For several years, a book about the Carthusians, the Catholic Church’s most austere monastic order, has sat on my shelf begging to be read. Last week, I finally finished the tale that traces the lives ...

One might not expect a book about Carthusians, “the Western world’s most austere monastic order,” to be a page turner, but this sensitively written volume is just that. The author reconstructs the pre ...

The world-renowned “elixir of life” has been around for centuries, but its secret recipe — which has nearly disappeared several times — has never been revealed by the monks who made it famous.

In the pantheon of Catholic religious orders—Carmelites, Claretians, Camoldolese, Cistercians, Capuchin and Conventual Franciscans, Clunaics, Canons Regular, Clerics Regular—the Carthusians stand out ...

Foreign Correspondence NEW YORK TIMES.B.C de W. New York Times subscribers* enjoy full access to TimesMachine—view over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared. *Does not ...