Bruno of Querfurt

Saint Bruno of Querfurt
A medieval fresco depicting St Bruno's death
Bishop and Martyr; Second Apostle of the Prussians
Born	c. 974 Querfurt, Saxony-Anhalt
Died	February 14, 1009
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church
Feast	October 15

Saint Bruno of Querfurt (c. 974 – February 14, 1009 AD), also known as Brun and Boniface, is a sainted missionary bishop and martyr, who was beheaded near the border of Kievan Rus and Lithuania while trying to spread Christianity in Eastern Europe. He is also called the second "Apostle of the Prussians".

Bruno was from a noble family of Querfurt (now in Saxony-Anhalt). He is rumored to have been a relative of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. At the age of six, he was sent to be educated in Magdeburg, seat of Adalbert of Magdeburg, the teacher and namesake of Saint Adalbert. While still a youth, he was made a canon of the Cathedral of Magdeburg. The fifteen-year-old Otto III made Bruno a part of his royal court. While in Rome for Otto's imperial coronation, Bruno met Saint Adalbert of Prague, the first "Apostle of the Prussians", killed a year later, which inspired Bruno to write a biography of St. Adalbert when he reached the 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 Saint Adalbert. Later, Bruno entered a monastery near Ravenna that Otto had founded, and underwent strict ascetic training under the guidance of Saint Romuald.