Bruno, born in 1030, is also known as Saint Bruno the Carthusian for the monastic order he founded. He studied in Reims and was ordained in Cologne in 1055. In 1057 he went back to Reims to lead the school, a post he kept for almost 20 years. He was made chancellor of the church of Reims in 1075 but left soon after in protest of the behavior of new bishop Manasses de Gournai who was finally deposed in 1080. Bruno refused the nomination to replace de Gournai as it was his intention to retire to live in solitude and prayer. He had a vision in a dream to go with Bishop (later Saint) Hugh of Grenoble. Bruno, Hugh, and five other religious settled at Chartreuse and founded the Carthusian order in 1084.
 
This first period of monastic life was not to last long. Bruno was called to help Urban II, a former student of his, against the antipope Guibert of Ravenna and the hostile Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. While working with Urban II, he rejected another offer to become bishop, this time of Calabria. Eventually Bruno was allowed to return to monastic life. Count Roger of Sicily and Calabria befriend Bruno and the monks of his order, granting them the land where they founded St. Mary’s at La Torre. The order was known for its strict asceticism, poverty, and prayer and its unique organization combining the life of the hermit with that of the collective life of traditional monks.
 
Saint Bruno wrote several commentaries on the psalms and on St. Paul's epistles. He died on October 6, 1101, and was never formally canonized because his order renounces all public honors. However, Pope Leo X gave permission for Carthusians to celebrate his feast in 1514 and his name was added to the Roman calendar in 1623.