Carthusians
Throughout time, men and women have sought solitude and silence in the search for God. This is not solely a Christian vocation for other faiths have followed the same path. Over a number of years, John Robert Young managed to persuade certain communities of monks, friars and nuns to allow him to document their way of life - A life of silence, prayer and work - even the ‘enclosed’ orders of which the Carthusians are one.
The Carthusians lead an extremely austere life staying much of the time in their ‘cells’ where they sleep, eat and pray. The Carthusians were allowed back into this country in 1873, and St Hugh’s Charterhouse in West Sussex (the only one in the UK), was designed by French architect Norman Clovis and took 600 workers about six years to complete. It has one of the longest cloisters in the world. The twelve original Carthusian monasteries were destroyed at the Reformation.
‘The monk is one who, alone and poor, yet rich in a love that is wide enough to embrace the world, feels within him the silence of God expanding into a tremendous smile: it is the presence of the infinite Word claiming possession of another humanity, a possession due to Him not only as Head of the human race but by the right conquest. He has won the right to exult our hearts by the triumph of His Cross.’
Silence in Heaven: Thomas Merton.
