Carthusians

CARTHUSIANS. - Religious order founded by St. Bruno in 1084 at Chartreuse (Certosa), a deserted place in the diocese of Grenoble, where an oratory dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin was built, along with some huts around the chapel, near a fountain.

That small hermitage, arranged for the exercises of the solitary life, was the model of all the charterhouses of Europe. In it, at first, each religious had a hut of his own; but when their number later grew, they were compelled for some time to live two to a cell, until new ones were built. The bishop of Grenoble wished to be the procurator of those hermits and displayed great activity in building a monastery for them. In March 1085 he consecrated the humble little chapel of Our Lady de Casalibus, so called to recall the memory of the huts of the first religious. Bruno and his companions lived in work and in assiduous prayer and penance, and kept a flock whose produce served for their sustenance. In 1090 Urban II summoned Bruno to Rome as his counselor, and in 1091 he permitted him to found a new charterhouse at La Torre in Calabria. From then to the present day Europe has seen 282 charterhouses arise, of which 53 are in Italy. Among the most celebrated, those of Calabria (1091), Trisulti (1204), Genoa (1297), Naples (1327), Bologna (1334), Lucca (1338), Florence (1342), Pisa (1367), Rome (1370), Capri (1371), and Pavia (1396) deserve to be remembered.

St. Bruno did not write a rule for his disciples; and they conformed without more ado to the examples he left them. It was the fourth prior of the Charterhouse, Guigo, who in 1127 collected all the customs practiced up to that time, urged to do so by the religious who longed to follow faithfully the primitive observances. Pope Innocent II approved them toward the end of 1133. The General Chapters of the Carthusians, in order to explain and complete the customs of Guigo, issued over the course of the centuries ordinances that are nothing other than usages, because, according to the fundamental principle of Carthusian legislation, a prescription has no force of law until it has been put into practice. Thus there came about the Additiones of Basilio in 1259, the Nova statuta of Rainaldi in 1368, the Nova collectio of Carasse in 1581. Innocent XI on 29 March 1688 and Pius XI on 8 July 1924 approved the statutes of the Carthusian Order in forma specifica.

The primitive observance has not languished after eight centuries, and the Order has never needed reform, so as to justify fully the saying: Cartusia numquam reformata, quia numquam deformata. The Carthusian leads a cenobitic and solitary life, spending the time free from the divine office in his cell, where he lives alone, in a dwelling distinct and completely separated from that of the other brethren, and where he takes his meals, except on the days when there is a common refectory. It consists of a corridor, a small room called Ave Maria (because the religious on entering must greet the "Queen of the desert"), a room where he prays, studies and rests, a workshop with a lathe, a woodstore and a little vegetable garden or small garden. A schedule indicates and prescribes for the Carthusian his various occupations: to read, to write, to sing the psalms, to pray, to contemplate, to work. The Carthusian, however, does not remain in his cell. Every weekday he leaves it three times (six on Sundays and other feast days), to fulfill the divine office in choir; he also leaves it for recreations and walks, and for some other exercise of the rule. He goes to church to sing (at 11 p.m.) with simple and grave notes Matins and Lauds, then in the morning the conventual Mass and in the evening Vespers. On certain feast days all the canonical Hours are sung in choir, except Compline. Moreover, to cultivate the spirit of community and to encourage the opening of souls in fraternal charity, in the charterhouse meals are taken in the refectory every Sunday and on other feast days, though always in silence. On these days a cordial recreation is permitted in common, after None. Once a week, moreover, the Carthusians take a walk of about three hours outside the enclosure.

Each monastery is autonomous, but depends on the General Chapter, which keeps the observance of the rule firm and constant in the Order. It meets every two years at the Grande Chartreuse and is composed of the father general and eight members chosen from among the priors and rectors of the charterhouses and and of the vicars of the nuns. The Rev. Father, who is the general of the Order, enjoys, from one Chapter to the next, all its powers, and since he cannot leave the confines of his desert, the General Chapter appoints visitors to carry out, at fixed times, the canonical visitation of the individual houses.

The C. always sought to keep silent about the life of the members of the Order; yet nevertheless many have been raised to the honors of the altars, and some suffered martyrdom in the various countries of Europe. A certain number of cardinals, bishops and pontifical legates have brought it distinction. In study the C. found nourishment for their piety and contemplation, and not a few were writers of theology, liturgy and history. Some distinguished themselves in agriculture, in mechanics, in painting, in printing. At present the Order numbers about 600 members.

Gregorio Kapeller

THE CARTHUSIAN NUNS

They do not derive from St. Bruno, but go back to 1145, when the blessed Germellie, of the monastery of St-André-de-Ramières (Orange), who followed the rule of St. Caesarius, asked the Carthusian blessed John of Spain to give to her and to her nuns the rules of St. Bruno.

The Carthusian nuns never had much expansion, and even today they number only 4 monasteries. They are consecrated by the diocesan bishop; governed by a prioress and a subprioress, assisted by a vicar and a coadjutor, who are Carthusians; they dress like the monks, with in addition a veil, wimple, and white mantle; they read the Epistle, and, adorned with a stole, the Gospel. Among those who attained the honor of the altar, one may recall the blessed Beatrice of Orancieu, the blessed Margaret of Oingt (d. ca. 1310), St. Rosellina of Villanova (d. 1329), Francesca M. Briois, martyr of the French Revolution (1794).

Celestino Testore