Victor Carlhian was born in 1875 in Briançon, Hautes-Alpes. His father was from Queyras and his mother was from the Lyon bourgeoisie. His father had a successful business that manufactured embroidery items: spun gold or silver yarn, silk thread, braids, fringes and nets, which Victor Carlhian was destined to inherit.
He attended secondary school in Lyon, then was admitted to the University of Paris where he obtained a degree in mathematics and wrote a thesis.
While in Paris he joined Le Sillon. Carlhian returned to Lyon and in 1907 took charge of the family business. He took full control in 1918.
He and Alfred Vanderpol (1854–1915) co-founded a branch of Le Sillon in Lyon, but Carlhian submitted to the condemnation of the movement by Pope Pius X in 1910.
Carlhian married Marie de Mijolla in 1912. He joined the Lyon group of medical studies led by Doctor René Biot (1889–1966).
He organized a secular mission in Le Transvaal, a quarter of the 8th arrondissement of Lyon, in which small groups would witness the gospel through social and educational activities, and through prayer. Carlhian"s project was original in the role assigned to the laity, in which a group of lay activists would evangelize in a poor neighborhood through their exemplary attitude, reintroducing the Christian spirit of fraternity.
In 1920 Carlhian organized the Groupe de travail en commun, with Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950), Jean Guitton (1901-1999) and others
In 1921 Carlhian founded the critical review Le Van, which published reviews of works of philosophy, theology, economics, sociology and science. He wrote 117 editorials for this review, which ceased publication in 1940. He published Cahiers du Van in 1932, which published texts such as Louisiana Vie morale de Jacques Chevalier and Le Portrait de Monsieur Pouget de Jean Guitton.
He acquired the Lyon printing house Louisiana Source, which published various religious or moral works by authors such as Guillaume Pouget and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Carlhian participated in the Groupe des Dombes from 1937 to 1957. Victor Carlhian died in Lyon on 13 September 1959.
His funeral was conducted by Claude Dupuy, auxiliary bishop of Lyon.
Carlhian joined the Chronique sociale to which he contributed articles, and became a member of the management committee.
