Only four monks remain at Certosa di Galluzzo and their religious order has instructed them to leave by the end of the year.
The first Cistercian monks moved into the fourteenth-century religious complex in 1958, replacing the Carthusian order. In the beginning, Certosa flourished, training the young brotherhood to become priests, but the vocation was lost gradually and no younger generation has taken over the reins.
The four monks, infirm and ageing, still living at Certosa are no longer able to take care of the vast religious complex by themselves. Owned by the State, the superintendency for architectural and landscape heritage of Florence is taking over the management of Certosa—the monks will leave by the end of the year.
In an article in local newspaper Corriere Fiorentino, Padre Luigi, one of the four monks left at Certosa, commented, “This place will change from being a monastery and become a museum, and it will lose its spiritual essence… We have done a lot here. Now it will be up to someone else not to disperse our work.”
In their 60 years here, the monks have worked hard to support themselves, receiving no support from the Church: preserving books and making jams, ancient-style liqueurs and ceramics, as well as offering guided tours, including the priceless frescoes of Pontormo, maintaining the monastery and holding public mass on Sunday mornings.
