The story of a rebellious monk, and a saint? In fact, not just one, but three. These monks led an escape from the monastery, bringing many with them. Where did they go? To take refuge in a swamp and start all over again… “What madness!” you might think. Yes, dear reader, it is holy madness, for “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor 1:25).
A young man in search of an ideal
Born in England of noble blood, Stephen’s education was entrusted to the Benedictine monastery of Sherborne from an early age. It is believed that he never took his religious vows. Having reached the age of majority, he decided to leave the cloister to continue his studies. To this end, he went to Scotland and then on to Paris, where, after immersing himself in the profane sciences, he gave himself over to the search for true wisdom.
Desiring a direction for his life, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome with a companion whose name history has not preserved. Both decided not to talk during the journey, but only to recite the Psalter. After visiting countless churches and praying at the relics of the Apostles, they returned to France, where Providence had something in store for them.
Stephen heard about the Monastery of Molesmes and the holy life led there, and his heart, resolved to give itself to God, immediately turned in that direction. He imagined that his friend would do the same, but his aspirations were different. Arriving at the monastery, he was warmly welcomed by Abbot Robert and his prior, Alberic, who would become Stephen’s inseparable companions.
The sad state of the Monastery of Molesmes
Founded by Robert himself, Molesmes had adopted the Benedictine rule, which was characterized above all by the praise of God and austerity of life. However, by the time Stephen entered the monastery, a certain decadence had already set in… Little by little, ambition for possessions grew and the love of poverty – a legacy from St. Benedict himself, waned, leading the monks to disobey the abbot.
The latter was strongly opposed to such innovations and, realizing that the religious did not wish to live up to the ideal of the foundation, decided to leave. Stephen, who had also noticed the obstinacy of his brothers in habit, suddenly found himself deprived of his spiritual guide and without direction in the very monastery where he had hoped to fulfil his vocation.
Alberic took over as abbot, supported by Stephen, and both endeavoured to continue the task begun by Robert, but to no avail. They also decided to leave the monastery and live as hermits in a neighbouring region. In the meantime, Pope Urban II asked Robert to return to Molesmes, and the two monks followed him.
The majority of the community, however, did not wish to make amends. Together with Alberic, Stephen drew up a list of twenty irregularities in the monastery that represented clear transgressions of the rule of St. Benedict, such as dispensations from manual labour, continuous visits from nobles, comforts and luxuries incompatible with the state they had voluntarily embraced. In other words, they were living more like feudal lords than religious. With this list in hand, Robert tried to correct the monks, but they remained recalcitrant.
Cîteaux, the origin of an epic
Seeing no other way out of this situation than to retreat, those “three religious rebels” – as they were immortalized in the famous work on their saga by Fr. Mary Raymond Flanagan, OCSO – went to the Bishop of Lyon, accompanied by four other brothers, and asked for permission to found a new monastery whose way of life would return to the primitive integrity and purity of the rule. Having obtained this approval, fourteen more religious joined them and, on March 21, 1098, the expedition set off for Cîteaux, a wild and uncultivated land in the middle of an uninhabited forest in Burgundy, more like a swamp.
With the permission of the lord of the land, they cleared the trees on the site and with the wood erected the new monastery, dedicated to Our Lady, as would henceforth be all the houses founded by the Benedictine reform.
A year passed peacefully under Robert’s direction, but he was not destined to see the full fruits of his efforts… The monks he had left demanded his return, and the Pope expressed his desire for him to resume his responsibilities at the Abbey of Molesmes. Completely submissive, Robert said goodbye to the little flock that he would never see again. He died eleven years later, having lived holily under the unfortunately mitigated rule, contrary to his desires, but in accordance with God’s will.
Joy amidst the rigour of the rule
Alberic was elected abbot of Cîteaux, and Stephen prior. They soon adopted a white or greyish habit, contrasting with the black habit of the Benedictines, perhaps to symbolize purity and joy in the midst of penance.
The life of the monks was not for just anyone… They arose around midnight and never went back to sleep, interspersing the chants of the Office with the manual labour necessary for their sustenance, during which they devoted themselves to meditation. They attended Mass daily and ate only two meals – on fast days, only one – which consisted of coarse bread, a few vegetables and a light drink. The abbot, for his part, had to eat with a poor person or pilgrim who came to the monastery looking for food.
