ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

Friday, August 21, 2026

(tr. from August 20)

Sts. Matthew & Mark, Barrington, R. I.

 

St. Bernard was born into a noble family in northeastern France in 1090. Although he had promising prospects as a secular scholar, at age 22 he entered the Abbey of Citeaux, just south of Dijon. At the time, the abbey was at the forefront of the Cistercian Reform, which sought to return Benedictine monasteries to their original simplicity and austerity.

 

In 1115, the Abbot sent Bernard to found a new monastery at a place called the Valley of Wormwood, which had been a hideout for robbers. There, he became well known for his sermons and spiritual writings; the monastery he founded became known as Clairvaux – the bright valleys. Soon, Clairvaux housed several hundred monks and began founding new monasteries elsewhere. Bernard had a direct hand in 65 such foundations.

 

Bernard also became an active participant in the complex ecclesiastical politics of the day. He openly criticized and rebuked bishops whose lives he considered too luxurious and worldly. He exchanged sharp letters with Peter the Venerable, the Archabbot of Cluny, the principal Benedictine abbey of the day, criticizing Peter’s lifestyle and that of his monks. 

 

Bernard gained significant influence when one of his spiritual protégés became Pope Eugene III in 1145. At the Pope’s command, Bernard traveled through France and Germany in 1147, preaching the Second Crusade, with spectacular results as entire towns and villages were emptied of men who joined the armies heading to Jerusalem. However, when the Crusaders began massacring Jews in the Rhineland, Bernard intervened with forceful denunciations and effectively stopped the violence. Subsequently, Bernard was widely blamed for the Second Crusade’s failure.

 

Bernard is known for his fierce opposition to the philosopher-theologian Peter Abelard, whom he regarded as too rationalistic and insufficiently attentive to the mystery of faith. Bernard’s approach emphasized traditional authority and emotive devotion instead. Later generations of medieval theologians would reconcile the two approaches.

 

While the Cistercian monastic life was stark and austere, Bernard’s spiritual writing was rich and vivid. It has been said that Bernard brought emotion into Christian spirituality—particularly by cultivating the love of God through reflection on Christ’s sacred humanity as presented in the Gospel narratives. 

 

This kind of relationship with the human Jesus was new to Christian spirituality, which had previously focused on more abstract levels of divine truth. Thus, Bernard was one of the pioneers of what’s known as the via positiva, an approach later adopted and developed by spiritual teachers such as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Ignatius of Loyola.

 

Bernard is well known for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. His greatest works include his treatise On Loving God and his Sermons on the Song of Songs, both of which remain spiritual classics today.

 

Bernard died at Clairvaux on August 20, 1153. Pope Alexander III canonized him in 1174, and Pope Pius VII bestowed upon him the title of Doctor of the Church in 1830. He is sometimes known as the Mellifluous Doctor.

 

Bernard’s relics were interred at Clairvaux alongside those of his friend, St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh. During the French Revolution, the Cistercian community at Clairvaux – by then reduced to 26 monks – was disbanded, and the buildings became state property. The relics of Bernard and Malachy were moved to the cathedral at Troyes, where they remain today.