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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 Bruno of Cologne, O.Cart. (german: Bruno von Köln, it, Bruno di Colonia;c. 1030 – 6 October 1101), venerated as Saint Bruno, was the founder of the Carthusian Order. He personally founded the order's first two communities. He was a celebrate ...
in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its own rule, called the ''Statutes'', and their life combines both eremitical and cenobitic monasticism. The motto of the Carthusians is , Latin for "The Cross is steady while the world turns." The Carthusians retain a unique form of liturgy known as the Carthusian Rite. The name ''Carthusian'' is derived from the Chartreuse Mountains in the French Prealps: Bruno built his first hermitage in a valley of these mountains. These names were adapted to the English '' charterhouse'', meaning a Carthusian monastery.; french: Chartreuse; german: Kartause; it, Certosa; pl, Kartuzja; es, Cartuja Today, there are 23 charterhouses, 18 for monks and 5 for nuns. The alcoholic cordial
Chartreuse Chartreuse () may refer to: Food and drink * Chartreuse (liqueur), a French liqueur * Chartreuse (dish), a French dish of vegetables or meat tightly wrapped in vegetable leaves and cooked in a mould Religion * Carthusians, a Catholic religi ...
has been produced by the monks of
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 ...
since 1737, which gave rise to the name of the color, though the liqueur is in fact produced not only as ''green chartreuse'', but also as ''yellow chartreuse''. In Italy the Carthusians are known as Certosini and their monastery as a Certosa.


History

In 1084 Bishop
Hugh of Grenoble Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...
offered Bruno, the former Chancellor of the Diocese of Reims, a solitary site in the mountains of his diocese, in the valley of Chartreuse. There Bruno and six companions built a hermitage, consisting of a few wooden cabins opening towards a gallery that allowed them access to the communal areas, the church, refectory, and chapter room without having to suffer too much from inclement conditions. Six years later, Bruno's former pupil,
Pope Urban II Pope Urban II ( la, Urbanus II;  – 29 July 1099), otherwise known as Odo of Châtillon or Otho de Lagery, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 March 1088 to his death. He is best known for convening th ...
, requested his services. Bruno would only live in Rome for a few short months however, before leaving to establish a new hermitage in Serra San Bruno, in
Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...
, a region of southern Italy. He died there on 6 October 1101. In 1132, an avalanche destroyed the first hermitage, killing 7 monks under the snow. The fifth prior of Chartreuse, Guiges, rebuilt the hermitage.


Carthusians in Britain

There were ten Carthusian monasteries in Britain before the Reformation, with one in Scotland and nine in England. The first was founded by Henry II of England in 1181 at Witham Friary, Somerset as penance for the murder of Thomas Becket. Hugh of Lincoln was its first prior. The third Charterhouse built in Britain was Beauvale Priory, remains of which can still be seen in Beauvale, Greasley, Nottinghamshire. The Carthusians, as with all Catholic religious orders, were variously persecuted and banned during the Reformation. The abolition of their priories, which were sources of charity in England, particularly reduced their numbers. This was followed by the French Revolution which had a similar effect in France. A few fragments remain of the Charterhouse in Coventry, mostly dating from the 15th century, and consisting of a sandstone building that was probably the prior's house. The area, about a mile from the centre of the city, is a conservation area, but the buildings are in use as part of a local college. Inside the building is a medieval wall painting, alongside many carvings and wooden beams. Nearby is the river Sherbourne that runs underneath the centre of the city. The best preserved remains of a medieval Charterhouse in the UK are at
Mount Grace Priory Mount Grace Priory is a monastery in the parish of East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, England. Set in woodlands within the North York Moors National Park, it is represented today by the best preserved and most accessible ruins among the nine houses ...
near
Osmotherley, North Yorkshire Osmotherley is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton hills in North Yorkshire, six miles north-east of Northallerton. The village is at the western edge of the North York Moors National Park. Osmotherley is on the route of the 110-mile C ...
. One of the cells has been reconstructed to illustrate how different the lay-out is from monasteries of most other Christian orders, which are normally designed with communal living in mind. The
London Charterhouse The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Farringdon, London, dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square, and lies within the London Borough of Islington. It was originally built ( ...
gave its name to Charterhouse Square and several streets in the City of London, as well as to the
Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...
which used part of its site before moving out to
Godalming Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settleme ...
,
Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
. Nothing remains at Hull or Sheen, although Hull Charterhouse is an alms house which shared the site of the monastery. Axholme, Hinton, and Witham have slight remains. Perth Charterhouse, the single Carthusian Priory founded in Scotland during the Middle Ages, was located in Perth. It stood just west of the medieval town and was founded by James I (1406–1437) in the early 15th century. James I and
Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots Joan Beaufort ( 1404 – 15 July 1445) was Queen of Scotland from 1424 to 1437 as the spouse of King James I of Scotland. During part of the minority of her son James II (from 1437 to 1439), she served as the regent of Scotland. Background a ...
(died 1445) were both buried in the priory church, as was Queen Margaret Tudor (died 1541), widow of
James IV of Scotland James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchi ...
. The Priory, said to have been a building of 'wondrous cost and greatness' was sacked during the Scottish Reformation in 1559, and swiftly fell into decay. No remains survive above ground, though a Victorian monument marks the site. The Perth names Charterhouse Lane and Pomarium Flats (built on the site of the Priory's orchard) recall its existence. There is an active Carthusian house in England,
St Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster St Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster, is the only post-Reformation Carthusian monastery in the United Kingdom. It is located in the parish of Cowfold, West Sussex, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The monastery was founded in ...
, West Sussex. This has cells around a square cloister approximately 400 m (one quarter mile) on a side, making it the largest cloister in Europe. It was built in the 19th century to accommodate two communities which were expelled from the continent.


