St Bernard and Clairvaux

Today is the Feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux, who died in 1153. The Wikipedia account of his life and legacy can be seen at Bernard of Clairvaux

Born in 1090 into a noble family he entered the original house of his Order at Citeaux and then founded the abbey at Clairvaux in 1115. Of the four original Cistercian houses it was to be the founder of the majority of other communities of  the Order due in large part to the prestige of its  founder. In that respect as a monk who extolled the Benedictine ideals which included stability he himself spent much of his life touring and influencing the life of the Church of the times, and through in particular his study of the theology of the Virgin Mary became a continuing influence in Catholic devotion to her, The ‘Doctor Mellifluous’ Abbot of Clairvaux still speaks to us today. A man who definitely believed he knew what was right he may not have always been the easiest person to get on with, as not a few of his contemporaries found out.

There is a brief outline of the history of the abbey itself at Clairvaux Abbey from Wikipedia and something about its great library and how much of it has survived at Clairvaux Abbey, from which 1115 Medieval Manuscripts Survived

I visited Clairvaux in 2014 whilst travelling towards Reims on return from a pilgrimage to Ars. For all that the remains are designated as an ancient monument and accessible to visitors - which we did not have time to do - Clairvaux is still, as it has been since 1808, a high security prison. Beyond the ancillary monastic buildings outside the western perimeter which serve as an introductory visitors centre, and look towards the original temporary site of the abbey further west, the effect of looking at the complex is really depressing. One can go into the surviving buildings but you would be entering into part of the prison complex. It is rather as if Dartmoor Prison was imposed on the ruins of Fountains or Rievaulx. The French state has given up using Fontevrault as a prison - surely they could do the same with Clairvaux?

St Bernard

Image: Clairvaux2022