Chartreuse Notre-Dame (Reillanne)

Information about the house

Chartreuse Notre-Dame was built in 1978 in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04), between Manosque and Forcalquier, 8 kilometers from the village of Reillanne. To get there, leave the village by taking the departmental road D14 toward Banon. After 6 kilometers, turn right onto the path that leads to the monastery. A stone engraved with a globe surmounted by a cross (the coat of arms of the Carthusian Order) marks the entrance to the path.

This new monastery was created to welcome the nuns from the former charterhouse of Beauregard, located on the outskirts of Voiron (Isère), which was increasingly threatened by the town's expansion. In addition, the buildings were not suited to the normal rhythm of Carthusian life.

The new monastery was therefore built on the model of traditional charterhouses: cells arranged around a cloister that connects them. The nuns are thus able to live according to the charism of Saint Bruno, the father of the Carthusians († 1101). This charism lies in the primacy given to solitary life, tempered by a measure of community life. The charterhouse has been described by the expression: "a communion of solitaries for God." The cells are separated from one another by a small garden cultivated by the inhabitant of the hermitage without leaving her enclosure.

The nuns gather in the conventual church for Mass in the morning and for Vespers in the evening. They also chant the Divine Office in the middle of the night for approximately two hours.

The community welcomes prospective candidates through a novitiate lasting two years, followed by a period of profession (temporary vows) lasting five years.
Accommodation is reserved exclusively for retreatants wishing to discern a possible call to Carthusian life.

The largely sunny Provençal climate supports good health and well-being.
300 meters from the monastery stands an old farmhouse that serves as the hermitage of the Sisters' chaplain, who is always a Carthusian Father.

The ideal pursued by the Carthusian nuns is the same as that proposed to the monks: in the name of the whole Church, to stand in the presence of God, proclaiming through contemplative silence the Good News of the Gospel, and remaining watchful in expectation of Christ, bearing witness to his coming.