St. Bruno and the Carthusian Order

I have often posted about the Carthusian Order and its English Reformation martyrs on this blog. Today we celebrate the feast of the order's founder, St. Bruno of Cologne:

Born in Cologne around 1030, he begins studying at the school of the Cathedral of Reims at an early age. Made a "doctor", Canon of the Cathedral Chapter, he is made the Rector of the University in 1056. He was one of the most remarkable scholars and teacher of his time "a prudent man whose word was rich in meaning."

He finds himself less and less at ease in a city where scandal has little affect towards the clergy and the Bishop himself. After having fought, not without success, against this disorder, Bruno feels the desire of a life more completely given to God alone.

After an attempt at a solitary life of short duration, he enters the region of Grenoble, of which the Bishop, the future Saint Hugues, offers him a solitary site in the mountains of his diocese. In June 1084, the Bishop himself leads Bruno and six of his companions in the primitive valley of Chartreuse, where the Order eventually gets its name from. They build a hermitage, consisting of a few log cabins opening towards a gallery which allows them access to the communal areas of the community -- church, refectory, and chapter room -- without having to suffer too much from intemperate conditions.

After six years of a pleasant solitary life, Bruno is called by Pope Urban II to the service of the Holy See. Not thinking of being able to continue without him, his community first thinks of separating, but it allows itself to be convinced to follow in the life that he first formed. Advisor to the Pope, Bruno is ill at ease a the Pontifical Court. He only lives in Rome for a few short months. With the Pope's blessing, he establishes a new hermitage in the forests of Calabria, in the south of Italy, with a few new companions. There he dies 6 October 1101.

I note this on the website: "Liturgical celebration does not have any pastoral intent. This explains why those outside the Order are not admitted to participate at the offices or the Mass celebrated in the churches of our monasteries. Because of our call to solitude, visits are limited to the family members of the monk (2 days a year) and to those who feel called to our life, whom we call retreatants."--so when St. Thomas More spent any time with the Carthusians of the Charterhouse of London, it would have been as a retreatant. Note also how much Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Audley, at al, were interrupting the solitude of the Carthusians.

There is a Charterhouse in England today: St. Hugh at Parkminster (make sure you have the sound turned on your computer; the site comes with chant!) It was founded in 1873 and the house originally had two houses from the Continent to accommodate. Their site includes a gift shop, with this book about the Beauvale martyrs of the English Reformation.

The Benedictines, Carmelites and the Carthusians at the Charterhouse

I don't want to let May get away without mentioning again the commemoration of the Carthusian Martyrs at the Charterhouse in London on May 4. According to the Independent Catholic News site,
Members of the Carmelite Family in Britain to part in events in London to commemorate the Carthusian Martyrs of the Reformation, and reflected together on the spirituality of the Carthusian Order last week.

On 4 May 1535 the prior of Charterhouse, John Houghton, was executed at Tyburn for refusing to accept Henry VIII's claim to be supreme governor of the Church in England. Houghton was killed alongside two fellow Carthusian monks, and two other Catholic clerics. Over the following five years a further 15 Carthusians were executed in London and in York, as well as many other Catholics who refused to accept King Henry's break with the Roman Catholic Church. The Carthusian monastery in London, and all other communities of religious orders in England and wales, were dissolved as part of the English Reformation.

The Carthusian monastery in London became an almshouse for elderly men, known as Sutton's Hospital in Charterhouse. To this day it remains an almshouse, mostly for retired Anglican clergy, known as the Brothers of Charterhouse. Since 2005 Sutton's Hospital in Charterhouse has commemorated the martyrdom of the Carthusian Martyrs on 4 May which is celebrated as the feast of the Martyrs of the English Reformation in both the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches.

Substantial portions of the former Carthusian monastery, including the cloister remain at Sutton's Hospital in Charterhouse. On the evening of 4 May several members of the Carmelite Family - mostly from the 'Carmel in the City' Carmelite Spirituality Group in London - attended this year's commemoration there, together with Benedictine sisters from Tyburn Convent where a shrine commemorates the martyrs executed at the Tyburn Tree by present-day Marble Arch. Anglican priests, clergy and laity from the Roman Catholic and Methodist Churches also took part in the commemorative service.

The service began in the chapel, where the Preacher of Charterhouse, Reverend Canon Hugh Williams, introduced the service by recalling the story of St. John Houghton and his companions. Hymns were sung and Psalms were prayed, and the Mother General of the Tyburn Nuns read an extract from a medieval Carthusian spiritual text.