A Cistercian monk’s day was spent in strict silence, intimately united to Our Lady and in complete anonymity. Among other activities, they also copied ancient manuscripts, and St. Stephen himself undertook a revision of the Latin translation of the Bible from Hebrew.
St. Stephen is elected abbot
In 1109, five years after the foundation of Cîteaux, Alberic1 died and Stephen was unanimously elected as the monastery’s third abbot. Gathering his brothers together, he spoke the following words to them: “I have lost not only a father and a pastor, but a friend, a companion in arms, an unrivalled athlete in the combats of God […]. Having returned to God, behold, he remains united to us by a bond of inseparable affection. Why mourn him? […] Let us not mourn the soldier who rests in victory, but ourselves, who are still fighting the battle.”2
His first act, which seemed bound to cut off all earthly support and protection for the monastery, was to forbid the nobles who attended the Cistercian church during liturgical festivities to do so accompanied by their courts, whose worldliness was in stark contrast to the ideal of austerity in the cloister. However, despite such a drastic measure, he did not lose the favour of those who wanted to help him out of true love for God.
After only a year in his new post, hunger made itself felt in the monastery. One day, the procurator went to St. Stephen to tell him that they had run out of food. Both men went out to beg for sustenance. The first seemed to have succeeded, but what he received came from a priest whom the abbot knew to be a simoniac… He immediately ordered all the provisions to be returned and to trust in the help of Providence. His righteousness was soon rewarded: a few days later, help arrived at the monastery gates, without the origin of the favour being known.
Library of the Cistercian Abbey – Saint-Nicolas-lès-Cîteaux (France)
On another occasion, he sent two monks to the village of Vezelay to buy three cartloads of food, clothes and other provisions with just three pence he had found in the monastery… Trusting in Stephen’s order, they set off. On the way, they heard about a dying man who wanted to help the poor, to make up for his faults and rest in peace. He ordered them to buy everything they needed, and they returned to Cîteaux with three wagons overflowing with supplies, each pulled by three horses. From that act of supreme abandonment and trust in Providence, the almsgiving of generous souls never ceased.
An even harder trial
However, material poverty was not the worst of the trials that the dwellers of Cîteaux had to endure. Since its foundation, only one novice had knocked on the monastery’s doors, wishing to enter. And, as the years went by, it was not uncommon for the bells to ring, interrupting the chanting of the Office, so that the monks could rush to the beds of their dying brothers: “The crosses and the graves silently multiplied before him in the churchyard, and still no novices arrived to fill the empty stalls of those who were dead.”3
Stephen feared for the survival of the nascent institution and, while he was attending at the bedside of another monk, he asked him to return after his death to tell him if the monastery was pleasing to God and the reason for the lack of vocations. The monk promised to do so and surrendered his soul to God.
A few days later, Stephen was in the countryside when suddenly the recently deceased monk appeared to him and told him that he had been saved thanks to the state of life he had embraced under the guidance of the holy abbot, and that his work was pleasing to God. As for the lack of monks, he assured him that this sorrow would soon be transformed into joy. The influx of vocations would be such that the religious would be forced to exclaim with Isaiah: “The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in” (49:20). And Stephen, in turn, would respond with the prophet: “Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; whence then have these come?” (49:21).
Still submissive to his abbot on earth, the monk – already a partaker in eternal bliss – beseeched his blessing, claiming that he could not leave without permission. Stephen blessed him and he disappeared. Fifteen years of apparent barrenness were about to come to an end.
A new flourishing
The year 1113 dawned and, one day in April, the monk-porter ran breathlessly to St. Stephen to tell him something unheard-of: thirty-one knights were asking to be admitted to the monastery! In fact, Bernard of Fontaine4 was there – the future Saint of Clairvaux and glory of the Cistercian Order, whose works excel even those of its founders (cf. John 14:12) – accompanied by thirty relatives and friends whom he had brought along with him to embrace sanctity.
