Bernard de Clairvaux (1090/1091 - 1153), Cistercian abbot and theologian, is renowned for his sermons and letters that eloquently blend Christian mysticism with the ideals of knighthood. However, the first 21 years of his life (the years of legal minority) he lived as Bernard de la Fontaine the life of a member of the Burgundian nobility, being a squire himself in direct contact with knights. What is known of these early years?
Bernard de Clairvaux was born into the Burgundian nobility at Fontaine‑lès‑Dijon, a village northwest of Dijon, France. He was the third of seven children (six sons, one daughter), born to Tescelin le Roux, a knight and landowning lord, and his wife Aleth de Montbard, herself from a prominent family and sister to André de Montbard, one of the founding members of the Knights Templar.
According to tradition, Bernard was raised in a household emphasizing virtue and duty. He received an education befitting his status as young boy of noble descent. Around the age of nine or ten (so around 1100), Bernard began schooling at the cannon-run school of Saint-Vorles in Châtillon‑sur‑Seine. There he excelled in the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) with noted aptitude in Latin language, literature, and patristic studies. Despite his scholarly promise, he did not pursue the quadrivium (the four subjects of arts: arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy), focusing instead on literary and theological learning, including works by Cicero, Horace, and Church Fathers.
The death of his deeply religious mother Aleth, around 1106 (so at the age of about 16, at the time the legal age of military majority when a knightly upbringing and knighthood itself became an option), deeply affected Bernard. Tradition recounts that after her death she appeared to him in a white garment, urging him toward a religious life instead of a secular one. This event initiated his 'path to conversion' toward ecclesiastical pursuits, away from nobility and worldly ambitions, including marriage and knighthood.
The "First Life of Bernard of Clairvaux", traditionally known as the Vita Prima, contains some details on this short period of about six years. The First Life was meant to prepare the case for canonization of Bernard, to be first abbot of Clairvaux, and is not as a historical treatise in the modern sense. But the first part was written bij Bernard's close friend William de Saint-Thierry (ca 1085-1148), in part during Bernard's life. Thus this Vita may be considered a "sacred biography", and a relatively reliable source on Bernard's young life, with practical information most probably provided by Bernard himself.
In William's Vita, young Bernard is characterised as "a young man with high hopes, one elegant in bearing, gracious and pleasing to look at, of charming manners and a keen intellect, and polished in speech. As he began to make his debut into society, many paths were opened to him, so that he was assured of success in whatever he undertook. A future of great promise smiled on him everywhere."
Bernard at first took up the usual tasks expected from a squire. A story in the Vita describes that Bernard was riding to join his brothers, who were with the Duke of Burgundy engaged in besieging Grancey Castle, probably present day Grancey-le-Chateau near Dijon, France. About halfway to this military engagement, Bernard experienced a profound spiritual crisis. He stopped at a church to pray, and there, "through deep emotional prayer", he made the final decision to devote himself fully to God and renounce worldly life. The Vita describes this as follows: "Deciding that the most perfect way was to leave the world, he made inquiries and sought out where he could more certainly and more purely find rest for his soul under the yoke of Christ. Making a search for such a place, he came upon the newly founded Cistercian plantation (Citeaux Monastery, TN), a new way of monastic life, a great harvest but needing workers, for hardly anyone had gone there seeking the grace of conversion because the way of life there was too austere and poor. (...) he set aside all fear and hesitation and turned his mind to Cîteaux in order to melt away and be hidden in the hiding place of God’s face from the disturbance of men and from the contentious tongues. It would be for him a flight from vain pride, from his noble lineage, from his own gift of a keen intellect, perhaps even from his growing reputation for holiness."
After that, in the months leading up to his formal entry into monastic life, Bernard led a semi-monastic life at Châtillon, forming a small devotional community of family and friends. It took him quite some effort to persuade them to join and stay, somtimes helped with their deceased mother appearing to the brothers. After that they stayed together, lived simply, and engaged in spiritual exercises. Though still in secular dress, they kept themselves distinct from the world and drew public attention. Their communal piety resembled the early Christian church, marked by shared purpose, solemn prayer, and a visible break from worldly values.
Around Easter 1112 (a date supported by modern scholarship although older sources suggest Easter 1113) Bernard and approximately thirty companions most probably from his Châtillon devotional community, including four of his brothers, entered the Cistercian abbey of Cîteaux. There they were given a warm welcome by abbot Stephen Harding (ca 1059-1134). This marked the end of Bernard’s worldly life and the beginning of his formal monastic vocation.
Further reading on Bernard de Clairvaux
This blog is original work by TemplarsNow, based on several sources such as the article on Bernard of Clairvaux on Wikipedia, the article on St Bernard of Clairvaix on Britannica.com, the article on William de Saint Thierry on Wikipedia. Much information, as well of some quotes were derived from the first part of the "First Life of Bernard of Clairvaux". The illustration shows a knight on horseback as the Just Man, armed with good virtues with his shield of faith; William Peraldus, Summa de vitiis, England, 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 13th century; BL Harley MS 3244, f. 28r. source, Public Domain.
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