history
1. The origins
In June 1084, Master Bruno and six companions were led by Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, to the Chartreuse desert to establish a hermitage. The Chartreuse valley is a secluded place where Bruno’s soul could rise freely towards God, whom he sought and desired above all things. Bruno had to abandon his beloved solitude to obey the Pope, but soon afterwards, in 1090, he founded a second monastery according to his ideal/project of purely contemplative life: Santa Maria della Torre, in Calabria. Bruno did not leave a written Rule. Nevertheless, inspired by his example and formed by experience, the first Carthusian monks passed on this flame to their successors.
In 1109 the community of Chartreuse elected Guigo, who was only 27 years old, as its fifth prior. This act of trust was not to be regretted, for under his leadership a period of remarkable fruitfulness began. The fervour and fidelity of the first community would soon have a real influence: from 1115, several communities asked to join the solitary way of life instituted by Bruno: Portes (Ain), Saint-Sulpice (Ain), Meyriat (Ain), Sylve-Bénite (Isère), Bouvante (Drôme), Saint-Hugon (Savoy). These communities urged Guigo to write down for them the customs observed at the Grande Chartreuse. At the insistence of the bishop St Hugh of Grenoble, Guigo drew up the ‘Customs of Chartreuse’. In 1127, he completed this work in which he simply described the customs of his monastery. This work, which constitutes a true monastic rule, was adopted by these and new communities, Les Écouges (Isère), Durbon (Hautes-Alpes), Sylve-Bénite (Isère), Bouvante (Drôme), Saint-Hugon (Savoy), and remained the basis of Carthusian legislation throughout the ages. Under the benevolent vigilance of St Hugh, Guigo organised the Carthusian antiphonary, and left some other writings of great value.
In 1132, the Chartreuse community was put to a severe test. A large avalanche destroyed the original monastery. Six monks were killed, a seventh was found 12 days later; he was conscious but died the same day. Faced with such a disaster, Guigo transferred the monastery to a safer location, the one it still occupies today, two kilometres further down the valley. By the time of his death in 1136, the Order had nine houses.
The first General Chapter took place in 1140 under the leadership of St Anthelm, the seventh prior of Chartreuse. This Chapter established the liturgical unity of the houses. Shortly afterwards, the nuns of Prébayon joined the nascent Order.
2. The Middle Ages
From 1155, under the Reverend Father Dom Basil, the General Chapter met every year, always at the Grande Chartreuse. The Order was now organically constituted. The prior of the Grande Chartreuse, elected only by the religious of this house, received the prerogatives of Minister General.
1160, first charterhouse in Central Europe: Seitz (in present-day Slovenia).
1162, first Nordic charterhouse in Denmark: Asserbo (Roskilde).
1163, first of the 22 charterhouses in Spain: Scala Dei.
1178, first of the 11 charterhouses in England: Witham.
Under the Reverend Father D. Jancelin, new liturgical guidelines were adopted and conventual Mass became daily. By the time of his death in 1233, there were already 47 charterhouses in Europe.
1257, foundation of the charterhouse of Paris by King St Louis. In 1300, the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse caught fire for the first time, then again in 1320 and it was almost completely destroyed. In the following centuries, the monastery was seven more times the prey of fire. In 1334, a charterhouse was founded in Cologne, the birthplace of St Bruno, which was to have a remarkable influence for several centuries.
The Black Death that devastated Europe in 1347-49 claimed almost a thousand victims in the Order. In 1370, the charterhouse of Rome was founded. In 1371, there were 130 charterhouses in the Order.
The Great Schism of the West, which divided the Church between obedience to the Pope of Rome or to the Pope of Avignon from 1378, also divided the Carthusians: the houses of France and Spain came under the jurisdiction of the Pontiff of Avignon, while the other charterhouses remained attached to the Roman Pontiff. It was not until 1409 that the Schism came to an end, and the Order was able to regain its unity the following year thanks to the simultaneous resignation of the Generals of both obediences: D. Boniface Ferrier (brother of St Vincent Ferrier) and D. Stephen Maconi (disciple of St Catherine of Siena). The General Chapter then elected as their only General the prior of the charterhouse of Paris: John of Griffenberg, born in Sax.
The foundation of houses continued at a steady pace throughout the late Middle Ages, reaching as far as Sweden and Hungary. The Netherlands knew a great concentration of chartreuses.
3. In the 16th-18th centuries
During the Renaissance, the Order was at its peak. In 1513 the Order recovered the house in Calabria, which had become a Cistercian abbey and had fallen into disuse. When the Reverend Father François du Puy, who had begun the process of canonising St Bruno, died in 1521 the Order had almost 200 active charterhouses. But this prosperity was not to last. Following the Protestant Reformation and during the troubles of the Wars of Religion in the 16th century, 40 charterhouses were closed. More than 80 Carthusian monks shed their blood for the faith, among them the very first martyrs of the English Reformation, in 1535. Several charterhouses were burned: the Grande Chartreuse was sacked and burned in 1562 by the Calvinist troops of Baron des Adrets. Many precious manuscripts were lost, including the original scroll of the funeral titles of St Bruno.
