A arte e a espiritualidade cartusianas em «O Deserto» de Manuel Ribeiro : 1879-1942

Abstract

Manuel Ribeiro (1879-1942), a writer from the Alentejo region in Portugal with a background in revolutionary socialist militancy, was deeply influenced by his contact with the religious interiority of the Cartuja de Miraflores (Miraflores Carthusian Monastery). Upon his return to Portugal, he published the novel O Deserto in 1922, which reflects the mystical environment he experienced during the time he lived within this austere cloistered monastic community. Located in Castilla la Vieja, and neighbouring on Burgos, the monastery is a magnificent artistic jewel and an oasis of spirituality which provided the novelist with profound religious and aesthetic experiences and undoubtedly drew him closer Catholicism, the faith in which he died.