St Bruno of Querfurt

The aim of this article is to reconstruct the picture of the missionary as it appears in the writings of St Bruno of Querfurt (d.1009). Scholars have noted for a long time that St Bruno saw a very close link between the missionary calling and martyrdom. From his writings it becomes quite clear that he personally had a desire to suffer martyrdom. Such a desire, however, did not have much in common with a precipitous drive to become a martyr. He saw it, rather, as a crown awaiting the missionary at the end of a long road of self-mortification and self-renunciation. He put forward for himself and for his ascetic readers a three-stage course of perfection: community life (coenobium) for beginners, a life in seclusion (eremus) for the advanced, and the mission to the pagans for the most perfect. Such a course of ascetic life was characteristic of Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks (in the sixth-eighth centuries) whose pilgrimages tended to evolve into missionary trips among the pagans. In the context of medieval missionaries St Bruno stood out as he personally pondered over this issue in a methodological fashion. In the eyes of the saint, preparation for missionary activities should lead to rational martyrdom (rationale martyrium) in which one could hardly fail to notice the original notion of martyrdom as a witness to the Faith. Another noteworthy feature of St Bruno’s thoughts may be his insistence on having a papal licence to conduct evangelization, which was not asked for usually in his days. Thus, he may be viewed not only as a devotee of St Peter and his successors, but also as an advocate of papal missions, which tended to be most promising to newly converted rulers and their subjects

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