An Ancient Elixir

Only two monks know the full recipe for Chartreuse, and it remains frozen in time

-  Marion Renault

WHEN THE WORLD went into lockdown, for the monks of Chartreuse it was simply another tick on their 938-year record of self-imposed isolation.

The Chartreux brothers, also known as Carthusians, embrace a deeply ascetic existence near Grenoble in the western French Alps, observing customs that have barely changed since their Christian order was founded. The monks pass the days alone, praying for humanity and listening for God in the silence that surrounds them. Frugal meals of bread, cheese, eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish arrive through a cubbyhole in their individual quarters. With few exceptions, the monks do not enter one another's quarters, and they rarely interact-save for midnight and daytime church services, where no musical instruments are allowed. And once a week, they stroll in pairs through the forests that fortify the monastery.

This lifestyle has survived centuries of external turmoil-avalanches, landslides, terrible fires, religious wars, pillaging, evictions and exile, military occupation, the French Revolution, and, yes, plagues. Through times of earthly chaos, the Chartreux thrive in accordance with their Middle Ages-era motto: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis ("The cross is steady while the world turns").

"This order has lasted because they know how to live beyond time, and they know how to live, also, in the present," said Nadège Druzkowski, an artist and journalist who spent almost five years putting together a documentary project on the monastery and its surrounding landscapes. "It's humbling."

In 2020, the Chartreux philosophy worked in reverse: As Covid-19 ground the world to a halt, the Carthusian way of life went on, unchanged.