St. Bruno of Cologne
In the Charterhouse of Serra San Bruno, Calabria
This is a rare case in which the artist has assembled all the symbols associated with St. Bruno. The most important of these is the halo of seven golden stars, which relates to an episode in his vita. The mitre on the ground, a conventional symbol for a saint who has refused a bishopric, refers to his turning down Urban II's offer of the archbishopric of Rheims. The books, often seen in his portraits but also in those of countless other saints, may refer to the writings once ascribed to him but now known to be the work of Bruno of Segny. The staff is seen in a few of his portraits, presumably related to his travels from Paris, where he resolved to withdraw from worldly pursuits, to the Chartreuse and then to Calabria. And the skull is another conventional symbol designating a person who has lived as a hermit or contemplative. Finally, he wears the white habit of the Carthusian order that he founded in 1084.
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Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.