Charterhouse

The monastery is generally a small community of hermits based on the model of the 4th century Lauras of Palestine. A Carthusian monastery consists of a number of individual cells built around a cloister. The individual cells are organised so that the door of each cell comes off a large corridor. The focus of Carthusian life is contemplation. To this end there is an emphasis on solitude and silence. Carthusians do not have abbots—instead, each charterhouse is headed by a
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 ...
and is populated by two types of monks: the
choir monk In the Catholic Church, a choir monk is a monk who is planned to be or already is ordained as a priest. In particular, they are distinguished from religious brothers and lay brother Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious bro ...
s, referred to as hermits, and the lay brothers. This reflects a division of labor in providing for the material needs of the monastery and the monks. For the most part, the number of brothers in the Order has remained the same for centuries, as it is now: seven or eight brothers for every ten fathers. Humility is a characteristic of Carthusian spirituality. The Carthusian identity is one of shared solitude.


Musical practice

Similar to the tradition of the
Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople. Th ...
, Carthusians eschew the use of musical instruments in worship.


Choirmonks

Each hermit, a monk who is or who will be a priest, has his own living space, called a cell, usually consisting of a small dwelling. Traditionally there is a one-room lower floor for the storage of wood for a stove and a workshop as all monks engage in some manual labour. A second floor consists of a small entryway with an image of the Virgin Mary as a place of prayer and a larger room containing a bed, a table for eating meals, a desk for study, a choir stall, and a kneeler for prayer. Each cell has a high walled garden wherein the monk may meditate as well as grow flowers for himself and/or vegetables for the common good of the community, as a form of physical exercise. Next to the door is a small revolving compartment, called a "turn", so that meals and other items may be passed in and out of the cell without the hermit having to meet the bearer. Most meals are provided in this manner, which the hermit then eats in the solitude of his cell. There are two meals provided for much of the year: lunch and supper. During seasons or days of fasting, just one meal is provided. The hermit makes his needs known to the lay brother by means of a note, requesting items such as a fresh loaf of bread, which will be kept in the cell for eating with several meals. Carthusians observe a perpetual abstinence from meat. The hermit spends most of his day in the cell: he meditates, prays the minor hours of the Liturgy of the Hours on his own, eats, studies and writes, and works in his garden or at some manual trade. Unless required by other duties, the Carthusian hermit leaves his cell daily only for three prayer services in the monastery chapel, including the community Mass, and occasionally for conferences with his superior. Additionally, once a week, the community members take a long walk in the countryside during which they may speak. On Sundays and solemn feast days a community meal is taken in silence. Twice a year there is a day-long community recreation, and the monk may receive an annual visit from immediate family members.


