This past week there was on October 6th the feast of St Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian Order, and next month has the feast of the Carthusian saint Hugh of Lincoln on November 17th.
It is probably linked to these feasts that a video has appeared on the internet from Lux de Coelo which is a tour of Parkminster, the nineteenth century Carthusian monastery in West Sussex. It is the only Carthusian house in the country - at the suppression of the monasteries in the sixteenth century there were nine houses in England and one in Scotland. The English houses produced a significant number of martyrs.
Led by a former member of the community it shows the church, the chapter house with its striking wall paintings, and then library as well as the relic collection and the overall layout. The guide also talks about the Carthusian Rite and the saying of the Divine Office by the two communities.
Amongst the relics is a plain white stole which belonged to St Hugh of Lincoln, which I saw when it was on display at Lincoln Cathedral in 1986 to commemorate his appointment to the See eight centuries earlier.
Parkminster from the air
The cloister of the choir monks is on the left and that of the lay brothers with the gatehouse to the right
Image : Facebook
The video can be seen at Lux de Coelo, and there is a charming postscript at Lux de Coelo
Wikipedia has relevant articles about the founder at Bruno of Cologne, at Carthusians about the Order, and a brief note about the Sussex monastery at St Hugh's Charterhouse
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