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Carthusians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of Saint

Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed
monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of
Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The
order has its own Rule, called the Statutes, rather than the
Rule of Saint Benedict, and combines eremitical and
cenobitic life.

Carthusian Order

The name Carthusian is derived from the Chartreuse

Mountains; Saint Bruno built his first hermitage in the
valley of these mountains in the French Alps. The word
charterhouse, which is the English name for a Carthusian
monastery, is derived from the same source.[1] The same
mountain range lends its name to the alcoholic cordial
Chartreuse produced by the monks since 1737 which
itself gives rise to the name of the colour. The motto of
the Carthusians is Stat crux dum volvitur orbis, Latin for
"The Cross is steady while the world is turning."
Abbreviation

O.Cart., Carthusians

Motto

Stat crux dum volvitur orbis

Formation

15 August 1084

1 Character

Type

Roman Catholic religious order

2 Carthusians in Britain

Headquarters Grande Chartreuse (Mother House)

3 Modern Carthusians

Key people

Bruno of Cologne, founder

4 Liturgy

Website

www.chartreux.org

Contents

5 Stages of the Carthusian's life

(http://www.chartreux.org/)

6 Locations of monasteries

www.vocatiochartreux.org

7 See also

(http://www.vocatiochartreux.org)

8 References
9 External links

Character
There are no Carthusian abbeys as they have no abbots, and each charterhouse is headed by a prior and is
populated by choir monks, referred to as hermits, and lay brothers.
Each hermit that is, 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, 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 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.

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The individual cells are organised so that the door of each cell comes off
a large corridor. 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.
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 (Carthusian monks have published scholarly and spiritual works),
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 feastdays 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.
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. Their contribution to the world is their life of
prayer, which they undertake on behalf of the whole Church and the
human race.

Painting by Sebastiano Ricci

(1659-1734) depicting the founder
of the Carthusians, Bruno of
Cologne (c1030-1101), revering
the Virgin Mary and adoring the
Infant Christ, with Hugh of Lincoln
(1135-1200) looking on in the
background.

In addition to the choir monks there are lay brothers, monks under slightly different types of vows who
spend less time in prayer and more time in manual labour; they live a slightly more communal life, sharing a
common area of the charterhouse. 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. All of the monks live lives of silence.
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.
Today, Carthusians live very much as they originally did, without any relaxing of their rules.

Carthusians in Britain
The first Carthusian monastery or 'Charterhouse' in England was founded by Henry II in Witham Friary,
Somerset as penance for the murder of St Thomas Becket.
The best preserved remains of a medieval Charterhouse in the UK are at Mount Grace Priory near
Osmotherley, North Yorkshire. One of the cells has been reconstructed to illustrate how different the lay-out
is to monasteries of most other Christian orders, which are normally designed with communal living in mind.
The third Charterhouse built in Britain was Beauvale Charterhouse remains of which can still be seen in
Beauvale, Greasley parish, Nottinghamshire.
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The London Charterhouse gave its name to a square and several

streets in the City of London, as well as to the Charterhouse School
which used part of its site before moving out to Godalming, Surrey.
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.
A single Carthusian Priory was founded in Scotland during the
Middle Ages, at Perth. It stood just west of the medieval town and
was founded by James I (14061437) in the early 15th century.
James I and his queen Joan Beaufort (died 1445) were both buried in
the priory church, as was Queen Margaret Tudor (died 1541), widow
of James IV of Scotland. The Priory, said to have been a building of
'wondrous cost and greatness' was sacked during the Scottish
Protestant Revolution 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.

A typical Carthusian plan: Clermont,

drawn by Eugne Viollet-le-Duc,
1856.

St. Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster, West Sussex has cells running around a square cloister approximately
400 m (one quarter-mile) on a side, making it the largest cloister in Europe.[2]

Modern Carthusians
The Carthusians were greatly affected during the Protestant
Reformation and during the French Revolution and after in France.[3]
Many of their monasteries were closed during these periods.
Today, the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse is still the
Motherhouse of the Order. There is a museum illustrating the history
of 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 gave unprecedented views of life
The Grande Chartreuse is the head
within the hermitage. In the 21st century, the Slignac Charterhouse
monastery of the Carthusian order.
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 absolute minimum, in order to enter at least somewhat into
the silent rhythm of the charterhouse).
The only Carthusian monastery in the United States is the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration, on Mount
Equinox near Arlington, Vermont. It was founded in the 1950s.

