Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-05-24
CARTHUSlAN MONKS
The Life of Privation and Self Denial LED
by Them.


by Them.
Each pere has two little rooms, with
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, practic-
ally hermit, with just little more
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 reforma-
ton. Dormitory gossip, drawing
room scandal, mongering, hanging
about the pantry doors, quarreling and
stealing pastry. were not possible I'M
der such social conditions The furni-
ture is of the barest description. 1t
consists of a wooden bed, a chair.
writing and dining table. a joiner's
bench. plain bookcase, the usual
helps to devotion. 1.-The suffering Son of
Man" upon the wall, and few religi-
Gus 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 vegeta-
bles on ordinary days, and on Fridays
and during Lent of bread and water
though this prison fare was. in stricter
times, the rule for three days in each
week. The silent fathers are now al
lowed the great luxury of a fire in cold
weather. though that is worldly con-
cession to modern ideas of comfort
The severity of the old fireless rule may
be imagined when it is remembered
that the monastery is over four thou
sand feet up and is buried in snow
greater portion of the year. There is
Il pathetic story of a father belonging
to the other great Carthusian house in
sunny Calabria who. when elected to
the highest dignity of prior of the par
ent monastery, willingly came, but
came knowing for certain that the Sc
verify of the climate would speedily
kill him. 1t was call from the Lord,
not to better living. He obeyed it,
and in few mouths lay down to die.
The great VOW of silence, so charac-
teristic of the Carthusians, was easily
kept by the self-contained arrange
ment just mentioned. Even on festive
days, when they ate in common, this
rule was strictly observed. 1t has been
so far relaxed in modern times that the
fathers are allowed to walk out to-
gether once O week and converse with
one another, or even to speak to 9TH
ers when spoken to. The time they have
to spare from the offices, which are
particularly lengthy, is taken up with
reading, meditation, joinery. garden
ing and cleaning. These fathers are
mostly aristocrats of various national
tiles. They are at present about forty
in number. The entrance fee is large,
the novitiate long and severe, the great
life vows of fearful rigidity. The
horse-hair shirt and linenless rule
admit of no exception, and, though it
is taking rather shallow and superci,-
ious view of belief to call these Car
thusians ''last of the people who be-
lieve," still it seems certain that moth
ing short of an overmastering belief
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 one gets are, with one or
two exceptions, of pale. worn, death
like faces, with the shadow upon then.
They are not faces of the hue and ca
preston suitable for popular cartoons
for those traditional scenes where me-
nastic life is represented as an after
dinner nap on flowery veranda, or
the hugging of claret cask in an
underground cellar. GOOD Words.