Bernard was born in 1090 at Fontaines, near Dijon in Burgundy, the third of seven children of Tescelin, lord of Fontaines, and Aleth of Montbard, both of the highest nobility. While he was yet unborn, a devout man foretold his great destiny. At nine he was sent to the renowned school of the secular canons of Saint-Vorles at Châtillon-sur-Seine. He excelled in letters and poetry, yet his deepest desire was to master Sacred Scripture, which later became as it were his own tongue. "Piety was his all," Bossuet would say. He cherished a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin and spoke of her with unmatched sublimity. Scarcely nineteen when his mother died, he overcame youthful temptations with heroic virtue and resolved to leave the world for solitude and prayer.
In 1098 Saint Robert of Molesmes had founded Cîteaux to restore the Rule of Saint Benedict in all its rigor. After Robert's return to Molesmes and the death of Saint Alberic, Saint Stephen Harding governed as third abbot. In 1113 Bernard, about twenty-two years old, sought admission there with some thirty young noblemen of Burgundy. Three years later Stephen sent him at the head of a band of monks to found a new house in the Valley of Bitterness in the Diocese of Langres. On 25 June 1115 Bernard named it Claire Vallée—Clairvaux—and the names of Bernard and Clairvaux became inseparable. In the bishop's absence he was blessed as abbot by William of Champeaux, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, who recognized in him the predestined servant of God and became his lasting friend.
The beginnings of Clairvaux were harsh; the regime so austere that Bernard's health failed until William and the General Chapter persuaded him to moderate his penances. Disciples flocked to him. His aged father Tescelin and all his brothers entered Clairvaux; his sister Humbeline, with her husband's consent, took the veil at the Benedictine convent of Jully. Clairvaux soon overflowed, and colonies went out: Three Fountains (1118), Fontenay (1119), Foigny (1121), and many more. During an absence the Grand Prior of Cluny enticed away Bernard's cousin Robert of Châtillon—the occasion of one of Bernard's longest and most touching letters.
At the first general chapter of the order in 1119, though not yet thirty, Bernard was heard with deep respect when he urged the revival of primitive fervor. That chapter gave definitive form to the Charter of Charity, confirmed by Pope Callixtus II on 23 December 1119. About 1120 he composed On the Steps of Pride and Humility and his homilies In Praise of the Virgin Mary. When the Black Monks of Cluny resented Cîteaux's renown, Bernard, at the request of William of Saint-Thierry, wrote his Apology, protesting his love for Cluny while attacking real abuses. Peter the Venerable answered in charity; Cluny itself reformed, and Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis and minister of the king, was converted from worldly ways. Bernard's zeal reached bishops and clergy: his letter to the Archbishop of Sens is a treatise on the duties of bishops; he also wrote On Grace and Free Will.
In 1128 he served as secretary of the Council of Troyes, drawing up its statutes and outlining the Rule of the Knights Templars, whom he later praised in In Praise of the New Knighthood. Unjustly denounced at Rome as a meddlesome monk, he answered Cardinal Harmeric with humble firmness and was vindicated. He defended the rights of the Church against royal encroachment and recalled erring prelates to their duty.
When Honorius II died in February 1130, schism divided the Church between Innocent II and Anacletus II. At the national council of Étampes, Bernard judged for Innocent, won the great Catholic powers to his side, accompanied him into Italy, reconciled cities, and calmed troubles. At Clairvaux the papal court found only simple fare—a feast of virtues rather than of luxury. Bernard detached William of Poitiers from the schism; later, in the church of La Couldre, he confronted the relapsed duke at the moment of Communion, holding the Sacred Host and adjuring him not to despise God as he had despised God's servants. William yielded and the schism in Aquitaine ended. Bernard refused the archbishopric of Milan, silenced defenders of Anacletus, and saw the schism die with Anacletus in 1138. He sent monks from overcrowded Clairvaux into Germany, Sweden, England, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy; from Three Fountains near Rome would come Pope Eugenius III. He resumed his sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, assisted at the Second Lateran Council in 1139, and formed a close friendship with Saint Malachy of Ireland, who died at Clairvaux in 1148.
In 1140 he opposed the errors of Abelard. Informed by William of Saint-Thierry, Bernard denounced the new teachings; at the Council of Sens he exposed them with such clarity that Abelard could not reply. Condemned and confirmed by the pope, Abelard submitted and died two years later at Cluny under Peter the Venerable. When Bernard's disciple Bernard of Pisa became Pope Eugenius III, the abbot sent him the Book of Consideration, teaching that reform of the Church begins with the holiness of its head and that prayerful consideration must precede action—a work long treasured by the popes.
After the fall of Edessa, Eugenius commissioned Bernard to preach a new Crusade. At Vézelay in 1146, King Louis VII, Queen Eleanor, and the nobles took the cross; Bernard tore his own habit to make crosses for the multitude. In Germany miracles multiplied at his steps; Emperor Conrad and Frederick Barbarossa received the cross from his hand. At councils in Paris and Reims he opposed the errors of Gilbert de la Porrée. The failure of the Crusade was unjustly laid upon him; he apologized to the pope, explaining that, as with Israel of old, the sins of the crusaders had frustrated the work God had accredited by wonders.
Saddened by the deaths of friends—Suger, Thibaud of Champagne, Conrad, and finally Eugenius—Bernard felt his own end near from early 1153. He died at Clairvaux on 21 August 1153, in the sixty-third year of his age, after forty years in the cloister. He had founded one hundred sixty-three monasteries; at his death the order numbered three hundred forty-three houses. The first Cistercian raised to the altars, he was canonized by Alexander III on 18 January 1174. Pope Pius VIII declared him Doctor of the Church. The Cistercians honor him as founders are honored, because of the wonderful vitality he gave to the Order of Cîteaux.
Ask Saint Bernard's intercession today, and imitate his love of the Virgin Mother, his courage in defending the truth, and his readiness to leave every comfort so that Christ alone may be loved and served.
