St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Their story

Bernard was born in 1090 near Dijon, in Burgundy, France, to a noble family. His devout mother died when he was a teenager. At 22 he decided to join the new and very strict monastery of Cîteaux, the first house of the Cistercians, and he was so persuasive that he brought about thirty relatives and friends with him, including several of his brothers. Three years later, in 1115, Bernard was sent to found a new monastery at Clairvaux, and he served as its abbot for the rest of his life. Under his leadership the Cistercians spread across Europe, and Clairvaux alone founded about seventy monasteries. Bernard became the most influential churchman of his age. He advised popes and kings, helped end a schism in which two men claimed to be pope, and preached across Europe. At the pope's request he preached the Second Crusade, and its failure grieved him deeply. Yet Bernard was first a monk who loved God. His sermons on the Song of Songs, on the love of God and on the Virgin Mary are among the treasures of Christian writing, so sweet that he was called the Mellifluous, or honey-flowing, Doctor. He urged Christians in every storm to look to the star and call on Mary. He died on August 20, 1153, was canonized in 1174 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1830.