Bruno (Bonifatius) of Querfurt

BRUNO (BONIFATIUS) OF QUERFURT: Missionary to the Slavs and Prussians, among whom he suffered martyrdom, Feb. 14, or Mar. 16. 1009. 286He was a Saxon nobleman, educated at the cathedral-school at Magdeburg, and accompanied his cousin, the Emperor Otto III., to Rome (996), where he took holy orders. Pope Sylvester II. entrusted to him a missionary expedition to the Slavs in the east, which the Polish duke Boleslav had asked for, and he was raised to the rank of archbishop. His chief task was to be the conversion of the heathen Prussians, to whom Adalbert of Prague had fallen victim but a short time before. Being detained at Magdeburg by wars between Germans and Poles, he wrote the Vita S. Alberti. Peace being reestablished, he went to Poland and was gladly received by Boleslav, but being unable to enter into Prussia, he converted the Petchenegs and organized their church affairs. Remaining for some time in Poland, he wrote the Vita quinque fratrum Poloniæ, Christian martyrs slain in 1003 near Meseritz, and when at last he took upon him the task he was entrusted with, he and his companions, like St. Adalbert, lost their lives by the swords of the heathen not far from Braunsberg. Boleslav, who was deeply afflicted, ordered the remains of the martyrs to be gathered and brought to Poland, where they were solemnly buried and became an object of most devoted reverence.

A. Werner.

Bibliography: The sources for a life are: the Chronicon of Dietmar, ed. J. M. Lappenberg, Hanover, 1889; Damian's Vita St. Romualdi, ed. G. H. Pertz, in MGH, Script., iv. 850–854, ib. 1841; Chronicon Magdeburgense, ed., Meibom, in Script. rer. Germ., pp. 269–378. Consult: W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, ii. 104, 192 sqq., Brunswick, 1875; idem, Erzbischof Brun-Bonifatius in Neue preussische Provinzialblätter, i. (1859); Hauck, KD, vol. iii.; ADB, iii. 433.