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

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and practices from region to region or among the various religious

orders.
When Pope Pius V made the Roman Missal mandatory for all
Catholics of the Latin Rite, 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.[4] 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.[5][6]
According to current Catholic legislation, however, priests can
celebrate the traditional rites of their order without further
authorization.

Painting from the Carthusian cloister

of Nuestra Seora de las Cuevas in
Seville by Francisco de Zurbarn. The
scene depicts Hugh of Grenoble in a
Carthusian monastery.

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. This is interpreted by some as a relic of the
former rite of ordination of deaconesses.[7] The nun is also invested with a crown and a ring. The nun wears
these ornaments again only on the day of her monastic jubilee, and after her death on her bier. At Matins, if
no priest 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 nun 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.[8] It is no longer unique,
since the liturgical reforms that followed Second Vatican Council made the rite of the consecration of virgins
more widely available.

Stages of the Carthusian's life

Postulancy (3 to 12 months) the postulant lives the life of a monk but without having professed any
kind of vows.
Novitiate (2 years). The novice wears a black cloak over the white Carthusian habit.
Simple Vows (3 years) becomes a junior professed monk and wears the full Carthusian habit.
Renewal of simple vows (2 years)
Solemn profession.

Locations of monasteries
There are 25 active Charterhouses around the world, five of which are for nuns; altogether, there are around
370 monks and 75 nuns. They can be found in Argentina (1), Brazil (1), France (6), Germany (1), Italy (4),
Portugal (1), Slovenia (1), South Korea (2), Spain (5), Switzerland (1), the United Kingdom (1) and the USA
(1). The two in South Korea, one of monks and one of nuns, are of recent construction.[9]

See also
"Into Great Silence"an award winning documentary on the Carthusian monks
List of Carthusian monasteries
Monastic Family of Bethlehem, of the Assumption of the Virgin and of Saint Bruno

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References
Notes
1. ^ In other languages: Dutch: Kartuize; French: Chartreuse; German: Kartause; Italian: Certosa; Polish:
Kartuzja; Spanish: Cartuja
2. ^ The Monastery, BBC, broadcast May 2005, about 20 minutes into third episode.
3. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Carthusian Order" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03388a.htm).
newadvent.org.
4. ^ The text of the Carthusian Missal and the Order's other liturgical books is available at Carthusian Monks and
Carthusian nuns (http://www.chartreux.org/en/texts/liturgy.php)
5. ^

Douglas Raymund (1913). "The Carthusian Order" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03388a.htm).

Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 2015-01-01.

6. ^ The text of the former Ordo Missae of the Carthusian Missal is available at "Cartusia Ordo Missae"
(http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/carthusian/ORDOMISS.doc).
7. ^ "Deaconesses" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04651a.htm). in Catholic Encyclopedia; Alexander, David
L. "A Rose By Any Other Name. The Ordination of Women to the Diaconate" (http://www.ewtn.com/library
/LITURGY/AROSEBY.TXT).
8. ^ "The Carthusian Order" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03388a.htm). in Catholic Encyclopedia
9. ^ To view complete list and images of the Monasteries visit: "The charterhouses in the world"
(http://www.chartreux.org/maisons/maisons.php?langue=en). Retrieved 15 October 2010.

Further reading
Lockhart, Robin Bruce. Halfway to Heaven. London:Cistercian Publications, 1999 (Paperback,ISBN
0-87907-786-7)
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, ISBN 0-85244-670-5)
Andr Ravier, Saint Bruno the Carthusian. Online on the website of the Charterhouse of the
Transfiguration (http://transfiguration.chartreux.org/SaintBruno.htm)
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,ISBN
1-58648-327-7). A paperback edition (ISBN 978-1-58648-432-3) later appeared containing a section
"Reading Group Guide Interview with Nancy Klein Maguire" on pages 259-264, which isn't found im
the original hardback edition.

External links
Official website of the Carthusian Order
(http://www.chartreux.org)
Official website of Carthusian vocations

Wikimedia Commons has

media related to
Carthusians.

(http://www.vocatiochartreux.org)

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International Fellowship of St. Bruno (http://www.saintbruno.org)

Quies (http://www.quies.org)
Article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
Cartusiana - History of the Carthusians in the Low Countries (http://www.cartusiana.org)
Official website Foundation The Carthusians of Roermond (http://www.kartuizers.nl)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carthusians&oldid=646963055"

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