The congregation then moved into Chapel Court where a stone slab marks the site of the high altar in the Carthusian monastery. On the slab was a miniature model of the Tyburn Tree. Here the 'Passion of the Carthusian Martyrs' - an account of the final days of the London Carthusians by Dom. Maurice Chauncy - was read aloud.

After a period of silence, Brothers of Charterhouse came forward and placed a rose in the model of the Tyburn Tree, as the preacher called out the names of the martyrs.

Brothers of the Charterhouse placed roses in the Tyburn Tree. The names of the martyrs are engraved on a memorial behind the site of the high altar. The service concluded with further prayers, including the Russian Orthodox Contakion of the Dead.

There are photos of the events here. Holy Martyrs of the Carthusians, pray for us!

Tomorrow at the Charterhouse

Tomorrow, on the grounds of the former Carthusian Charterhouse in Smithfield, London, the annual ecumenical commemoration of the martyrdoms of St. John Houghton, St. Robert Lawrence, St. Alexander Webster, Carthusians, and also Blessed John Haile, Vicar and St. Richard Reynolds of Syon Brigettine Abbey will be held. According to the Charterhouse website:

Friday 4 May 2012

5.30pm in the Chapel of Sutton’s Hospital and Chapel Court
The Annual Ecumenical Commemoration of the Carthusian Martyrs
This year the Brothers of Charterhouse have invited the Sisters (Order of St Benedict) of the Tyburn Convent to take part in the Service.

In 2008, a similar service was held and Christopher Howse of The Telegraph posted a story about the event:

The Brothers are the pensioners – a little like Chelsea Pensioners – who live in Sutton's Hospital, the Jacobean almshouse founded on the remains of the Charterhouse. The ceremony last Sunday marked the ending of that earlier foundation. Outdoors in the westering sunlight, in the grassy Chapel Court, one old man after another walked forward and placed a single red rose in a wooden stand representing the former gallows tree at Tyburn. Each rose stood for a monk or associate of the Charterhouse who lost his life in the 1430s. As the names of the dead men were read aloud a blackbird sang in a tree overhead, only emphasising the background peacefulness of the setting.
The monks who'd lived at the Charterhouse in the Middle Ages were Carthusians, and their house was an offshoot of the Grand Chartreuse. The order was founded in 1084 by St Bruno. It is not for wimps. The monks get up in the middle of the night to pray. They don't eat meat. They are solitary and silent. Their monastery is cold. But as the remarkable film Into Great Silence shows, it is a happy life for those cut out for it.
In the early 16th century in London, the three most impressive groups of dedicated religious men were the Bridgettines at Syon, near Isleworth; the Observant Franciscans at Greenwich and Sheen (Richmond, Surrey); and the Carthusians. All three groups were clobbered when Henry VIII launched the dissolution of the monasteries.
Last Sunday was May 4, and on May 4, 1535, Dom John Houghton, the Prior of the Charterhouse, was hanged, together with Dom Augustine Webster, Prior of the Charterhouse at Axeholme, who had been visiting London, Father Richard Reynolds, a Bridgettine monk of Syon, and Sir John Hale, the rector of nearby Isleworth, an honest clergyman. By 1540 all the monks of the Charterhouse were dead or had fled. Some starved in Newgate.
The impressive point of Sunday's ceremony, preceded by Anglican Evensong beautifully sung by the Thomas Sutton Singers, is that it did not shy away from this old and terrible event. As one of the Brothers told me, "We used to just keep quiet about the Carthusians who has once lived here. It's better to acknowledge how they lived and died."

The Charterhouse in London is now an almshouse (shades of Trollope's The Warden!):

Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery in London, to the north of what is now Charterhouse Square. The building is formally known as Sutton’s Hospital in Charterhouse, and is a registered charity (number 207773). Since the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century the house has served as private mansion, a boys’ school and an almshouse, which it remains to this day.

If you want to become a brother at the Charterhouse, you do have to meet some qualifications:

• single men – bachelors, widowers, divorced
• those over 60 and under 80 years of age
• those of sound mind and in reasonable health – a medical assessment may be required
• those of good standing – three independent referees are required
• those with limited capital and income – confirmed by an accountant or solicitor
• those suited to community life
• those prepared to attend Chapel

The photo above is from London Remembers:

The Great Cloister of The London Charterhouse, 1371 - 1538, once occupied this ground. After Charterhouse School, 1611 - 1872, and Merchant Taylors' School, 1875 - 1933, it became the home of The Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital, since 1995 St Bartholomew's and The Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Remember those who lived, studied and taught here, especially Saint John Houghton, Prior of the London Charterhouse, who was martyred on 4 May 1535, and the Monks and Lay Brothers who, soon after him, suffered death and persecution.

May the cause of healing inspire all who study and teach here today.

