III,
although Hefele (in Kirchenlex., II, s.v. Bruno) emphatically denies
this. When hardly six years old he was sent to Archbishop Adalbert of
Magdeburg to be educated and had the learned Geddo as his teacher in
the cathedral school. He was a well-behaved, industrious scholar,
while still a lad he was made a canon of the cathedral. The 15
year-old Otto III became attached to Bruno, made him one of his court,
and took him to Rome when the young emperor went there in 996 to be
crowned. At Rome Bruno became acquainted with St. Adalbert Archbishop
of Prague, who was murdered a year later by the pagan Prussians to
whom he had gone as a missionary. After Adalbert's death Bruno was
tied with an intense desire for martyrdom. He spent much of has time
in the monastery on the Aventine where Adalbert had become a monk, and
where Abbot Johannes Canaparius wrote a life of Adalbert. Bruno,
however, did not enter the monastic life here, but in the monastery of
Pereum, an island in the swamps near Ravenna.

Pereum was under the rule of the founder of the Camaldoli reform, St.
Romuald, a saint who had great influence over the Emperor Otto III.
Under the guidance of St. Romuald Bruno underwent a severe ascetic
training; it included manual work, fasting all week except Sunday and
Thursday, night vigils, and scourging on the bare back; in addition
Bruno suffered greatly from fever. He found much pleasure in the
friendship of a brother of the same age as himself, Benedict of
Benevento, who shared his cell and who was one with him in mind and
spirit. The Emperor Otto III desired to convert the lands between the
EIbe and the Oder, which were occupied by Slavs, to Christianity, and
to plant colonies there. He hoped to attain these ends through the aid
of a monastery to be founded in this region by some of the most
zealous of Romuald's pupils. In 1001, therefore, Benedict another
brother of the same monastery, Joannes, went, laden with gifts from
the emperor, to Poland, where they were well received by the Christian
Duke Boleslas, who taught them the language of the people. During this
time Bruno studied the language of Italy, where he remained with Otto
and awaited the Apostolic appointment by the pope. Sylvester II made
him archbishop over the heathen and gave him the pallium, but left the
consecration to the Archbishop of Magdeburg, who had the supervision
of the mission to the Slavs. Quitting Rome in 1003, Bruno was
consecrated in February, 1004, by Archbishop Tagino of Magdeburg and
gave his property for the founding of a monastery. As war has broken
out between Emperor Henry II and the Polish Duke, Bruno was not able
to go at once to Poland; so, starting from Ratisbon on the Danube, he
went into Hungary, where St. Adalbert had also laboured. Here he
finished his =E2=80=9CLife of St. Adalbert=E2=80=9D a literary memorial of =
much worth.

Bruno sought to convert the Hungarian ruler Achtum and his
principality of "Black-Hungary", but he met with so much opposition,
including that of the Greek monks, that success was impossible. In
December, 1007, he went to Russia. Here the Grand duke Vladimir
entertained him for a month and then gave him a territory extending to
the possessions of the Petschenegen, who lived on the Black Sea
between the Danube and the Don. This was considered the fiercest and
most cruel of the heathen tribes. Bruno spent five months among them,
baptized some thirty adults, aided in bringing about a treaty of peace
with Russia, and left in that country one of his companions whom he
had consecrated bishop. About the middle of the year 1008 he returned
to Poland and there consecrated a bishop for Sweden. While in Poland
he heard that his friend Benedict and four companions had been killed
by robbers on 11 May, 1003. Making use of the accounts of
eyewitnesses, he wrote the touching history of the lives and death of
the so-called Polish brothers. Towards the end of 1008 he wrote a
memorable, but ineffectual, letter to the Emperor Henry II, exhorting
him to show clemency and to conclude a peace with Boleslas of Poland.
Near the close of this same year, accompanied by 18 companions,
he went to found a mission among the Prussians, but the soil was not
fruitful, and Bruno and his companions travelled towards the borders
of Russia, preaching courageously as they went. On the borders of
Russia they were attacked by the heathen, the whole company were
murdered, Bruno with great composure meeting death by decapitation.
Duke Boleslas bought the bodies of the slain and had them brought to
Poland. It is said that the city of Braunsberg is named after St.
Bruno.

Soon after the time of their death St. Bruno and his companions were
reverenced as martyrs. Little value is to be attached to a legendary
account of the martyrdom by a certain Wipert. Bruno's fellow-pupil,
Dithmar, or Thietmar, Bishop of Merseburg, gives a brief account of
him in his Chronicle. VI, 58.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03018a.htm


Saint Quote:
To know whom to avoid is a great means of saving our souls.
--St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274AD)

Bible quote:
Everyone who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or
mother or wife, or children, or lands, for My Name's sake and for the
Gospel's sake, shall receive now in the present time a
hundredfold--along with persecutions, and in the age to come life
everlasting.  (Matthew 19:29/Mark 10:29-30)

<><><><>
To listen to the Divine Word

To study the truths of religion, not so much to know as to practice
them; to listen to the Divine Word, which speaks more to the heart
than to the understanding; to know and to do what is necessary for
salvation, is the true science of a Christian. I am weary of
speculative knowledge, which does not change nor move my heart, but
only flatters the curiosity of my mind; I am tired of knowing and
saying so much concerning eternal truths and salvation, and yet doing
so little to obtain it.

Prayer: O Jesus! Who hast taught us that not all those who say Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only such as do the
will of Thy Father, whose lives correspond with their belief, grant us
a truly Christian spirit, a Christian heart, and guide us in the paths
of a Christian life. Grant that I may become detached from all things,
and in all things seek Thee alone. Grant that I may direct all my
knowledge, my whole capacity, all my happiness, and all my exertions,
to please Thee, to love Thee, and to obtain Thy love for time and
eternity. Amen.
--Thomas =C3  Kempis, From the Imitation of Christ
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)

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