He personally founded the order's first two communities. His feast day is 6 October. Bruno was born in Cologne about the year His education completed, Bruno returned to Cologne, where he was most likely ordained a priest around and provided with a canonry at St.
In Bishop Gervais recalled him to Reims, where the following year he found himself head of the episcopal school, which at the time included the direction of the schools and the oversight of all the educational establishments of the diocese. For eighteen years, from to , he maintained the prestige which the school of Reims attained under its former masters, Remi of Auxerre, and others.
Bruno led the school for nearly two decades, acquiring an excellent reputation as a philosopher and theologian. In , Bruno was appointed chancellor of the Archdiocese of Reims , which involved him in the daily administration of the diocese.
In , at the urging of Bruno and the clergy at Reims, de Gournai was suspended at a council at Autun. Manasses responded, in typical eleventh-century fashion, by having his retainers pull down the houses of his accusers. Bruno discreetly avoided the cathedral city until in a definite sentence, confirmed by popular riot, compelled Manasses to withdraw [ 3 ] and take refuge with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor , the fierce opponent of Pope Gregory VII. On the verge of being made bishop himself, Bruno instead followed a vow he had made to renounce secular concerns and withdrew, along with two of his friends, Raoul and Fulcius, also canons of Reims.
However, he soon found that this was not his vocation. Rufus , Hugh the Chaplain and two laymen, Andrew and Guerin, who afterwards became the first lay brothers. It is difficult to assign the place which Bruno occupied in Rome, or his influence in contemporary events, because it remained entirely hidden and confidential.
