Stat crux dum volvitur orbis

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The Carthusian emblem in its baroque form ; the seven stars for St. Bruno and his first six companions joined them in the 17th century.
Crucifixus in Peterborough Anglican Cathedral , Frank Roper, 1975

Stat crux dum volvitur orbis ("the cross is fixed while [as long as] the globe [the world] continues to rotate") is a Latin sentence that was first documented in a Carthusian chronicle around 1600 and has been used since the 19th century as an election and The motto of the Carthusian Order applies. It contrasts the volatility and impermanence of the world with the finality and victoriousness of redemption through the cross of Jesus Christ .

Origin and reception

The of St. Bruno Great Charterhouse , the mother monastery of the order, founded in the French Alps in 1084 , originally only used a simple cross on its coats of arms . The combination of the cross with a globe on which it stands comes from the 13th century . Martin, the 11th general minister of the order, is said to have introduced this sign in 1239 as “gentilitium insigne” for the Great Charterhouse. It has been carved on the boundary stones of the Great Charterhouse since the 14th century . The individual Carthusian monasteries had their own coat of arms; however, the cross on the globe has become the unifying symbol of the order over time, especially from the outside world.

The associated motto appears for the first time in the form of Crux stat dum volvitur orbis in the Historia Cartusiana by Carthusian Nicolas Molin († 1638). It is there as a spiritual interpretation - not as a component of the sign - above the cross-globe emblem , with the continuation under the emblem: Mundo inconcussa supersto ("I [the cross] stand steadfastly above the world"). Apparently Molin formulated these sentences himself; in any case, they cannot be proven by any previous author.

Molin's first sentence - the second was not received - was used only occasionally afterwards. It was not understood as the Carthusian coat of arms until the 19th century. Contributing to this was that Victor Hugo, in his novel Die Elenden (1862), had one of the characters say: “The world is nothing in front of the cross. Martin, the eleventh general minister of the Carthusians, gave his order this motto: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis “.

Web links

Commons : Stat crux dum volvitur orbis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ( de.pons.com )
  2. ↑ Source for the entire section: Stat crux (cartusiana.org)
  3. ↑ before that as an orb used
  4. ↑ a b Beginning of the chapter on Father Martinus in Molin's Historia Cartusiana (before 1638), with illustration, print edition Tournai 1903
  5. ↑ “Le monde n'est rien devant la croix. Martin, onzième général des chartreux, a donné cette devise à son ordre: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis “( Les Misérables ).