In 998, Bruno entered a Benedictine monastery near Ravenna that Otto had founded, and later underwent strict ascetic training under the guidance of Romuald.

[2] Otto III hoped to establish a monastery between the Elbe and the Oder (somewhere in the pagan lands that became Brandenburg or Western Pomerania) to help convert the local population to Christianity and colonize the area.

In 1001, two monks from his monastery travelled to Poland, while Bruno was with Otto in Italy, studying the language and awaiting the Apostolic appointment by Pope Sylvester II.

Bruno elected to gracefully exit the region after he first finished his book, the famous "Life of Adalbert of Prague," a literary memorial giving a history of the (relatively recent) conversion of the Hungarians.

[2] After this diplomatic failure, Bruno went to Kyiv, where Grand Duke Vladimir I authorized him to make Christian converts among the Pechenegs, semi-nomadic Turkic peoples living between the Danube and the Don rivers.

[5] In the autumn or at the end of 1008 Bruno and eighteen companions set out to found a mission among the Old Prussians; they succeeded in converting Netimer and then travelled to the east, heading very likely towards Yotvingia.

Bruno met opposition in his efforts to evangelize the borderland and when he persisted in disregarding their warnings he was beheaded on 14 February (or 9 or 14 March) 1009, and most of his eighteen companions were hanged by Zebeden, brother of Netimer.