Cistercians

Background

By the eleventh century, many monasteries in Western Europe had grown wealthy and had become accustomed to comfortable living. As a result, the monastic rule established by Saint Benedict was not properly observed in many places. Amid the movement for monastic renewal that began with the Cluniac Reform, some monks left crowded towns for remote places, where they lived in seclusion and sought to revive the monastic life of earlier times. The Cistercians emerged from this movement.

Development

• 1098: On March 21, Robert, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Molesme, moved with some twenty like-minded monks to a desolate site at Cîteaux and founded a new monastery. The order takes its name from this place.
• 1100: Robert returned to Molesme. Alberic then became abbot, and he was succeeded by the Englishman Stephen Harding.
• Early 1110s: Bernard of Clairvaux entered the community with some thirty companions. Thereafter the order grew rapidly.
• Around 1125: The first Cistercian monastery for women is reported to have been founded at Tart.
• 12th–13th centuries: The order spread beyond France to England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. By the mid-thirteenth century it comprised some 680 abbeys. The Catholic Times (Korea) gives the number of monasteries at the order's height as about 1,800.
• 16th–17th centuries: After the Reformation, all Cistercian monasteries in Northern Europe disappeared. In the seventeenth century, national congregations were formed, and the mother house at Cîteaux lost its authority over monasteries in other countries.
• 1664: At the Abbey of La Trappe in France, a reform movement arose that called for a return to the strict early rule. Its followers became known as the Trappists.
• Under Pope Leo XIII: The Trappist branch separated and became independent as the "Cistercians of the Strict Observance." The original Cistercian order is commonly called the "Cistercians of the Common Observance."

Results and Influence

The Cistercians emphasized poverty, silence, and manual labor. The monks traditionally supported themselves through work such as farming and brewing. The wide renown of Trappist beers today is connected to this tradition of self-sufficiency. Their monastic architecture, stripped of excessive ornamentation, also reflects their spirit. The Abbey of Fontenay in France was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.

The Cistercians of the Strict Observance are a contemplative order, dedicated to contemplation—turning the heart toward God through prayer and meditation. According to the Catholic Times, they rise at about 3:00 a.m., pray seven times a day, live in silence, and take a vow of stability, committing themselves to remain in a single monastery for life. The Cistercians of the Strict Observance have a presence in Korea. The Catholic Times reported that Our Lady of the Angels Abbey in Hokkaido, Japan, had sought to found a monastery in the Diocese of Masan.

Assessment

The Catholic Church regards the Cistercians as a leading reform movement of the medieval church, one that sought to recover the original spirit of the monastic rule. At the same time, Cistercian history has seen a recurring cycle in which discipline grew strict and then relaxed again. After the order's height, lapses in observance of the rule became more common, and the La Trappe reform arose in reaction.

Since the Reformation, Protestant churches have not maintained monastic vows or religious orders. Consequently, the Cistercians are treated mainly as a chapter in medieval church history. Even within Protestantism, however, views are not uniform. Some emphasize the Reformation's critique of treating monastic life as meritorious for salvation, while others regard a life in which prayer and work follow a regular rhythm as a model for spiritual discipline.