. The monastery of La Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the Carthusian order, was founded by St. Bruno in 1084, high in the Alps north of Grenoble. Bruno was assisted in this foundation by Bishop Hugues I of Grenoble (d. 1132). The house always retained many eremitical elements; the monks lived in individual cells, although they met together for Matins and Vespers every day and for a walk once a week. In their search for isolation, the monks avoided parish responsibilities and prayers for the dead other than their own monastic brothers and indeed even tried to avoid visitors. Like the Cistercians, the Carthusians relied for agricultural labor on conversi, men who had left the world though not living a life of constant prayer. The purpose, again, was to be self-sustaining so as to minimize contact with the outer world.
In the 12th century, all Carthusian houses were founded far from any settlements, although in the 13th century new houses began to be founded just outside of cities. The order always remained small. By the end of the Middle Ages, Carthusian houses (or “Charter houses”) were found as far away as Hungary, England, and Portugal, but the Carthusians never attained the popularity of their contemporaries the Cistercians. The order was widely admired for its holiness of life and attracted new members primarily from within the church, especially the more intellectual sector. Unlike every other medieval monastic order, it never needed reform.
Constance B. Bouchard
[See also: BRUNO; GRENOBLE; MONASTICISM]
Bligny, Bernard, ed. Recueil des plus anciens actes de la Grande-Chartreuse (1086-H96). Grenoble: Allier, 1958.
--. Saint Bruno: le premier chartreux. Rennes: Ouest-France, 1984.
--, and Gerald Chaix, eds. La naissance des Chartreuses: Actes du Vle Colloque International
D’Histoire et de Spiritualise Cartusiennes. Grenoble: n. p., 1984.
World History
