Coming to Italy

When Bruno obeyed the Pope’s call, he felt that his very young Charterhouse community would have suffered much due to the abandonment of their Father and founder. And so it was. His sons dispersed saying they could not continue without him the life which they had embraced along with him. 

From Rome, however, Bruno succeeded to convince them to take up once more "desert life" under the direction of Landuino, whom he indicated as superior. The group reconvened in the abandoned hermitage. Yet Bruno’s soul, now quite used to solitary prayer and to constant speaking to the Lord, did not find itself rested and content in the surroundings of the Pope’s court at that time; much less in the distractions provoked by his works. From here the great nostalgic feeling of Bruno for the silent desert was reawakened.

It so happened that Urban II had to flee from Rome, since the German emperor Henry IV and antipope Guibertus – known as Clement III – had invaded the pontifical territories. Bruno transferred himself with the papal court and thus found himself in southern Italy. On a proposal made by Pope Urban the canons of Reggio Calabria chose him to be archbishop. He declined the mitre out of love for his contemplative vocation and wishing to find oneself as soon as possible that solitude and silence which his heart so much wished for. Then he obtained permission to retire in solitude within the Norman states which had recently been conquered by Count Roger of Altavilla. Bruno at last found again his cherished solitude with God and the purity of his talking with Him.

Generous Count Roger offered him land in the locality called Torre, some 850 metres high, in the sheart of the Calabria «Outback», now known as central-south Calabria.

There, Bruno founded the Santa Maria hermitage, while at a bit less than 2 km more towards the valley – where the present-day Charterhouse is built – he founded for the lay brothers the monastery of Saint Stephen.