I have about 450k to spend (pc)
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What are your thoughts on St Bruno? It’s been quite a while since I’ve had any and I couldn’t remember what it’s like. My regular day-to-day tobacco is Peterson Standard Mixture, but I couldn’t get any so thought I’d give St Bruno a try again. Lots of people seem to really enjoy it, but I can’t seem to get on with it. Just wondered what other people think of it.
So I'm still very much in the trying everything to see what I like stage, just tried St. Bruno ready rubbed, and really like it. What's similar to it?
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I’ve only been smoking a pipe for a little over a month. My go to favourite tobacco is Shipwright’s Mixture from Chieftain. I tried Condor from the local store and wasn’t a fan, too “soapy”. I thought I’d try another OTC brand, and I’d heard good things about St. Bruno’s. Very impressed. A more moist tobacco, but stays lit and smokes quite cool. Tastes nice, with less chocolate flavour I’d get from the Shipwright’s Mixture. Definitely a slower smoke, the bowl lasted longer than I expected. A good option for casual smoking while working in the garden perhaps.
This saint has the honor of having founded a religious order which, as the saying goes, never had to be reformed because it was never deformed. No doubt both the founder and the members would reject such high praise, but it is an indication of the saint’s intense love of a penitential life in solitude.
Bruno was born in Cologne, Germany, became a famous teacher at Rheims, and was appointed chancellor of the archdiocese at the age of 45. He supported Pope Gregory VII in his fight against the decadence of the clergy, and took part in the removal of his own scandalous archbishop, Manasses. Bruno suffered the plundering of his house for his pains.
He had a dream of living in solitude and prayer, and persuaded a few friends to join him in a hermitage. After a while he felt the place unsuitable and through a friend, was given some land which was to become famous for his foundation “in the Chartreuse”—from which comes the word Carthusians. The climate, desert, mountainous terrain, and inaccessibility guaranteed silence, poverty, and small numbers.
Bruno and his friends built an oratory with small individual cells at a distance from each other. They met for Matins and Vespers each day and spent the rest of the time in solitude, eating together only on great feasts. Their chief work was copying manuscripts.
Hearing of Bruno’s holiness, the pope called for his assistance in Rome. When the pope had to flee Rome, Bruno pulled up stakes again, and after refusing a bishopric, spent his last years in the wilderness of Calabria.
Bruno was never formally canonized, because the Carthusians were averse to all occasions of publicity. However, Pope Clement X extended his feast to the whole Church in 1674.
Colloquy
Father,
You called St. Bruno to serve you in solitude. In answer to his prayers help us to remain faithful to you amid the changes of this world. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Amazing! After 18 months in the "try everything" phase of tobacco this may be my desert island tobacco. After hearing about Lakeland style blends I thought I would never like floral toppings. Tobacco and.... Flowers? That doesn't sound right at all! This tobacco, though, is outstanding. The flakes are beautiful. The tin note is sweet with Virginia - hay and bread, but also a touch smokey from the dark fired and just a little of the vinegar comes through. I haven't spent a ton of time fleshing out all the flavors, I just sat back and smoked. Rich, creamy smoke, beautiful Virgina flavors, full bodied Kentucky, and then on top of everything, not so much in the flavor but the smell coming up from the bowl, those suggestions of floral notes. Not like being smacked in the face with a spring bouquet, but like the memory of the smell of a garden from a ways off on a warm spring night. Something old too, like old books on forgotten shelves and decanters of fine whiskey. Folded and stuffed it takes a light well, didn't seem to bite at all, and smoked down to a fine grey ash, all the way to the bottom of the bowl. Now I'm wondering, do I need to order some Ennerdale Flake?
