Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Part Four)

Text and Illustrations taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise stated.

20 August (Feast of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor)
Double
White Vestments

Bernard of Clairvaux, as shown in the church 

of Heiligenkreuz Abbey, near Baden bei Wien, Lower Austria. 

Portrait (1700) with the true effigy of the Saint 

by Georg Andreas Wasshuber (1650-1732), 

(painted after a statue in Clairvaux with the true effigy of the saint). 

Photo taken June 2006 by Georges Jansoone. 

(Wikimedia Commons) 

Following the Christian defeat at the Siege of Edessa, the Pope commissioned Bernard to preach the Second Crusade. The last years of Bernard's life were saddened by the failure of the Crusaders, the entire responsibility for which was thrown upon him.

Bernard died at age 63, after 40 years spent in the cloister. He was the first Cistercian placed on the calendar of saints, and was canonized by Pope Alexander III on 18 January 1174.

In 1830, Pope Pius VIII bestowed upon Bernard the title "Doctor of the Church".

Cîteaux Abbey.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a monk of Cîteaux Abbey, left it to found Clairvaux Abbey in 1115, of which he was the first abbot. His influence in the Cistercian Order, and beyond, is of prime importance. He reaffirmed the importance of strict observance to the Rule of Saint Benedict. 

Author: G CHP

Photo: July 2008. 

(Wikimedia Commons) 

Bernard's parents were Tescelin, Lord of Fontaines, and Aleth of Montbard, both belonging to the highest nobility of Burgundy. Bernard was the third of a family of seven children, six of whom were sons. At the age of nine years, Bernard was sent to school at Châtillon-sur-Seine, run by the secular canons of Saint-Vorles.

Bernard had a great taste for literature and devoted himself for some time to poetry. His success in his studies won the admiration of his teachers. Bernard wanted to excel in literature in order to take up the study of the Bible. He had a special devotion to the Virgin Mary, and he would later write several works about the Queen of Heaven.

Bernard would expand upon Anselm of Canterbury's role in transmuting the sacramentally-ritual Christianity of the Early Middle Ages into a new, more personally held, faith, with the life of Christ as a model and a new emphasis on the Virgin Mary.

The Cloisters at Citeaux Abbey.

L'abbaye de Cîteaux — Cloître de la bibliothèque du XVIe siècle. 

Classée monument historique. Restaurée. 

Author: G CHP

Photo: July 2008. 

(Wikimedia Commons)

In opposition to the rational approach to divine understanding that the scholastics adopted, Bernard would preach an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary.

Bernard was only nineteen years of age when his mother died. During his youth, he did not escape trying temptations and, around this time, he thought of retiring from the world and living a life of solitude and prayer.

In 1098, Saint Robert of Molesme had founded Cîteaux Abbey, near Dijon, with the purpose of restoring the Rule of St Benedict in all its rigour. Returning to Molesme, he left the government of the new abbey to Saint Alberic, who died in the year 1109.

In 1113, Saint Stephen Harding had just succeeded him as third Abbot of Cîteaux, when Bernard and thirty other young noblemen of Burgundy sought admission into the Cistercian order.


PART FIVE FOLLOWS