The Carthusians

The eleventh and twelfth centuries, as I have earlier noted, was a busy time for the foundation of new monastic orders.  One of those with the longest success was the Carthusian order, founded by Saint Bruno in the late eleventh century in what is now the French Alps.  The name of the order comes from the medieval Latin name for their valley, Carthusia.  It is now called Chartreuse.

The Carthusians managed to combine elements of the life of a hermit with the life of a monk.  The monks lived in solitary cells, like hermits, not seeing or speaking with anyone else all week.  But the cells were relatively close together, and they all got together to walk and talk on Sunday.  They were considered admirably holy, and the order soon spread to other areas.  In England a Carthusian monastery is called a Charterhouse.  The Carthusians are intensely proud that, after more than 900 years, their Order has never needed radical reform.

They were an extremely strict order from their beginning.  Women were not even allowed in their valley (though since a modern road now goes right by, they've had to give up that idea).  At the time the story was that they wouldn't even allow hens, though this seems somewhat fanciful.

The Carthusians had so-called lay brothers, men who wanted the holiness of associating with the monks but who weren’t ready to become monks themselves and who probably didn’t known Latin.  These took care of their flocks and brought the monks their sparse meals, leaving trays outside their cells.  Lay brothers became accepted at other monasteries as well, because it meant that very ascetic monks could focus all their attention on prayer without having to starve, and it meant that peasants could become virtual monks without the education necessary for the liturgy.

Fun fact:  The liqueur chartreuse (and the yellow-green color the liqueur has) is named for the valley.  In the eighteenth century, well after the end of the Middle Ages, the lay brothers started making and selling this liqueur.  You can buy it at the gift shop at La Grande Chartreuse.  (But you can't visit the monks.)

© C. Dale Brittain 2018

For more about medieval monasticism, see my new ebook, Positively Medieval:  Life and Society in the Middle Ages.