The French churchman, St. Bernard of Clairvaux was a Cistercian monk, and founder and abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux. A theologian and Doctor of the Church, he dominated Europe through his eloquence and his counseling of popes and rulers. Of a noble family in Burgundy, Bernard was a tall, handsome, slender youth endowed with great charm, a talent for eloquence, sensitivity, and a passion for learning. When he was 23 he persuaded two uncles, his five brothers, and about thirty other young nobles to enter the forlorn Cistercian monastery of Cîteaux, founded in 1098 in a swampy area near Dijon. He chose it because, he said, “I was conscious that my weak character needed a strong medicine.”

Their rules called for living in secluded communal prayer and adoration. The monasteries were founded in very remote places, and the Cistercians were to become agricultural pioneers. Practicing a strict diet, plus a vow of silence while practicing their religious traditions in austere churches and wearing simple vestments, were the marks of the Cistercians.

Bernard died at the age of sixty-three after forty years spent in the monastery. He had established one hundred and sixty-three monasteries in different parts of Europe. At his death he had established three hundred and forty-three in total. He was the first Cistercian monk placed on the calendar of saints and was canonized by Alexander III, January 18, 1174. Later, Pope Pius VIII bestowed on him the title of Doctor Of The Church. The Cistercians honor him today as the founder of the order because of the far reaching activity that he gave to the Order of Cîteaux.