First is that you need to see the movie, Into Great Silence, the award winning documentary which showed the life of Carthusians at Le Grand Chartreuse in France. I've shown it at adult ed programs, and it always intrigues people (plus, they love when I bring along bottles of green and yellow Chartreuse, you know, to show our support of the monks).
Next is this statue of St. Bruno:
In St. Peter's Basilica
I love this one. A few times, Pope Urban II tried to get his former teacher to accept appointment to the episcopacy. Bruno always refused, which is wonderfully depicted as Bruno repulses from the putto trying to get his attention to hand him a miter and crozier.
Finally, those who may want to know more about Carthusians can also check out their website.
4 comments:
Oops, Father ;-) That's actually not a statue of St. Bruno on the Campo de' Fiori, but of the famous heretic Giordano Bruno who was burned there in 1600. The statue was erected in 1887 by freemasons in answer to Leo XIII's Humanum genus, which precisely condemned freemasonry.
Thanks. I was always told it was St. Bruno. I suppose I was hearing it wrong when they were telling me (in Italian) it was a statue of Bruno. I also got a similar e-mail from someone named Jorge Sanchez. Thanks for setting me straight. You never stop learning new things.
My birthday is on 6th October and the family always toasts me with a drop of green chartreuse.
Well I like the statue. It looks like he's saying, "No, I'm tired. I wont' carry you."
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