Today’s saint, Bruno, is the founder of perhaps the strictest of all historical Christian religious orders in existence–the Carthusians, founded in 1088. Their motto in Latin, above, is Stat crux dum volvitur orbis, which roughly translates as “The cross stands while the world turns.”

This religious order from its very beginnings with Bruno was essentially a collection of hermits, living in individual cells and devoting themselves to silence, prayers, and manual labor by which they were able to meet their incredibly meager needs (bread, some herbs, and shirts of haircloth). Interestingly, their primary industry, initially, was the copying of books, and they were among the first monastic orders to take this up as, if not precisely a cottage industry, certainly a hermitage one. In the years since, and no doubt especially after the invention of the printing press, the Carthusians have also gone into the business of producing an herb-based liqueur.

The Rules (or Statutes) for the Carthusians (named for the Chartreuse River Valley in present-day France, where the Order originated) were designed to make the individuals as invisible to the world as possible, as utterly dedicated to the interior worship of God as possible, and self-sustaining at all times. Their approach has been to leave as minimal a footprint on this earth as imaginable, and to allow as minimal a footprint as possible from the world upon their souls. They do emerge from their individual cells for certain eucharistic services, special night vigils, and a once-yearly interaction with family. Yet silence, stillness, and solitude are very much the fabric of daily life.

You can explore their website (offered in multiple languages). They have orders for monks, nuns, and laypersons, and continue to adhere closely to the practice instituted by Saint Bruno. Their particular view of life and the world is well worth exploring, and is in stark contrast to those ascetics who chose solitary discomfort, self-flagellation, and/or misery as repentance-for-sinfulness as a way of life. As Butler reports:

[I]t sufficiently appears how far the saint (Bruno) was from the least disposition of melancholy, moroseness, or harsh severity. Gaiety of soul, which always attends virtue, is particularly necessary to all who are called to a life of perfect solitude, in which nothing is more pernicious than sadness, and to which nothing is more contrary than an inclination to excessive pensiveness.

One senses that Carthusians have learned what many Buddhists have as well: the joy and liberation of non-attachment to the events of the world. As they have declared for well over 900 years: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis.

Check them out!