Carthusian Saints (PDF) - Charterhouse of the Transfiguration

9.
SAINT HUGH OF LINCOLN
- ENGLAND -
(NOVEMBER 16, 1200)
Hugh of Avalon was born to noble parents in Southeastern
France in 1140. Showing inclinations for the ecclesiastical state from
childhood, his father, rather than bringing him up at home in his castle,
entrusted him for upbringing to a monastery of canons regular in
the neighborhood. There the canon who was given this responsibility
loved the boy tenderly. “Hugonete” he would say, “Hugonete,
Christo te enutrio” (“Little Hugh, it is for Christ that I bring you up”).
And in fact, when still a teenager, as was not unusual at that time, he
made profession as a canon in his turn.
Up in the mountain chain next to his priory, however, there was a
monastery founded some sixty-five years earlier: the Grande Chartreuse.
Hugh heard about it, and after visiting was spellbound: that
was the place for him!
Their rule encouraged solitude, not isolation. They had separate
cells but their hearts were united. Each of them lived
apart, but had nothing of his own, and did not live for himself.
They combined solitude with community life. They lived alone
lest any should find his fellows an obstacle to him; they lived
as a community so that none of them should be deprived of
brotherly help.
Thus his biographer sums up Hugh’s impressions of the life in
the Charterhouse. (1) Although the Prior of the canons entreated him
with tears to wait until after his death, Hugh understood that God
wanted him to leave right away, and was accepted at the Grande
Chartreuse. He had a difficult novitiate, marked by many temptations
stirred up by the Evil one, but Hugh resisted victoriously. After his
profession he was appointed Procurator and held that office for ten
years.
King Henry II of England (1154-1189) had promised to build a
Carthusian monastery in England in compensation for having failed to
29