Editing Bruno of Querfurt

{{Short description|10th/11th-century monk, bishop, missionary and martyr}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=[[Saint]]
|name=Bruno of Querfurt, [[Camaldolese|O.S.B. Cam.]]
|birth_date={{circa}} 974
|death_date=14 February 1009
|feast_day=15 October
|venerated_in=[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br>[[Roman Catholic Church]] ([[Camaldolese]] Order)
|image=Bruno_of_Querfurt.jpg
|imagesize=175px
|caption=A medieval fresco depicting St Bruno's death
|birth_place=[[Querfurt]], [[Holy Roman Empire]] (now in [[Saxony-Anhalt]])
|death_place=[[Kievan Rus]]
|titles=Bishop and Martyr; Second Apostle of the Prussians
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=
|patronage=
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}

'''Bruno of Querfurt, O.S.B. Cam.''', ({{langx|de|Brun von Querfurt}}; {{circa}} 974 – 14 February or 9/14 March 1009), also known as '''Brun''', was a Christian [[missionary]] [[bishop]], [[Camaldolese]] [[monk]] and [[Christian martyrs|martyr]], who was beheaded near the border of [[Kievan Rus]] and [[Lithuania]] for trying to spread Christianity. He is also called the second "Apostle of the [[Old Prussians|Prussians]]".

== Biography ==

=== Early life ===
Bruno was from a noble family of [[Querfurt]] (now in  [[Saxony-Anhalt]]). He is rumoured to have been a relative of the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto III]]. At the age of six, he was sent to be educated at the cathedral school in [[Magdeburg]], the seat of [[Adalbert of Magdeburg]], the teacher and namesake of [[Adalbert of Prague]]. While still a youth, he was made a [[Canon (priest)|canon]] of the [[Cathedral of Magdeburg]]. The fifteen-year-old Otto III made Bruno a part of his royal court. In 995 Otto III appointed Bruno as his court chaplain.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://talpykla.istorija.lt/bitstream/handle/99999/2092/LHS_14_1-10.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |title=Šiūlys, Rimgaudas. "The Spirituality of St. Bruno of Querfurt", ''Lithuanian Historical Studies'', 14, 2009, ISSN 1392-2343 pp. 1–10 |access-date=2019-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190213123838/http://talpykla.istorija.lt/bitstream/handle/99999/2092/LHS_14_1-10.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-date=2019-02-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

While in [[Rome]] for Otto's imperial coronation, Bruno met [[Adalbert of Prague]], the first "Apostle of the Prussians", killed a year later, which inspired Bruno to write a biography of Adalbert when he reached the [[Christianization#Hungary|recently Christianized]] and consolidated [[Kingdom of Hungary]] himself. Bruno spent much time at the monastery where Adalbert had become a [[monk]] and where abbot [[John Canaparius]] may have written a life of Adalbert. In 998, Bruno entered a Benedictine monastery near [[Ravenna]] that Otto had founded, and later underwent strict [[ascetic]] training under the guidance of [[Romuald]].<ref name=Meier>{{catholic|title=St. Bruno of Querfurt|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03018a.htm|last=Meier|first=Gabriel|volume=3|date=1908|access-date=6 September 2017|inline=1}}</ref>

=== Missionary life ===
[[Image:Pomeraniae Ducatus Tabula.jpg|thumb|450px|The lands given Bruno in 1003 were in the region shown on left bank of the Oder, [[Hither Pomerania]] along the coast, or the future [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]] to its south]]

[[Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto III]] hoped to establish a monastery between the [[Elbe]] and the [[Oder]] (somewhere in the  [[Paganism|pagan]] lands that became [[Margraviate of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]] or Western <!-- don't join as [[Western Pomerania]]... the generic name is the only one with a map applicable to the era-->[[Pomerania]]) to help convert the local population to Christianity and colonize the area. In 1001, two monks from his monastery travelled to Poland, while Bruno was with Otto in Italy, studying the language and awaiting the Apostolic appointment by [[Pope Sylvester II]].<ref name=Meier/>

In 1003 [[Pope Sylvester II]] appointed Bruno, at the age of 33, to head a mission amongst the pagan peoples of Eastern Europe. Bruno left Rome in 1004, and having been named an archbishop was consecrated in February of that year by Archbishop Tagino of Magdeburg.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wLkmSBuUxeoC&dq=Bruno+of+Querfurt&pg=PA193 Duckett, Eleanor Shipley. ''Death and Life in the Tenth Century'', University of Michigan Press, 1967], {{ISBN|9780472061723}} p. 193</ref> Owing to a regional conflict between the [[Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Henry II]] and [[Boleslaus I of Poland|Duke Boleslaus I of Poland]], Bruno could not go directly to Poland so he set out for Hungary. There he went to the places that Adalbert of Prague had attended.

