Death of Saint Bruno

In June 1101 Count Roger died, assisted by our Patriarch. A short while later, on Sunday 6^th October of the same year, it was Bruno’s turn to return to the Father, surrounded as he was by his brethren who had run to the place from the dependant houses at Santa Maria del Bosco. 

After having recalled his various stages in life starting from his infancy and narrated what happened during his life, worthy of wisdom and truth, and after having professed his own faith in the Trinity, the Saint died and was buried in the cave where he had passed part of his days. His successor, Blessed Landuin, was buried next to him, in the same grave. The third Master of the Hermitage of Santa Maria saw to the transfer of the two corpses to the Hermitage church. After his death the hermits of Santa Maria della Torre, in conformity with a widespread usage at the time kept for most illustrious persons, announced Bruno’s death by means of a circular letter addressed to the Apostolic See and to the whole Church and asked for prayers to be said for his soul. The monk who was entrusted to take this letter to the communities of the localities which might have known directly or indirectly the deceased, also carried along with him a scroll, made up of an amount of parchments which were sown together, 25 centimetres wide, closed in a wooden or metal cylinder which was hung round his neck. It was in that parchment that a monk from Serra had collected 178 funerary memoirs, the Titles, that have sent us precious data on Bruno’s spiritual countenance.

On the 19^th July 1514, Pope Leo X authorised the rendering of cult to Saint Bruno, with an oral sentence (vivae vocis oraculo), and on the 17^th February 1623 Gregory XV further extended the cult to the universal Church, to be celebrated on the 6^th October during the liturgical year.