Denver, Colo., Aug 14, 2011 / 05:01 am
On August 20 the Catholic Church will honor St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the twelfth-century monk who helped to build up the Cistercian order – some of whom are known today as the Trappists. Bernard is considered the last of the Church Fathers in the Western tradition.
Bernard was born during the year 1090, near the French town of Dijon. His father Tescelin and his mother Aleth belonged to the highest class of nobility in the region and had six other children. Bernard, their third child, received an especially good education, in response to a local man's prophecy that he was destined for great achievements.
After his mother’s death, Bernard began to consider a life of solitude and prayer. At Citeaux, near Dijon, a group of monks had gathered in 1098 with the intention of returning to St. Benedict's original rule of monasticism from the sixth century. Bernard, together with 30 other noblemen of Dijon, sought to join this monastery around the year 1113.
Three years into his life as a monk of Citeaux, Bernard received a commission from his abbot to become the head of a new monastery, practicing the same rule of life. Bernard himself dubbed the new monastery's location “Clairvaux,” or “Clear Valley.”