CARTUSIANS. – A religious order founded by St Bruno in 1084 at Chartreuse (Certosa), a desert place in the diocese of Grenoble, where an oratory dedicated to the Blessed Virgin was built, together with some huts around the chapel, near a spring.
This small hermitage, arranged for the exercises of the solitary life, was the model for all the charterhouses of Europe. At first each religious had a hut to himself; but as their numbers increased they were for a time obliged to share a cell until new ones could be built. The bishop of Grenoble wished to act as procurator for these hermits and displayed great zeal in building them a monastery. In March 1085 he consecrated the humble little chapel of Our Lady of Casalibus, so named to recall the memory of the huts of the first religious. Bruno and his companions lived on their work and on assiduous prayer and penance, and kept a flock whose produce served for their sustenance. At the Council of Clermont in 1095 Urban II summoned Bruno to Rome as his counsellor, and in the following year permitted him to found a new charterhouse at Torre in Calabria. From that time to the present Europe has seen the rise of 282 charterhouses, of which 53 are in Italy. Among the most celebrated may be mentioned those of Calabria (1096), Trisulti (1204), Genoa (1297), Naples (1327), Bologna (1334), Lucca (1338), Florence (1342), Pisa (1367), Rome (1370), Capri (1371), Pavia (1396).
St Bruno did not write a rule for his disciples; they followed without more the examples he had left. It was the fourth prior of the Grande Chartreuse, Guigo, who in 1127 collected all the customs observed up to that time, at the request of the religious who desired to follow faithfully the primitive observances. Pope Innocent II approved them towards the end of 1133. The General Chapters of the Carthusians, in order to explain and complete the customs of Guigo, issued in the course of the centuries ordinances which are no more 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 the Additiones of Basilius in 1259, the Nova statuta of Rainaldi in 1368, and 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 specific form.
The primitive observance has not grown slack after eight centuries, and the Order has never needed reform, so that the saying is fully justified: Cartusia numquam reformata, quia numquam deformata. The Carthusian lives a life that is both cenobitic and solitary, passing the time not occupied by the divine office in his cell, where he lives alone in a dwelling distinct and completely separate from those of the other brethren, and where he takes his meals, except on days when there is a common refectory. The cell consists of a corridor, a small room called the Ave Maria (because on entering the religious must salute the “Queen of the desert”), a room where he prays, studies and rests, a workshop with a lathe, a woodshed and a small garden or orchard. A timetable indicates and prescribes for the Carthusian his various occupations: reading, writing, chanting the psalms, prayer, contemplation, work. He does not, however, remain in his cell. Every weekday he leaves it three times (six times on Sundays and other feast days) to take part in the choral divine office; he also goes out for recreations and walks, and for some other prescribed exercise. To the church he goes to sing (at 23 hours) with simple and grave notes the 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. To cultivate the spirit of community and to foster the opening of hearts through fraternal charity, in the charterhouse meals are taken in the refectory every Sunday and on other feast days, but always in silence. On these days a cordial recreation is permitted in common after Nones. Once a week the Carthusians take a walk of about three hours outside the cloister.
Each monastery is autonomous, but is subject to the General Chapter, which maintains firm and constant in the Order the observance of the rule. 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 the vicars of the nuns. The Reverend Father, who is the General of the Order, enjoys from one Chapter to another all the powers of the Chapter itself, and since he cannot leave the limits of his desert the General Chapter appoints visitors to carry out, at fixed times, the canonical visitation of the individual houses.
The Carthusians have always sought to keep silence about the life of the members of the Order; yet many have been raised to the honours of the altar, and some suffered martyrdom in various countries of Europe. A certain number of cardinals, bishops and papal legates have brought distinction to the Order. In study the Carthusians found nourishment for their piety and contemplation, and not a few were writers on theology, liturgy and history. Some distinguished themselves in agriculture, mechanics, painting and printing. At the present time the Order numbers about 600 members.