In times of turmoil, civil wars or religious wars, the Carthusian monks were sometimes forced to settle inside the cities: the charterhouse of Molsheim is a good example. Peace treaties were followed by a period of relative numerical stability. The Order had houses from the Kingdom of Portugal to the Duchy of Lithuania (the charterhouse of Bereza, in present-day Belarus, was the furthest house).
The Grande Chartreuse suffered another devastating fire in 1676, the ninth and last one. The Reverend Father Dom Innocent Le Masson had the monastery rebuilt according to a new plan, as it still exists today. This was only possible thanks to donations from all over the world. It can be said that there is not a single stone that was not donated by one or the other community of the Order. At that time there were about 160 charterhouses in Europe, which explains the importance of the buildings of the present Grande Chartreuse. Hundreds of people had to be accommodated during the General Chapter, which brought together the priors of all the houses with their retinue every year. At that time, the Order reached the number of 2500 fathers, 1300 brothers and 70 nuns.
The Carthusian Order has always been very united. Only one independent branch existed in its history. The year 1785 saw the appearance of the Spanish National Congregation, the fruit of an ancient separatist spirit supported by the crown. But its existence was short-lived: it disappeared with the suppression of all the monasteries by the liberal government in 1835.
4. The French Revolution
In the 18th century, the closure of the 24 houses in the Empire of Joseph II of Austria was a harbinger of the Revolution. The revolutionary turmoil that swept through Western Europe shortly afterwards reduced the Order to very little: only a few houses remained in 1805. The dominant principles of the revolutionaries were individualism and the absolute sovereignty of a secular state. Any particular grouping became forbidden so that only isolated individuals remained in front of the State. The period can be summarised in a few dates:
February 1790: The Constituent Assembly refuses to recognise monastic vows, considering them to be life-long servitude. The law first opens the door to those who wants to leave the monastery but lets the religious free to follow their rule and keep the habit.
12 July 1790: The Constituent Assembly votes the “Civil Constitution of the Clergy” and imposes the oath. The non-juring priests are persecuted. Several Carthusians are guillotined.
August 1792: Religious congregations are suppressed; it is prohibited to wear a religious habit.
October 1792: Deadline for the evacuation of the monasteries which become the property of the State with all their goods. All the French Carthusian monks are dispersed, some join the charterhouses in Switzerland or Italy.
1794: All the imprisoned religious under 60 years of age are deported to Bordeaux, Saintes and Rochefort, where more often they die in squalor. There were some Carthusian monks among them.
Several Carthusians led dangerous lives in hiding, among them Dom Ephrem Coutarel, the architect of the return to France when calm returned.
5. From the Restoration to the middle of the 20th century
A royal decree from Louis XVIII authorised the return of the monks. The Carthusians returned to the Grande Chartreuse on 8 July 1816. The same year, the surviving nuns resumed the Carthusian life at Beauregard (at Voiron, Isère). At the end of the century, which was a period of reconstruction, 27 houses have already been opened in Europe. Among them, the new charterhouse of Parkminster, in England, where the Carthusians were able to return for the first time after the Reformation.
However, a new rise of anticlericalism was emerging. The law of 1901 against religious congregations led to the simultaneous closure of 10 French charterhouses. The community of the Grande Chartreuse was expelled militarily by the public authorities in 1903, and settled in the charterhouse of Farneta in Italy. The other Carthusians had to emigrate.
The years preceding the Second World War saw the slow resettlement of some houses. In France, three houses of monks and one of nuns. In June 1940, the Reverend Father Dom Ferdinand Vidal, faced with the imminence of Italy’s entry into the war, took advantage of the situation by demanding the return of the religious to France as political refugees. The community was able to resettle in the Grande Chartreuse and the Order could hold the General Chapter in the Mother house again.
6. New horizons
In 1967 was elected the Reverend Father Dom André Poisson, whose task was to renew, with the help of all the members of the Order, the Carthusian Statutes following the Second Vatican Council and the new Code of Canon Law.
After the war, a number of monasteries were reopened or built. In France, Portes was restored in 1971 and Notre-Dame was built in 1978 to receive the nuns of Beauregard. In Germany, Marienau was founded in 1964 to receive the monks of Hain. In Italy, Trinità was built in 1994 to receive the nuns of Riva. In Portugal, Évora was restored in 1960 but closed in 2019. In Spain, Benifaçà was restored in 1967.
From the middle of the 20th century new horizons opened up for the Order, which began to spread outside Europe. First in the United States in 1950, then Brazil in 1984 and Argentina in 1998. The most recent foundations were in South Korea, one of monks, and one of nuns in 2002.
Finally, we can mention the historic visit of Pope John Paul II to the charterhouse of Serra San Bruno in Calabria in 1984, on the occasion of the 9th centenary of the Order, his letter to the Carthusians for the 9th centenary of the death of St Bruno in 2001, and the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the same monastery in 2011.
The Carthusian Order has always been small in number compared to other monastic orders. However, it has endured through the centuries, with its share of troubles and profound transformations. The spirit of St Bruno is still alive, the mission of the Carthusians is still relevant, and the call of the desert continues to attract young vocations all over the world.