This week in Christian history: Crystal Cathedral holds last service, Council of Lyons begins
St. Bernard founds monastery at Clairvaux – June 25, 1115
This week marks the anniversary of when St. Bernard founded a new monastery in Clairvaux, which became an influential religious community in Medieval Western Europe.
Bernard was sent from a monastery in Citeaux to form a new community, having entered the order a few years earlier along with other noblemen from the French province of Burgundy.
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“The beginnings of Clairvaux were trying and painful. The regime was so austere that Bernard's health was impaired by it, and only the influence of his friend William of Champeaux, and the authority of the General Chapter could make him mitigate his austerities,” noted EWTN.
“The monastery, however, made rapid progress. Disciples flocked to it in great numbers, desirous of putting themselves under the direction of Bernard.”
For the rest of the decade, in response to its growth, the monastery would send out many of its own members to form new communities elsewhere in Europe.
