In Calabria

The Saint described the nature of the place received as a gift in a letter addressed to Rodolfo il Verde, one of the two companions who together with him made the vow of consecration to monastic life in Adam’s garden:

«In the territory of Calabria, with a few religious brethren, some of whom are very well bred, and who, in persevering divine vigilance expect the return of their Lord to open for him as soon as he knocks, I live in a hermitage which is quite some distance away from all parts, from other dwellings. Its amenities, its mild and safe climate, its wide and pleasant plain extending for a long passage among the mountains, with its green prairies and its flourishing pastures, what can I tell of all this in an adequate manner? Who can describe in a consonant manner the view of the hills which sweetly lift up on all sides, the recess of the shadowy vales, with the pleasant richness of rivers, brooks and springs? Neither are irrigated gardens lacking, nor are fruit trees of various kinds, all fertile».

Bruno has acquired the land by means of a deed drawn up in Mileto in 1090. Having arrived in the high valley of the Ancinale river, in the vicinity of Spadola (the only dwelling then existing), he followed the way toward a spring which was lost in a labyrinth of small valleys, ravines and cliffs, behind the clearing of Santa Maria. It was exactly here that he found «a good spring», which was later opportunely put in good order, if not also embellished with a small monument, having a baroque style, on which there was inscribed the year «1190» as a memorial of the old spring. Near the same fountain there was a small grotto and Saint Bruno rejoiced having found the ideal place for a monastic foundation. He therefore commenced organizing the groups and establishing their respective dwellings: the priests in the valley and clearing in the forest (Hermitage of Saint Mary); the brothers who render their domestic services some two kilometres away, in the monastery of Saint Stephen, which was also destined to receive those who could not completely follow the rules of the desert.

Later, when Count Roger assigned to him the forest-keeper Mulè, together with his sons, Bruno worked it out in such manner that the workers (a few of whom were married) established themselves a short distance away from the monks, so as to be completely separated from them. There were thus built the first dwellings which gave rise to the village of Serra. This was around the year 1094.

At that time in Calabria there flourished the monastic life practised in an Italian-Greek manner by the holy monks of St Basil; and certainly this land was paradise for monks of the Middle Ages. Without entangling himself with them, without wanting to enter their groups, Bruno followed certain austerities which these monks developed according to the monastic traditions of Calabria, as are found to be well illustrated in the documents of that time. It is for this reason that it so happened that he prayed in a cave, just as so many of his predecessors did in solitary monastic life. The austerities of that time on the other hand made it binding to wash in the waters of the nearby streams, even if freezing cold, which was something which the monks did with a particular spirit of penance.

So was the tradition, which held for many centuries, born namely that of Saint Bruno, a penitent recollected praying in water, which the people of Serra wanted to immortalize by channeling the waters into a so called «small lake» and placing the statue of a kneeling San Bruno inside it.

Reassuming the sort of life which he had led in France, Bruno passed the last ten years of his life in contemplative prayer and solitude in the hermitage of Santa Maria.

It was at this time that a memorable visit took place when Bruno met Landuin, his successor in governing the French Carthusian community, who had undertaken a long and tiring journey to meet the founder of the Carthusian Order.

The two men of God, according to tradition, embraced each other at the Iron Cross on the road from Soriano to Serra, with such charity and show of tender feeling, as the letter which Bruno wrote to his brethren at the Certosa evinces.

In this second period of monastic life, Bruno has now become a mature monk for life everlasting. He is now the spiritual father of two communities which have received his spirit and have made a treasure of his spiritual maturity, of his union with God, of his experience of men, of his wisdom and fatherly goodness.