Stat Crux volvitur orbis - While the world changes, the cross stands firm, says the motto of the
Carthusian order.
However, he was referred to the
Carthusian Order of Neuville, where he was advised to learn first plain chant and logic.
Chartreuse is probably best known for its
Carthusian order of monks and their locally brewed green spirit.
It contains no less than 178 separate tituli, plus extensive introductory and concluding verses on such themes as the life of the Saint and the origins of the
Carthusian Order. Tituli vary greatly in length.
Chapter 10 "Portraying Cathusian Values" explores de Matteis's relationship with the
Carthusian order in Naples for which he executed numerous works including those in the Certosa di San Martino.
(62) Although Carmelite and Benedictine monasteries of women did join the
Carthusian order, of interest for my study is their provenance from Poitiers and the Rule of Cesarius of Arles.
St Hugh's is home to a
Carthusian order of monks who are a small community of hermits living in solitude and silence, permitted to talk only once a week during their four hour walk in the local countryside.
The note of ownership reads: 'Iste liber est dom(us) s(an)cte trinitatis ordi(ni)s cartusien(sis) p(ro)pe Divionem' [This book belongs to the house of St Trinity of the
Carthusian order at Dijon].
The other great foundation of the later medieval period was the
Carthusian order, whose history often interweaves with that of the Birgittines in England, especially the Charterhouse of Sheen, which, like Syon, was founded by Henry V on the banks of the river Thames--the two houses stood opposite and were, as Shakespeare puts it, "two chantries where the sad and solemn priests / Sing still for Richard's soul" (Henry V.
The book provides much helpful information on the
Carthusian order culled from a variety of sources, materials on virtue and vice trees (in a discussion of the Desert of Religion, the central text of the manuscript), very interesting information on the cult and liturgical rites surrounding the Holy Name and its ties with Carthusian practice (for example, lead strips with the name of Jesus were given to pilgrims who visited the English Charterhouse of Mountgrace).
It is disturbing in terms of what it reveals about the monastic life, about the
Carthusian order, and about the particular community located at Parkminster in England in the 1960s.