Guigo I also known as Guigues du Chastel, Guigo de Castro and Guigo of Saint-Romain, was a

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...

monk and the 5th

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

Grande Chartreuse Grande Chartreuse () is the head monastery of the Carthusian religious order. It is located in the Chartreuse Mountains, north of the city of Grenoble, in the commune of Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse (Isère), France. History Originally, the ch ...

monastery in the 12th century. He was born in 1083 near the Chateau of Saint-Romain, and entered the Grande Chartreuse in 1106. Still a young man, his abilities led him to be elected prior in 1109 (aged 26). It was during his priorate that the original community slowly began to expand. Guigo was called on to compose the first ''Customs'' (''Consuetudines'') of the new hermits sometime between 1121 and 1128. Between 1109 and 1120 he also wrote the ''Meditations'', 476 proverb-like sayings that characterized the wisdom of solitary, monastic life. In addition, some letters and a

hagiographical A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies mig ...

piece survive. He was also a spiritual leader;

Bernard of Clairvaux Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Bernardus Claraevallensis; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templars, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through ...

visited the Grande Chartreuse, probably in the 1120s, and wrote several letters to Guigo. He ruled the community until his death in 1136. He was a man of considerable learning, was known for his eloquence and great memory. He was a close friend of St.

and of Peter the Venerable, both of whom wrote of Guigo's sanctity. The treatise ''De vita contemplativa'', also known as ''De Contemplatione'' has sometimes been attributed to Guigo I. However, it cannot have been written by Guigo I, because it refers to several writings of thirteenth-century scholastic theology, including

Hugh of Balma Hugh of Balma, also known as Hugo of Palma or Hugh of Dorche was a Carthusian theologian, is generally acknowledged to be the author of the work which titled ''Viae Syon Lugent'' (''The Roads to Zion Mourn''), after its opening line. That work is a ...

's ''Viae Syon Lugent''. It is acknowledged to be a late thirteenth-century text, with its author generally known as Guigo de Ponte.''Carthusian spirituality: the writings of Hugh of Balma and Guigo de Ponte'' by Hugh of Balma and Guigo de Ponte, translated by Dennis D. Martin, (New York: Paulist Press, 1996)

References

Bibliography

* ''Carthusian spirituality: the writings of Hugh of Balma and Guigo de Ponte'', by Hugh of Balma, Guigo de Ponte and Dennis D. Martin (Translator), 1996, . * ''The Meditations of Guigo I, Prior of the Charterhouse'' (Cistercian Studies Series ; No. 155) 1994 * Bernard McGinn, ''The Growth of Mysticism'', (1994). * Bernard McGinn, ''The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism'', (2006). *

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{{Authority control Carthusians 1130s deaths Year of birth unknown 1080s births

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