I wonder how many who were enthralled by "Into Great Silence" will be thinking today of St Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian Order? There is something immensely attractive about someone who was both brilliant and self-effacing, so much so indeed, that his behind-the-scenes role in the papacy of Urban II is usually noted as a distraction from monastic life rather than as something significant in itself. He seems never to have attended any of the important Church councils, but his advice was much sought.

He has never been formally canonized yet the memory of his devotion to prayer, his ascetical life-style and his love of our Lady have survived to our own day. Bruno is not the kind of saint one can propose as a role model for any but hermits and monastics, but some may recall Basil Hume's words, that there should be in the heart of every Benedictine a regret that they were not called to the Charterhouse. Here at Hendred we are reminded of that daily, for there is in the village a chapel built by the Carthusians of Sheen. It survives, whereas most of the Benedictine buildings, built by the priory of Noyon or the abbey of Abingdon, have long since disappeared or been incorporated into farmhouses or other secular buildings.The Benedictines are still here, of course, but now it is nuns rather than monks who maintain the round of prayer and work.

May St Bruno pray for all Carthusians and those who follow the eremitical way of life.