Saint Bruno
A German, Father Bruno of Cologne, founded the first holy brace of Carthusian monasteries. One would usually say, of this XIth-century saint, that he was “founder of the Carthusians,” except, I don’t think that’s how monasteries work. They may be started by anybody, and indeed, back in the East, many monasteries were started by Buddhists. But in Christendom they have been, necessarily, under the patronage of Our Lord. This we can know from the many miracles that have attended their foundation. And what depends on God only lasts until God’s patronage ceases. I think that is what happens in Buddhist monasteries, too, for as Christ said, “I have other flocks,” and will have these “gentiles” brought into His fold.
Father Bruno was among our greatest saints, and if you will, a model for how to be a saint in all ages. He was surrounded by famously good men, and some famously bad ones, had pope and cardinals as his pupils, and various passing rôles in the Church, yet was consistently humble and aloof from power. He had courage and decision; without hesitation boldly sacking the corrupt, declining an episcopal appointment for himself, and in many other ways “being his own man.” Within the Grand Chartreuse, and other enclosures of the Ordo Cartusiensis (we call them “Charterhouses” in English) his spiritual echo is still heard, after a millennium of adventure, including violent persecutions in “Reformations” and “Enlightenments.”
They were warmly hated. (But, “Know that the world hated me first.”) Their priories were the source of much charity, and of course this led to multiple conversions.
What appeals to me in Saint Bruno and the Carthusians is an unhurried focus on contemplation and art. They do arduous toil, too, in silence, and they do not intersect with “the community.” They are not missionaries or preachers, except perhaps through their works, for they have been the manuscriptorialists.
They are opposite to what is promoted today, through apps and Internet. They are not a virus or infection.