Lay brothers

There have always been lay brothers in the charterhouse. When Bruno retired to the Chartreuse, two of his companions were secular ones: Andrew and Guerin. They also live a life of solitary prayer and join in the communal prayer and mass in the chapel. However, the
lay brothers Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choir, ...
are monks under a slightly different type of vows and spend less time in contemplative prayer and more time in manual labour. The lay brothers provide material assistance to the choir monks: cooking meals, doing laundry, undertaking physical repairs, providing the choir monks with books from the library and managing supplies. The life of the brothers complements that of the choir monks, and makes the fathers' lives of seclusion possible.McNary-Zak, Bernadette. ''Seeking in Solitude'', Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014
During the brothers' seven-year formation period, some time is given each day to the study of the Bible, theology, liturgy, and spirituality. They can continue their studies throughout their lives. All of the monks live lives of silence. The Carthusians do not engage in work of a pastoral or missionary nature. Unlike most monasteries, they do not have retreatants, and those who visit for a prolonged period are people who are contemplating entering the monastery. As far as possible, the monks have no contact with the outside world. Carthusian nuns live a life similar to the monks, but with some differences. Choir nuns tend to lead somewhat less eremitical lives, while still maintaining a strong commitment to solitude and silence.


Modern Carthusians

Today, the monastery of the
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 ...
is still the Motherhouse of the order. There is a museum illustrating the history of the Carthusian order next to Grande Chartreuse; the monks of that monastery are also involved in producing Chartreuse liqueur. Visits are not possible into the Grande Chartreuse itself, but the 2005 documentary ''
Into Great Silence ''Into Great Silence'' (german: Die große Stille) is a 2005 documentary film directed by Philip Gröning. An international co-production between France, Switzerland and Germany, it is an intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monk ...
'' gave unprecedented views of life within the hermitage. Today, Carthusians live very much as they originally did, without any relaxing of their rules. Generally, those wishing to enter must be between the ages of twenty-one and forty-five. Nowadays, medical examinations are considered necessary before the Novitiate and Profession. The Carthusian novice is introduced to the '' Lectio divina'' (spiritual reading). In the 21st century, the Sélignac Charterhouse was converted into a house in which lay people could come and experience Carthusian retreats, living the Carthusian life for shorter periods (an eight-day retreat being fixed as the minimum, in order to enter at least somewhat into the silent rhythm of the charterhouse).


Liturgy

Before the Council of Trent in the 16th century, the Catholic Church in Western Europe had a wide variety of rituals for the celebration of Mass. Although the essentials were the same, there were variations in prayers and practices from region to region or among the various
religious order A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practi ...
s. When Pope Pius V made the Roman Missal mandatory for all Catholics of the Latin Church, he permitted the continuance of other forms of celebrating Mass that had an antiquity of at least two centuries. The rite used by the Carthusians was one of these, and still continues in use in a version revised in 1981. Apart from the new elements in this revision, it is substantially the rite of Grenoble in the 12th century, with some admixture from other sources. According to current Catholic legislation, priests can celebrate the traditional rites of their order without further authorization. A feature unique to Carthusian liturgical practice is that the bishop bestows on Carthusian nuns, in the ceremony of their profession, a stole and a maniple. The nun, who may receive the
consecration of virgins In the Catholic Church, a consecrated virgin is a woman who has been consecrated by the church to a life of perpetual virginity as a bride of Christ. Consecrated virgins are consecrated by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical ...
is then also invested with a crown and a ring. The nun wears these ornaments again only on the day of her monastic jubilee and on her
bier A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, ...
after her death. At Matins, if no priest or deacon is present, a nun assumes the stole and reads the Gospel; and although in the time of the Tridentine Mass the chanting of the Epistle was reserved to an ordained subdeacon, a consecrated virgin sang the Epistle at the conventual Mass, though without wearing the maniple. For centuries Carthusian nuns retained this rite, administered by the diocesan bishop four years after the nun took her vows.


Formation

The formation of a Carthusian begins with 6 to 12 months of postulancy. This is followed by 2 years of
novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...
, where the novice wears a black cloak over the white Carthusian habit. Subsequently, the novice takes simple vows and becomes a junior professed for 3 years, during which the professed wears the full Carthusian habit. The simple vows may be renewed for another 2 years. Finally, the Carthusian makes the solemn profession.


Locations of monasteries

, there are 23 extant charterhouses, 18 for monks and 5 for nuns,Chartreux.org (official website of the Carthusian Order): List of active Carthusian houses
Retrieved 2 March 2020
on three continents: Argentina (1), Brazil (1), France (6), Germany (1), Italy (3), Korea (2), Portugal (1), Slovenia (1), Spain (4),
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
(1), the United Kingdom (1) and the United States (1).


