Cistercian Order
The Cistercian Order is a reformist monastic order that has spread rapidly during the 12th century. The core purpose of the order is to return to a form of monasticism based on a literal observance of the Rule of St Benedict. The order includes both monks and nuns in separate houses.
Structure
The order maintains a structure of independence and oversight set down in the Charter of Charity, written by Stephen Harding, the third Abbot of Cîteaux, and approved by Pope Calixtus II in 1119. The final form of the Charter of Charity was approved in 1155.
Under the charter, each abbey is independent, owned and administered by its individual community rather than the order in general, and run by an abbot elected by its own community.
Each abbot, however, must attend the annual General Chapter held at Cîteaux Abbey in mid-September and presided over by the Abbot of Cîteaux. The chapter ran for between 7 and 10 days. Absence without leave was punished. The General Chapter ensured each individual abbey conformed to the observance, customs and chants of Cîteaux. Should any disputes arise, the views of the Abbot of Cîteaux took precedence.
As the order spread through new foundations, a system of mother- and daughter-houses known as filiation emerged. While each abbey retained its independence, those abbeys which had helped found new abbeys (the mother-houses) had a duty of care over their offshoots (the daughter-houses). Abbots of mother-houses were expected to visit and inspect their daughter-houses at least once a year to ensure they were following the Rule and the statutes of the General Chapter, though they were warned not to do anything which might undermine the authority of the daughter house's abbot.
Culture
The Cistercians stress seclusion, simplicity, manual labour and corporate poverty. Each house is expected to support itself by its own efforts. As a result, Cistercian houses excel in agriculture and in processing agricultural produce. Their simple architecture has proved influential throughout Europe.
Two notable features of the order are their refusal to accept children younger than 15 into the order, and their use of illiterate conversi (lay brothers) to perform the bulk of manual tasks, freeing choir monks to spend part of their time singing divine offices, attending or performing masses, and praying.
The ban on accepting child oblates was, in part, because the order felt teaching grammar and the liberal arts was a distraction from a monk's true purpose. As Bernard of Clairvaux put it, "A monk's business is not to teach, but to lament."
Whereas choir monks are generally already educated, or at least literate, thus drawn from higher echelons of society, the conversi are illiterate and expected to remain so. They are generally from peasant stock. Conversi live in separate dormitaries to the choir monks, and often in granges (farms) separated from the main house. They must confine themselkves to the west side of the cloister, while choir monks use the east side. It is forbidden to teach conversi to read or write, and they cannot sing the divine offices or take part in the chapter. Their contribution to services is simply to attend and recite simple prayers they have learnt by heart.
The conversi are the primary labourers and farm managers of the order, though the order's celebration of labour means choir monks also perform manual tasks part-time, especially at harvest time, when they work side by side with the conversi.
History
The order was founded in 1098 when Robert, Abbot of the Cluniac monastery of Molesme, obtained permission from the Archbishop of Lyons to leave Molesme and found a new monastery based on his interpretation of the Rule of St Benedict, which he felt required a greater emphasis on corporate poverty, manual labour and a remote location.
With the Archbishop's permission, Robert and around 20 monks left Molesme to start their new house in marshland known as Cîteaux, south of Dijon, donated by the Viscount of Beaune.
The monks at Molesme protested their abbot's absence to the Pope, who ordered Robert to return to Molesme in 1099. The organisation of the new house fell to his swuccessors Alberic, elected abbot in 1099, and Stephen Harding, elected to succeed Alberic in 1109.
Life at the new abbey was hard and austere. The monks built wooden huts to live in, but the site was damp and unhealthy. Few postulants came to fill the thinnng ranks of the monks.
Then, in 1112, just as the new monastery was recognised as an order by the church, a young man from a landed Burgundian family, Bernard of Fontaine, sought to join the monastery. He brought with him 30 young men, including several of his brothers, whom he had persuaded to take the habit with him. It proved the impetus the fledgling order needed. Cîteaux founded new houses at La Ferté in 1113 and Potigny in 1114. Two new houses were founded in 1115: Bernard was sent to found a new house at Clairvaux, while another house was founded at Morimond. These four new foundations held a special place as the 'elder daughters' in later Cistercian thought.
The order expanded rapidly. Their asceticism was popular with the aristocracy, and Bernard proved to be a charismatic preacher and influential intellectual. In 1118 both Le Ferté and Clairvaux founded daughter houses of their own. The first Cistercian nunnery, Le Tart Abbey, was founded in 1125. By the time of Bernard's death in 1153 there were 343 Cistercian houses throughout Latin Europe, including 68 founded directly from Clairvaux.
The order produced its first pope, Eugene III, in 1145. He had entered Clairvaux Abbey in 1138. In 1147 he ordered that the struggling Congregation of Savigny, a similar reforming order weith a number of houses, be merged into the Cistercians.
Una caritate, una regula, similibusque vivamus moribus
Founding Date
1098
Type
Religious, Monastic Order
Alternative Names
Ordo Cisterciensis, White Monks
Demonym
Cistercians
Leader Title
Parent Organization
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
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