I will follow up on this year's ecumenical service as news becomes available.

Ernest Dowson and "The Carthusians"

Researching more information about the first martyrs of the English Reformation, the three Carthusians, one Bridgittine and one parish priest executed on May 4, 1535, I found a poem by Ernest Dowson. If Ernest Dowson is remembered at all it might be because he contributed two great book and movie titles: Gone with the Wind* and Days of Wine and Roses**! (I can hear Max Steiner's "Tara's Theme" and Henry Mancini's song now.) According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Dowson was:

(born Aug. 2, 1867, Lee, Kent, Eng.—died Feb. 23, 1900, Lewisham, London), one of the most gifted of the circle of English poets of the 1890s known as the Decadents.

In 1886 Dowson entered Queen’s College, Oxford, but left in 1888 to spend six years working at his father’s dry dock in the Limehouse district of London. Dowson became an active member of the Rhymers’ Club, a group of writers that included William Butler Yeats and Arthur Symons. In 1891 he met the woman who would inspire some of his best poetry, Adelaide Foltinowicz, whose parents kept a modest restaurant in Soho, London. In that same year he published his best-known poem, “Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae,” popularly known from its refrain as “I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion.”*** Adelaide, who was 12 years old when they met, declined his offer of marriage, but he pursued her for the next six years, drowning the pain of his unrequited love with wine and women and demanding as time went on “madder music and stronger wine.”

He was received into the Roman Catholic Church about 1892. In 1894 his father died, his mother committed suicide, the family business failed, and Dowson discovered the symptoms of his tuberculosis. In 1897 Adelaide married one of her father’s waiters; after that, Dowson lived mostly in France, supporting himself by contributions to The Savoy and translations of Émile Zola, Honoré de Balzac, Voltaire, and other French authors. He was discovered in Paris wretched, penniless, and ill by a friend, R.H. Sherard, who took him back to London, where he died in Sherard’s house.

Dowson published two novels in collaboration with Arthur Moore, A Comedy of Masks (1893) and Adrian Rome (1899), and a book of short stories, Dilemmas (1895), but his reputation rests on his poetry: Verses (1896), the verse play The Pierrot of the Minute (1897), and Decorations in Verse and Prose (1899). His lyrics, much influenced by French poet Paul Verlaine and marked by meticulous attention to melody and cadence, turn the conventional world-weariness of the 1890s into a deeper sense of the sadness of things. Yeats acknowledged that much of his own technical development was due to Dowson.

He wrote this poem about Carthusian monks, and it certainly reminds me of the Carthusians of the Charterhouse of London, as Prior John Houghton and his monks tried "To dwell alone with Christ, to meditate and pray" and were instead pulled from their cloister to face trial, execution, and starvation:

Through what long heaviness, assayed in what strange fire,
Have these white monks been brought into the way of peace,
Despising the world’s wisdom and the world’s desire,
Which from the body of this death bring no release?

Within their austere walls no voices penetrate;
A sacred silence only, as of death, obtains;
Nothing finds entry here of loud or passionate;
This quiet is the exceeding profit of their pain:

From many lands they came, in divers fiery ways;
Each knew at last the vanity of earthly joys;
And one was crowned with thorns, and one was crowned with bays,
And each was tired at last of the world’s foolish noise.

It was not theirs with Dominic to preach God’s holy wrath,
They were too stern to bear sweet Francis’ gentle sway;
Theirs was a higher calling and a steeper path,
To dwell alone with Christ, to meditate and pray.

A cloistered company, they are companionless,
None knoweth here the secret of his brother’s heart:
They are but come together for more loneliness,
Whose bond is solitude and silence all their part.

O beatific life! Who is there shall gainsay,
Your great refusal’s victory, your little loss,
Deserting vanity for the more perfect way,
The sweeter service of the most dolorous Cross.

Ye shall prevail at last! Surely ye shall prevail!
Your silence and austerity shall win at last:
Desire and mirth, the world’s ephemeral lights shall fail,
The sweet star of your queen is never overcast.

We fling up flowers and laugh, we laugh across the wine;
With wine we dull our souls and careful strains of art;
Our cups are polished skulls round which the roses twine:
None dares to look at Death who leers and lurks apart.

Move on, white company, whom that has not sufficed!
Our viols cease, our wine is death, our roses fail:
Pray for our heedlessness, O dwellers with the Christ!
Though the world fall apart, surely ye shall prevail.

*From the third stanza of "Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae":

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,
Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, all the time, because the dance was long:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

**From Vitae Summa Brevis" (1896):

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.

***Which Cole Porter must have known: viz. Lois's "Always True to You in My Fashion" from Kiss Me, Kate!