Notable Carthusians

*
Bruno of Cologne Bruno of Cologne, O.Cart. (german: Bruno von Köln, it, Bruno di Colonia;c. 1030 – 6 October 1101), venerated as Saint Bruno, was the founder of the Carthusian Order. He personally founded the order's first two communities. He was a celebrate ...
(c. 1030–1101) * Guigo I (1083–1136) *
Guigo II Guigo II, sometimes referred to as Guy, or by the moniker "the Angelic", was a Carthusian monk and the 9th prior of Grande Chartreuse monastery, from 1174 to 1180. He died possibly in 1188 or 1193, and is distinct from both Guigo I, the 5th prior ...
* Hugh of Balma * Hugh of Lincoln (1135/40-1200) *
Ludolph of Saxony Ludolph of Saxony (c. 1295 – 1378), also known as Ludolphus de Saxonia and Ludolph the Carthusian, was a German Roman Catholic theologian of the fourteenth century. His principal work, first printed in the 1470s, was the ''Vita Christi'' ( ...
(1295-1378) *
Dominic of Prussia Dominic of Prussia (german: Dominikus von Preußen; la, Dominicus Prutenus; 1382–1461) was a Carthusian monk and ascetical writer. He is credited with a popular early form of the Rosary which focused on meditation. Life Born in Danzig (Gdańsk) ...
(1382–1461) *
Denis the Carthusian Denis the Carthusian (1402–1471), also known as Denys van Leeuwen, Denis Ryckel, Dionysius van Rijkel, Denys le Chartreux (or other combinations of these terms), was a Roman Catholic theologian and mystic. Life Denis was born in 1402 in that ...
(1402–1471) *
Peter Blomevenna Peter Blomevenna ; 29 March 1466 in Leiden – 14 August 1536 in Cologne) was a Carthusian author and prior of Cologne Charterhouse from 1507 to 1536. He was a translator of Denis the Carthusian, among many other works, and an active opponent of ...
(1466–1536)


See also

* ''
Into Great Silence ''Into Great Silence'' (german: Die große Stille) is a 2005 documentary film directed by Philip Gröning. An international co-production between France, Switzerland and Germany, it is an intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monk ...
'' *
List of Carthusian monasteries This is a list of Carthusian monasteries, or charterhouses, containing both extant and dissolved Monastery, monasteries of the Carthusians (also known as the Order of Saint Bruno) for monks and nuns, arranged by location under their present count ...
* Carthusian Martyrs *
Institution des Chartreux The Institution des Chartreux or more commonly Les Chartreux is a private Roman Catholic Carthusian educational establishment under a "contract of association" to the French state school system. The main site of the school is located in the 1s ...
* Monastic Family of Bethlehem, of the Assumption of the Virgin and of Saint Bruno *
Spatiamentum A ''spatiamentum'' is weekly routine performed by 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 Col ...
* Carthusian Rite * ''Broken Silence'', a fictional 1996 movie on the potential challenges of modern Carthusian exclaustration


Notes


References


Further reading

* Lockhart, Robin Bruce. ''Halfway to Heaven''. London:Cistercian Publications, 1999 (Paperback,) * ''The Wound of Love'', A Carthusian miscellany by priors and novice masters on various topics relating to the monastic ideal as lived in a charterhouse in our day. Gracewing Publishing, 2006, 256 p. (paperback, ) * André Ravier, ''Saint Bruno the Carthusian'', translated by Bruno Becker, O.S.B., Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1995.
Selected chapters online.
* Klein Maguire, Nancy. ''An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order''. New York: PublicAffairs, 2006. (Hardcover, ). A paperback edition () later appeared containing a section "Reading Group Guide Interview with Nancy Klein Maguire" on pages 259–264, which isn't found in the original hardback edition. * Harris, Judith
"Nazi massacre of Carthusian monks recalled in new book"
''Catholic Herald'', 5 September 2014.


External links


Official website of the Carthusian Order

Vocational website of the Carthusian Order

International Fellowship of Saint Bruno

Quies
*
Article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...
from the Catholic Encyclopedia
Cartusiana – History of the Carthusians in the Low Countries

Official website Foundation The Carthusians of Roermond



"Carthusians" (1891)
notable poem by
Ernest Dowson Ernest Christopher Dowson (2 August 186723 February 1900) was an English poet, novelist, and short-story writer who is often associated with the Decadent movement. Biography Ernest Dowson was born in Lee, then in Kent, in 1867. His great-uncle ...
celebrating the Carthusian order {{Authority control * 1084 establishments in Europe Christian organizations based in France Organizations established in the 1080s Catholic female orders and societies Catholic hermit orders Catholic monastic orders Catholic religious orders established in the 11th century 11th-century establishments in France 1540s disestablishments in England