The new monastery was planned at the Val d’Absinthe (Valley of Wormwood), later known as Clairvaux, in the Diocese of Langres. Clairvaux was the fifth daughter house of Citeaux, after La Ferté (1113), Pontigny (1114) and Morimond (1115). The tract of land at Clairvaux, at the border of Burgundy and Champagne, had been donated by Hugues I, Count of Troyes (ca 1074-ca 1130).
On 25 June 1115, the group headed by Bernard officially founded the Abbey of Clairvaux, at the start only a small group of wooden huts with a small wooden chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. William of Champeaux (ca 1070 - 1121), since 1113 Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, ordained Bernard to the priesthood and installed him as the first abbot of Clairvaux. At the time the see of Langres, to which the area belonged, was vacant so the bishop of Châtons stood in. From then on a strong frienship developed between bishop William and abbot Bernard, as well as between Clairvaux and Châlons and its province Reims in general.
Bernard was drawn to the Cistercian ideals of austerity and reform and implemented these ideals in the monastery of Cîteaux. The monks lived a life of hunger and strict observance, engaging in manual labor and devoting long hours to prayer and contemplation. Physical existence was considered of no importance. As Bernard used to tell the novices who had come and were keen to enter, “If you are keen to learn what goes on inside, leave your bodies outside, since you have brought them with you from the world. Only your spirits enter here; the flesh does not profit at all.”
Bernard did not spare himself mentally or physically, as he had not done as a novice either. As the Prima Vita (Book 1, 20) puts it, from his noviciate onward Bernard "constantly mortified himself, not only concerning the desires of the flesh, which pertain to the body, but even the body itself by which they are done." Soon lack of sleep and extreme fasting triggered ongoing health challenges and periods of serious illness. In the Vita Prima (I, 22) his biographer William of Saint-Thierry writes:
"his physical makeup was extremely frail and delicate, because of his continuous fasting and vigils, because of the cold, and because his stomach was dragged down by hard and continuous labor, it has rejected whatever he takes, and he vomits it raw and undigested. Of course, by the process of nature food passes to the bowels, and that part of his body was so obsessed with distressing sickness that it discharged only with great pain. Whatever is left over to nourish his body is not so much to sustain his life as to defer his death."
Because of his illness his friend William Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne paid Bernard a visit. Bernard's condition was described in the Vita Prima (I, 32) as "illness that became so severe that nothing could be expected except his death or a life more serious than death". With great difficulty he persuaded Bernard for a whole year to submit himself to the Bishop in obedience, a year in which Bernard's health could be restored. For that the Bishop deemed it necessary to separate Bernard from his monastery. So "he ordered a small house to be built outside the cloister and the boundary of the monastery.
Bishop William then directed that none of the restrictions of the Order in the matter of food and drink or anything of that sort should be laid on Bernard, so that he should not have any solicitude for the concerns of the house, but that he should live there in the manner he himself (the Bishop) had laid down for him (Bernard)." Bishop William also lectured the other monks on their disobedience to God, and even resistance to the Holy Spirit, when not preparing and accepting normal food when available.
Shortly after William of Saint-Thierry, his biographer, visited Bernard. He describes the dwelling as "a little hut such as lepers often have near public crossroads." Nevertheless Bernard called his situation "wonderfull", although he was still offered inappropriate food for an ill person by a quack physician. It was here that his first writings evolved.
After the year of obedience, Bernard, still ill, returned to his former even unhealthier way of living. So ongoing health challenges and periods of serious illness due to bad food in combination with extreme fasting came back and continued for the rest of his life. Bernard’s struggles with the flesh during this period may account for his early and rather consistent penchant for physical austerities. So he was plagued most of the rest of his life by impaired health, which took the form of anemia, migraine, gastritis, hypertension, and an atrophied sense of taste.
Nevertheless Bernard poured himself into the role of abbot, governing the new community with austere standards, profound spiritual authority, and innate charisma. His disciplined and deeply devotional style drew numerous novices, rapidly increasing the abbey’s membership and influence.
Clairvaux soon started founding new communities. In 1118 Trois-Fontaines Abbey was founded in the diocese of Châlons, in 1119 Fontenay Abbey in the Diocese of Autun, and in 1121 Foigny Abbey near Vervins. In Bernard's lifetime, more than sixty abbeys followed, though some were not new foundations but transferrals to the Cistercians.
This blog is original work by TemplarsNow, mainly based on Book I of the "First Life of Bernard of Clairvaux", by William of Saint-Thierry, Arnold of Bonneval, and Geoffrey of Auxerre (ca 1174), translated by Hilary Costello, OCSO, Cistercian Fathers Series: number 67. Additional sources and further reading: J. Mabillon, 1889?, Life and works of Saint Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, Burns & Oates Ltd, London; 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. All internet sources consulted November 2025. The illustration shows a 13th century illuminated picture of Bernard of Clairvaux, source, Public Domain, USA: This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. cc-PDM 1.0.
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