The renovation and the reconstruction of the Carthusian monastery of Valbonne was completed by the time of the French Revolution in 1789. Once again History
brutally irrupted into the life of the monastery. As possessions
of the Church were put at the disposal of the Nation, following
a decree on November 2, 1789, the temporal assets of the monastery
became national property.
On February 13, 1790, as the religious orders were suppressed by
decree, the monks of the monasteries were dispersed. The last
father left Valbonne on October 1st, 1790.
As at all the other French monasteries, property inventories were then drawn
up by the municipal officers, but the Chartreuse de Valbonne was
the only one not to to be sold, as it was
slated to house a school.
This project having failed, the monastery and farmlands were given
by decree, on 17 February 1804, to the hospital of Pont-Saint-Esprit
to compensate it for the loss of its previous assets, sold as national
possessions.
In 1822, the administrative commission charged with the management
of the Carthusian monastery spoke of ruins, the entire monastery having been pillaged by the neighboring townships. As a result an auction was held and on January 28, 1836, the Carthusian
Order repurchased the monastery for the sum of 65300 Francs.
Once again the Chartreuse de Valbonne was reborn from its ashes.
Restoration and new construction followed. The Family Chapel as
well as the Chapel of Relics dates from this period. A complete resurrection ensued:
Gregorian chants sounded again inside, fields outside were cultivated anew, stables were repopulated and the herds restored.
Strangers and needy persons were, as in the past, welcomed at the
courtyard's entry and one would have thought that this buzzing hive
was prepared for a great future.
Yet, just as the Carthusian monastery regained its life and serenity, its
only aspirations being peace, tranquility, and silence for prayer
and contemplation, a virulent quarrel occurred at the state level
about the "lay issue". The Combes law of July 1st, 1901
placed religious communities under the control of the state which could authorize
them - or not - according to their usefulness. The monks of Valbonne,
as well as those of the other Carthusian monasteries of France, refusing
to submit, were forced into exile. They left for Spain where they
re-established the Aula Dei monastery which had been partly devastated
during the two sieges of Saragossa by Napoleon Bonaparte.
This time, the monks had to abandon their home definitively
and Dom Gorce, the last prior, left Valbonne on September 30, 1901.
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