THE CERTOSINE NUNS. – They do not derive from St BRUNONE, but go back to 1145, when the Bl. GERMELLIE of the monastery of St-André-de-Ramières (Orange), who followed the Rule of St CAESARIUS, asked the Carthusian Bl. JOHN of Spain to give her and her nuns the Rule of St BRUNONE.
The Carthusine nuns never enjoyed great expansion, and even today they number only four monasteries. They are consecrated by the diocesan bishop; governed by a prioress and a sub-prioress, assisted by a vicar and a coadjutor, Carthusians; they wear the same habit as the monks, with the addition of a veil, wimple, and white mantle; they read the Epistle, and, vested in a stole, the Gospel. Among those who attained the honour of the altar, mention may be made of the Bl. BEATRICE of Orancieu, the Bl. MARGHERITA of Oingt (d. c. 1310), St ROSELLINA of Villanova (d. 1329), and FRANCESCA M. BRIOIS, martyr of the French Revolution (1794).