The promise was beginning to be fulfilled: “This massive entry into this terrible monastery of the flower of Burgundian youth was like a thunderclap. Astonishment was followed by enthusiasm and enthusiasm by emulation. Not a week went by without a knight coming to beg Stephen to consecrate him to Christ.”5
In a short period of two years, four new monasteries were founded: La Ferté, Pontigny, Morimond and Clairvaux; the so-called Cistercian daughter-houses, from which the Order would flourish. Twelve monks were sent to each community, a number representative of the Apostolic College. Who would be the abbot of the most recent foundation? To everyone’s surprise, Stephen elected Bernard, who was only twenty-five years old and had just left the novitiate, but who would soon become a beacon for all of Christianity.
In 1118 there were a total of nine Cistercian abbeys, and by the end of St. Stephen’s life ninety houses of the Order had been founded, including one in England, our saint’s native country, as well as numerous convents for women. However, how could the unity of ideals and objectives be ensured among all, despite the distance?
St. Stephen determined that the abbots would meet every year to discuss the affairs of their respective monasteries, in order to maintain the cohesion of the nascent Order; in addition, they should visit the mother abbey, Cîteaux, annually, and each abbot of the first four houses – the “eldest daughters” – should visit those that had arisen from it, thus constituting an interconnection between them all as members of a single body. In 1119, Stephen also drew up the Charta Charitatis – a compilation of the statutes and norms that all abbeys should follow, based on the law of charity –, approved by Pope Callixtus II in December of the same year.
St. Stephen receives St. Bernard and his companions in Cîteaux – Church of St. Sacerdos of Limoges, Sarlat (France)
The death of Stephen and the fruits of the Cistercian Order
Stephen, officially considered the founder of the Cistercians, had lived in seclusion and solitude in Cîteaux since he arrived there, having left only five times and for important matters concerning the Order.
At the end of his life, he was blind and thought it best to elect a successor. A monk named Guy was chosen, who enjoyed a good reputation; but this was nothing more than a façade. While the monks rendered him obedience, Stephen saw an evil spirit enter the newly elected abbot, but he could say nothing. All he could do was pray…
Less than a month later, Guy’s unworthiness became clear to everyone and he was deposed from his position. Another chapter convened and they elected Raynard, one of St. Bernard’s first companions and a friend of St. Stephen ever since. The Order was in good hands.
On his deathbed, when he was assured that he could go to Heaven in peace, the holy abbot replied with all humility that he was going to God fearing that he had done no good on earth, but hoping to have taken some advantage of the grace that Providence had bestowed upon him. And so he surrendered his soul on March 28, 1134.
Soon, Cistercian abbots would be elected bishops of the regions where they were located and summoned to participate in Church Councils; they would even influence the military Order of the Templars, whose rule was written by St. Bernard, and that of Calatrava, founded by a “white monk,” as they were commonly called. From a single monastery erected in a marshland in France, the great Order of Cîteaux would spread throughout the world, having, at its peak, seven hundred and thirty male and female monasteries. From this, centuries later, the Trappist Order would emerge, which would adopt an even more rigorous lifestyle.
Today, countless saints, mystics and Doctors are the glory of Cîteaux, such as St. Bernard, Our Lady’s cantor, and his brethren; St. Lutgarde, St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde, confidantes of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; St. Aelred of Rievaulx and St. William of Saint-Thierry, spiritual authors; among many other blesseds.
Like a small spark capable of setting an entire forest ablaze, St. Stephen Harding influenced Christianity without leaving Cîteaux. Perhaps he himself is not as well-known as the countless fruits that sprang forth from his fidelity. ◊
Notes
1 To learn more about the life of St. Alberic, see: TONIOLO SILVA, Luis Felipe Marques. Leader of a Monastic Rebellion. In: Heralds of the Gospel. Nobleton. Vol. 17. N.183 (Jan., 2023), p.28-31.
2 GOBRY, Ivan. Les moines en Occident. Cîteaux. Paris: François-Xavier de Guibert, 1997, t.V, p.46.
3 DALGAIRNS, J. B. Life of Saint Stephen Harding, Abbot of Citeaux and Founder of the Cistercian Order. London: Art and Book, 1898, p.104.
4 To learn more about St. Bernard, see: MORAZZANI ARRÁIZ, EP, Pedro Rafael. Monge, místico e profeta. In: Arautos do Evangelho. São Paulo. Year V. N.56 (Aug., 2006), p.22-25.
5 GOBRY, op. cit., p.55.
