The Cistercians and St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Above video from: Invocation UK - The Cistercians

Bernard, the founding abbot of Clairvaux Abbey in Burgundy, was one of the most commanding Church leaders in the first half of the twelfth century as well as one of the greatest spiritual masters of all times and the most powerful propagator of the Cistercian reform. He was born in Fontaines-les-Dijon in 1090 and entered the Abbey of Citeaux in 1112, bringing thirty of his relatives with him, including five of his brothers-- his youngest brother and his widowed father followed later. After receiving a monastic formation from St. Stephen Harding, he was sent in 1115 to begin a new monastery near Aube: Clairvaux, the Valley of Light. As a young abbot he published a series of sermons on the Annunciation. These marked him not only as a most gifted spiritual writer but also as the "cithara of Mary," especially noted for his development of Mary's mediatorial role.

Above from and continued here:  http://www.osb.org/cist/bern.html

We recently had the Youth 2000 Festival in the Cistercian Abbey Roscrea, Co. Tipperary.  Any young or not so young men contemplating a Vocation to the Cistercians here in Ireland can contact them at

Mount St. Josephs Abbey Roscrea