Photos/Images of Carthusian Life

PHOTOS/IMAGES OF CARTHUSIAN LIFE

Carthusian prayer isn’t supposed to be lived in secular society. Separated from the world and enclosed, Carthusian spirituality is a special type of religious vocation that is realized only under exceptional conditions.

Still, the example of Carthusian life puts into practice important principles of the spiritual life that apply to all Christians—the indispensability of developing an interior relationship with God in solitary and silent prayer, and the helpfulness, indeed, necessity even of implementing organization and structure in conducting one’s spiritual life in order to develop, maintain, grow, and flourish in our loving relationship with the mysterious and Almighty God.

Carthusians do not engage in apostolate outside the monastery.

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2024/01/year-of-prayer-2024.html

Carthusian monk in solitary prayer at the Charterhouse of Our Lady of Korea, Sangju, South Korea

Carthusian spirituality is a combination, not entirely unique, of solitary and common prayer.

The USA Carthusian website distinguishes Carthusian spirituality by citing its notably exacting emphasis on silence and solitude. In the Roman Catholic Church, Carthusian spirituality has been renowned—even feared—for its severity.

“The members of other monastic Orders also seek God in silence or solitude, but for Carthusians silence and solitude are the principal means to find Him. Inner silence – poverty in spirit – creates the empty space necessary to experience God’s presence in our heart, which transcends all words. ‘Let him make a practice of resorting, from time to time, to a tranquil listening of the heart, that allows God to enter through all its doors and passages.’ (St 4,2)

“Solitude and silence help the Carthusian monk ‘in a special way’ to become aware of a great mystery that is present in every Christian (St. 2:2). The whole of Carthusian life helps the monks to live in God’s presence: liturgy, work, study, community; everything is done in a climate of solitude and silence.”

https://carthusiansusa.org/spirituality/

—“Carthusian Spirituality,” Charterhouse of the Transfiguration

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2024/01/year-of-prayer-2024.html

 

 

Photo is staged of a monk in a cell at the Charterhouse of Molsheim, Alsace, France, which was founded in 1598 and dissolved during the French Revolution. Today, it is the site of the Musée de la Chartreuse (Charterhouse Museum), a tourist destination.

The Carthusian monk lives in his own hermitage or cell, which is small and self-contained.

Photo of a monk reading in his cell is from the principal Carthusian website. The location of the cell is probably the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration Monastery, Arlington, Vermont, USA

Photo is of Carthusian monks at the Marienau Charterhouse, which succeeded the Maria Hain Charterhouse in Düsseldorf, both in Germany. Maria Hain was established in 1869, where it maintained until the monks had to relocate due to the Düsseldorf Airport expansion into monastery land in 1964. Marienau is the only extant Carthusian monastery in Germany.

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Carthusian solitaries live in community, inspired by the semi-eremitic lauras originating from Egypt and Syria in the early fourth century—though the Carthusian monasteries today hardly resemble the original lauras, the last of which are said to have existed on Mount Athos in the tenth century.

The Carthusian Order numbers among the monastic orders of the Roman Catholic Church. Carthusian spirituality particularly underscores solitude, enclosure, and asceticism, besides liturgical prayer in common, as a way to union with God. Carthusians do not engage in apostolate outside the monastery.

The life of common prayer in the monastery is described in the principal Carthusian website.

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2024/01/year-of-prayer-2024.html

Saint Hugh of Grenoble in the Carthusian Refectory (1630-35) by Francisco de Zurbarán

Zurbarán’s famous painting depicts the moment Saint Bruno and his first six companions awakened from a trance and witnessed Saint Hugh’s gift of meat to the community turn into ash, a miracle which confirmed the Carthusian rule to abstain entirely from meat.

Carthusian legend holds that when Saint Hugh had sent them a gift of meat one day, they began to discuss among themselves whether they should break the rule of total abstinence from meat. Suddenly, they all fell into a trance at the dining table, so that forty-five days later when Saint Hugh sent them a message during Lent that he was coming to visit, his messenger returned and reported that the monks were still facing the food at the dining table. Once Saint Hugh arrived at the monastery, they all woke up and then everyone watched the meat turn into ash. They were all thereby convinced that there should be absolutely no exception to their rule against eating meat.

Despite the rule, the monks are allowed to eat meat whenever they are offered it outside the monastery, leave which is normally not permitted.

Notice that in the painting Saint Hugh is pointing to a piece of meat.

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2019/10/o-beata-solitudo_6.html

Photo showing a Carthusian lay brother pushing the daily meal of a cloister monk into his hatch is from the principal Carthusian website.

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At noon a brother puts the monk’s daily meal in his hatch. The Carthusian eats alone after having recited the office of Sext. With the exception of meat, from which he abstains all his life in a spirit of sacrifice, everything is provided so that the main meal meets the nutritional needs of the day (vegetables, cereals, fish, eggs, cheese and fruit).

Once a week, normally on Friday, he keeps “abstinence”, that is, he contents himself with bread and water.

...After Vespers and before the office of Compline, the Carthusian takes a supper or light meal. During the great fast, which we call the “fast of the Order” (from 14 September, feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, to Easter) this supper is reduced to bread with a beverage, except on Sundays and solemnities. On Fridays not falling on a solemnity, it is bread and water.

https://chartreux.org/moines/en/a-carthusian-day/  

—“The Day,” The Carthusian Monks

Sundays and solemnities are more communal days. ...We take dinner together in the refectory in silence (while listening to a reading).

https://chartreux.org/moines/en/the-carthusian-way/  

—“The Carthusian Way,” The Carthusian Monks