I live in the desert quite far from any human habitation. The advantages and delights that silence and the solitude of the hermitage bring to those who love them are known only to those who have experienced them themselves. … I mean that peace which the world does not know, and with joy in the Holy Spirit. … O, my brother, may you desire to be merely embraced in his arms and to be consumed by divine love.
(Bruno /† 1101/, letter to his friend Raoul de Verd, Archbishop of Reims, around 1099)