Bruno tried to persuade [[Ahtum]], the Duke of [[Banat]], who was under the jurisdiction of [[Patriarchate of Constantinople]] to accept the jurisdiction of the [[Bishop of Rome]], but this precipitated a large controversy leading to organized opposition from local monks. Bruno elected to gracefully exit the region after he first finished his book, the famous ''"Life of [[Adalbert of Prague]],"'' a literary memorial giving a history of the (relatively recent) conversion of the Hungarians.<ref name=Meier/>

After this diplomatic failure, Bruno went to [[Kyiv]], where Grand Duke [[Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev|Vladimir I]] authorized him to make Christian converts among the [[Pechenegs]], semi-nomadic [[Turkic peoples]] living between the [[Danube]] and the [[Don River, Russia|Don]] rivers.<ref name=Meier/> Bruno spent five months there and baptized some thirty adults. He helped to bring about a peace treaty between them and the ruler of Kyiv.

Before leaving for Poland, Bruno [[Consecration|consecrated]] a bishop for the [[Pechenegs]]. While in Poland he consecrated the first Bishop of Sweden and is said to have sent emissaries to baptize the king of Sweden,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=DC0aAAAAYAAJ&dq=Bruno+von+Querfurt+olaf&pg=PA142 Bruno of Querfurt, baptism of king of Sweden]</ref> whose mother had come from Poland. Bruno found out that his friend Benedict and four companions had been killed by robbers in 1003.<ref name=Meier/> Bruno took eyewitness accounts and wrote down a touching history of the so-called Five Martyred Brothers.<ref name=Butler>[https://archiv.katolikus.hu/hun-saints/bruno.html Butler, Alban. ''Lives of the Saints'', Christian Classics, 1995]</ref>

=== Mission to Prussia and death ===
[[File:Polska 992 - 1025.png|thumb|[[Poland]] and [[Prussia (Baltic)|Prussia]] during the reign of [[Boleslaus I of Poland|Bolesław the Brave]]]]
In the autumn or at the end of 1008 Bruno and eighteen companions set out to found a mission among the [[Old Prussians]]; they succeeded in converting Netimer and then travelled to the east, heading very likely towards [[Yotvingians|Yotvingia]].

Bruno met opposition in his efforts to evangelize the borderland and when he persisted in disregarding their warnings he was [[decapitation|beheaded]] on 14 February (or 9 or 14 March) 1009, and most of his eighteen companions were hanged by Zebeden, brother of Netimer.<ref name=Butler/> Duke [[Boleslaus the Brave]] bought the bodies and brought them to Poland. (It was supposed that they were laid to rest in [[Przemyśl]], where some historians place Bruno's diocese; such localization of Bruno's burial place is hardly probable because Przemyśl then belonged to [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] Kievan Rus through 1018.) The ''Annals of Magdeburg,'' [[Thietmar of Merseburg]]'s ''Chronicle'', the ''[[Annals of Quedlinburg]]'', various works of [[Magdeburg]] Bishops, and many other written sources of 11th–15th centuries record this story.

Soon after his death, Bruno and his companions were venerated as martyrs and Bruno was soon after [[canonized]]. It was said that [[Braunsberg]] was named after Bruno.<ref name=Meier/>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Saints}}
*[[Name of Lithuania]]
*[[Christianization of Lithuania]]

== References ==
<references />

==Further reading==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110927084800/http://www.if.vu.lt/files/LIS%20serveris/LietuvosIstorijosStudijosNo23.pdf A. Bumblauskas. Lithuania’s Millennium –Millennium Lithuaniae Or What Lithuania Can Tell the World on this Occasion]. ''Lietuvos istorijos studijos'', 2009, t. 23, p.&nbsp;127–158.
*[http://etalpykla.lituanistikadb.lt/fedora/get/LT-LDB-0001:J.04~2010~1367176447688/DS.002.1.01.ARTIC D. Baronas. ST BRUNO OF QUERFURT: THE MISSIONARY VOCATION]. ''LITHUANIAN  HISTORICAL  STUDIES'', 2009, t. 14.  p.&nbsp;41–52.
* {{cite book |date=2014 |first=Ian |last=Wood |chapter=The Latin Hagiography of Mission from Rimbert to Bruno of Querfurt |pages=34-39 |title=The Cyril and Methodius Mission and Europe: 1150 Years Since the Arrival of the Thessaloniki Brothers in Great Moravia |isbn=978-80-86023-51-9}} OS LG 2023-08-18.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Bruno of Querfurt}}
{{EB1911 poster|Bruno of Querfurt, Saint}}
* [http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/91305 Saint Bruno Querfurt] {{in lang|it}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:970s births]]
[[Category:1009 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Querfurt]]
[[Category:Medieval German saints]]
[[Category:German Roman Catholic missionaries]]
[[Category:11th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Camaldolese saints]]
[[Category:Benedictine martyrs]]
[[Category:Benedictine saints]]
[[Category:Executed German people]]
[[Category:11th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:11th-century German writers]]