The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1888-04-11
MONASTIC LIFE.
ROUTINE AT cHARTREUsE FROM
MORNING TO NIGHT.

Peep at a Carthusian Monks Abode.
Furniture of the Barest Description.
One Meal Day-yow of silence-The
Rules Relaxed.
After breakfast guests are conducted
round the monastery, and even ladies-who
are not allowed to stay over night within the
walls, but get shelter at the old hospital near,
which is superintendent by the Sisters OF
Mercy-may, if armed with papal license,
come across and have peep at the arrange
ments of this misogynist household The
Chartreuse has no architectural glories and
would never make picturesque ruin. In
deed the churches which the Carthfisians
have generously built in the neighboring viii
lagos are far richer in decoration and more
elaborate in style than their own chapels.
There is, however, plenty to interest II you
care to take a look round.
THE oARrHusIAN's ABODE.
Each pere has two little rooms, with a
workshop and garden attached all in one
place, so that, unlike the usual monastic
arrangements, the Carthusian's abode is self
contained, Every Carthusian is, in fact,
accommodation than the traditional hermit
usually had. That may help to account for
the remarkable fact that this order was
about the only one which never degenerated
so far from the primitive type as to need
reformation. Dormitory gossip, drawing
room scandal mongering, hanging about the
pantry doors, quarreling, swearing and steal
ing pastry were not possible under such social
conditions. The furniture is of the barest de-
seiption 1t consists Of wooden bed
That wooden bed,
Which shall their coffin be when dead
chair, a writing and dining table, a joiner's
bench, plain bookcase, the usual helps to
devotion, 'the suffering Son of Man upon the
wall" and few religious pictures.
A monks food consists of one meal day
This is pushed in by sliding grating in the
cloister wall, SO that he never sees the person
who brings it. 1t is made up of soup, fish
and vegetables on ordinary days. and on Fri
days and during Lent of simple bread and
water, though this prison fare was, in stricter
times, the rule for three days in each week
The silent fathers are now allowed the great
luxury of a fire In cold weather, though that
is worldly concession to modern ideas Of
comfort. The severity of the old fireless rule
may be imagined when ii is remembered that
the monastery is over 1000 fee. up and Is
buried in snow great portion OF the year.
There is pathetic story of father belong
ing TO the other great Carthiisian house in
sunny Calabria who, when elected to the
highest Carthusian dignity of prior of the
parent monastery, willingly came, but came
knowing for certain that the severity OF
the climate would speedily kill him. 1t was
a call from the Lord, not TO better living.
He obeyed it, and in few months lay down
to die
THE vow OF SILENCE.
The great vow Of silence, so characteristic
of the Carthusians, was easily kept by the
self contained arrangement Just mentioned.
Even on festive days, when they ate In COM
mon, this rule was strictly observed II has
been so far relaxed in modern times that the
fathers are allowed to walk out together once
q week and converse with one another or
even TO speak to others when spoken TO- The
time they have to spare from the offices,
which are particularly lengthy, Is taken up
with reading, meditation, joinery, gardening
and cleaning. These fathers are mostly
aristocrats of various nationahties. They
are at present about forty In number. The
entrance fec is large, the novitiate long and
severe, the great life VOWS OF fearful rigidity
The horsehair shirt and linenless rule admit
Of no exception, and, though it is taking a
rather shallow and supercilious view of be-
lief to call these Carthusans 'last of the
people who believe still It seems certain
that nothing short Of an overmastering be-
lief could make life possible here. There Is
certainly nothing In the appearance Of the
monks themselves, nothing In their habits
and surroundings, to allow one to indulge In
the Erasmus vein. The glimpses onegets are,
with one or two exceptions, of pale, worn
deathlike faces, with the shadow as OF
great sorrow upon them. They are not faces
OF the hue and expression suitable for popu-
lar cartoons for those traditional scenes
where monastic life is represented as an after
dinner nap ON fiowery veranda, or the hug
ging of claret casl in an underground
cellar.
As you leave the cells your feeling Is that
OF charitable pity-pity for the narrowness
which leads men, Carthusians and others not
80 logical, to think that this world and this
life are the DEVILS and not Gods But this Is
qualified by the reflection that men OF rank
may stay in the world and spend their money
In worse ways than In building churches for
poor villages or in endowing hospitals and
schools, and deaf and dumb institutions for
poor districts: spend their time In worse
ways than in the manufacture Of medicinal
liqueurs, the culture Of aromatic flowers, In
fasting and prayer, and employ their intel
lectual gifts, poeticai and political, in worse
ways than In silence. The monastery library
Is well stocked with books, chiefly OF a devo-
tional character. Good Words.