St Stephen Harding (d. 1134) one of the three Cistercian founders
Stephen
was born in south-west England and became a pupil of or a monk with the
Benedictines of Sherborne Abbey, near Yeovil in Dorset.
He seems to have
left the monastery and returned to lay life.
He then went to study
first in Scotland and then in France where he had a conversion
experience.
He went on pilgrimage to Rome and on his way back joined the
Benedictine monastic community of Molesme in Burgundy, France, which
had been founded by Robert of Molesme in 1075.
At Citeaux - Cistercians
In 1098, feeling along
with Robert and another monk Alberic that life had become too easy at
Molesme, Stephen went with them to Citeaux (Latin, Cistercium),
near Dijon.
It was then a place of horror, a vast wilderness. With land
given by the lord of nearby Beaune and with permission from the
archbishop of Lyon, the three made the new monastic foundation of the
Cistercians. Robert was first abbot, Alberic the prior and Stephen the
sub-prior.
Initially they had to abandon the place because of lack of
water, but they soon returned. Alberic succeeded Robert and was abbot
for 9 years.
Un coup d'envoi - the arrival of Bernard with thirty-one others
In
1109 Stephen took over as the third abbot. It was under his leadership
that in the next four years the first cell- or daughter abbeys of
Citeaux were established at La Ferté, Pontigny, Morimond and Clairvaux.
In 1113 Bernard arrived at the age of twenty-two and with thirty-one
companions.
This proved a great shot-in-the-arm for the Cistercians.
It
was Stephen also who introduced lay brothers. They lived in what were
called "granges" or "manor houses", that is, centres of farming estates
attached to a monastery to provide food.
This also enabled the choir
monks devote themselves to public and private prayer, lectio divina and manual work according to the Rule of St Benedict.
Carta Caritatis
Stephen also drew up the Cistercian Constitution, called the Carta Caritatis ("The
Charter of Love"), which provided the juridical framework that enabled
the Cistercians and similar monastic foundations achieve a permanent
place in the Church.
The two most important provisions of the Carta Caritatis were
the yearly visitation of each abbey by the abbot of the founding house
and the yearly assembly of all heads of houses for a general chapter at
Citeaux.
Resignation, death and influence
Stephen resigned
as abbot in 1133, old and blind.
In the years which followed,
Cistercian abbeys were established at Waverley, Tintern, Rievaulx and
Fountains in England and in 1142 at Mellifont in Ireland.
Cistercians in Ireland
Mellifont had six daughter
houses in the next ten years at Boyle, Baltinglass, Maigue, and
Inishlounaght (Suir) in 1148, Kilbeggan in 1150, and Newry in 1153 and
twenty-three by the end of the century.
Trappists: monasteries of men and women in Ireland
In
reaction to a relaxation of the rule in many Cistercian monasteries, a
reform movement began at La Trappe in Normandy, France, in 1664.
Since
then most Cistercians are now called Trappists or Order of the
Cistercians of the Strict Observance (OCSO).
There are five monasteries
of men in Ireland at Mount Mellaray, Co Waterford; at Roscrea, Co
Tipperary; at Collon (New Mellifornt) in Co Louth; at Bolton Abbey, Co
Kildare; and at Portglenone, Co Antrim.
There is one monastery of
Cistercian women in Ireland - on the banks of the Blackwater River at
Glencairn, Co Waterford.