News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-02-07
THE CARTHUSIANS.
Monks Who Live in Nearly Perpet-
ual Silence

The cable brings the news that the
Carthusian monks have refused an offer
OF $15, OO0, 900 from London iirm for q
monopoly of the manufacture and sale
of their world famed liquors. And it is
not likely that offers even much larger
will succeed in obtaining from the monks
their long and jealousy kept secret.
The cunning combination of samples
whereby the flavor of the four varieties
of the article are produced has never
been known outside the monastery pre-
cincts and doubtless never will be.
Numberless experiments have teen
made to produce liquor resembling
them, and though money and much
trouble have not been spared the result
has always been failure. Upwards of
four dozen different plants, it is said,
are used in the manufacture, the princi-
PAL OF which are the earliest tender
shoots of the pines, NORWOOD, balm,
mint, and mountain pinks. Many of
the herbs are cultivated by the monks,
each of whom has his little garden,
which, with a small carpenter shop, is
his place of recreation. The good st.
Bruno held wisely that healthier re-
Taxation from long vigils of contempla-
ton and prayer was to be had in manual
labor than in mere objectless walking.
The distillery is not within the mon
astery ; it is lower down the mountain,
seEse distance out of The yi i4is.s ST st. st
Laurent, and is conducted by one lay
brother, under whom are employed O
number of ordinary laborers.
The Carthusian order has the distinc-
tion of being the only one of the ancient
communities which has never been re-
formed or in need of reform, fact ex-
plainable by the stern opposition of its
superiors from the very beginning to
mitigations or tainperings with the
heroic rules of the great founder.
Among other provisions for the thorough
weaving of his monks from the world,
ST. Bruno decreed that no woman
should ever set foot within Chartreuse,
and it is only royalty itself, backed by a
brief from the Pope, which has on few
occasions been able to break through
this rule.
The brotherhood never eat meat, and
are denied cheese and butter for six
months of every year. They sleep on
sheetless beds in their day clothing, and
each monk eats his mesgre one meal q
day and collation. solitary in his cell.
Over the doors of these cells such in
scriptions as 80 Beator Solitude" re-
main from the cd time. Perpetual
silence, except on high festivals, is the
rule, and when death comes to claim
them, generally at o great age, for as
Get; cism and pure air and thorough $50
lation from worldly distractions, lengthen
out the life wonderfully, they are laid,
with nothing about them but their white
robes, in the little crowded burying-
ground in the centre of the buildings.
A cross, with neither name nor date,
stands at the head of each many-ten-
anted grave. The superiors' resting
places are distinguished only by having
n cross of stone instead of wood. Be
sides giving length of days, the life led
by the monks impresses on them q look
OF spirituality and refinement. An Eng
lish traveller says 81 never saw Car
thusian monk who did not look like q
gentleman"
The time allowed TO male visitors at the
monastery does not exceed forty eight
hours. In summer the house is crowded,
sometimes as many as 200-many of
them priests making ''retreat"-being
there together. Ladies who climb up to
get an outside view OF the famous place
are lodged and entertained By few OF
the Sisters of Providence from Grenoble,
who have convent near by.
In 1910, tho date of the last rebuilding
of the monastery, it was affiliated to no
less than EGO houses of the order througIlz
out Europe. OF these the most Welt
known was the old Charter house of
London. But revolutions and changes
of many sorts ca"sed the number to
,dwindie until to day the followers of
st. Bruno are few enough.
The returns from their distillery are
of course very large, but were they,
greater by far, the monks, whose oppor-
tunities of doing good are immense,
could find means to dispose of them for
the benefit of their fellow-creatures.
For themselves the money does not
change single item in their way of
living. St Brunos rules and constitu-
ton are as faithfully followed and ad-
hered to in 1889 as they were in l0Sl.-
Chicago Times.