The Order of Carthusians: a numerical overview
October 06, 2026
The Church today commemorates the memorial of St. Bruno (1030-1101), founder of the Order of Carthusians.
According to the online edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the institute was founded in 1084 and approved on September 2, 1176. In 2024, the institute had 272 monks (131 of them priests) in 21 religious houses. There are also 49 Carthusian nuns in five religious houses.
In tracing the history of the Carthusian monks, the Order of Carthusians notes that it had nine charterhouses in 1136, 130 charterhouses in 1371, and almost 200 charterhouses in 1521, with some 310 charterhouses active at any time in the Order’s history. The Reformation and religious wars led to a decline to about 160 charterhouses in 1676, with 2,500 priests, 1,300 brothers, and 70 nuns.
The French Revolution led to further decline: the New Catholic Encyclopedia notes that by the end of the nineteenth century, the Order “numbered about 700 monks and brothers, and 100 nuns.” The number of male religious in the order declined to 582 in 1963, rose to 602 in 1967, and has since steadily declined to 466 in 1971, 391 in 1981, 384 in 1991, 318 in 2010, and 278 in 2020.
In its history of the Carthusian nuns, the Order lists 30 charterhouses of nuns that were active at any time over the past nine centuries. The French Revolution led to the closing of all the women’s charterhouses at the time; a few surviving nuns revived community life in 1816.
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