SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
Doctor of the Church
Abbot, Mystic
Feast Day – August 20th
“How are people ever going to know God unless preachers and teachers are sent?
God will provide for this. Look! They are here already.
They who are to instruct the new bride in the things she needs to know and to prepare her for her marriage
with the Heavenly Bridegroom,
and to teach her the faith and counsel her
in the way of holiness.”
The son of devout Catholic parents, Bernard was born in1090, near Dijon in the Burgundy region of France. He was the third of seven children – six boys and a girl, all of whom were given the benefit of sound education. In his youth, Bernard showed no signs of the saintliness which would overtake him later on in life. He enjoyed life to the fullest and was very drawn to the temptations and diversions of the times. It was when Bernard was about 19 years old however, just after his mother died, that the virtues which his parents had worked so hard to instill into each of their children, finally seemed to take root in his life, and became the catalysts for his very deep and permanent conversion. . His father has been named a “Venerable;” his mother and five of his siblings have been named “Blesseds.”
Though he attended a monastic school, Bernard had no formal theological training. He reminds us a bit of our beloved Pope Saint John Paul II in that, being a great lover of poetry and pros, he studied literature which he found to be very useful as he worked to understand and appreciate Sacred Scripture. In fact, he not only understood the Sacred Scriptures, but loved them with such intensity that when he spoke of them, they seemed to come alive – as if Jesus, himself was opening the eyes of the listeners once again just as He did on the road to Emmaus.
At the age of 22 Bernard entered the reformed Cistercian (Trapist) monastery in Citeaux and convinced 30 of his friends, and a few distant relatives, to join him. Three years later he opened the monastery at Clairvaux, from which he draws his now famous name. Though the life of a monk is somewhat hidden, he began to attract great numbers to a life of reform – to a life and love of poverty – and before the end of his life he saw every one of his siblings, and his father, join him in Benedictine religious life.
The best way to describe Bernard is as a “Contemplative in Action.” He was very involved and influential in the political and religious struggles of his time. With Catherine of Siena, Vincent Ferrar and Bridget of Sweden, he lived during the time of the great seventy year schism and through the dark age of the Crusades. Yet in the midst all this confusion and misdirection, his prayer life was so deep, so rich and so mystical that, next to Saint Augustine, he is considered one of the two greatest writers of Christian Spirituality. He turned down numerous requests to become bishop of one area or another as well as other distinctions which were pressed upon him.
Bernard loved the monastery. It is the place he most wanted to be, and the place to which he would return as often as he could. It was there, at Clairvaux, that he found the silence in which he could speak to the Lord of his concerns and hear His voice speaking in return. It was at Clairvaux that his love of poverty grew and inspired others. And it was at Clairvaux that Bernard enjoyed the solitude in which he was able to put pen to paper and record all that Lord poured out to the world through his sermons, treatises and books, which are still considered essential reading for the soul who desires to progress in the spiritual life.
He has been called “A Doctor who was taught by God.” Officially, he is known as “The Mellifluous Doctor.” Mellifluous, properly translated, meaning “the flow of honey,” is attributed to Bernard because he explained the Scriptures with such animation and depth, that all their sweetness would flow out. Because of his great love for Mary, the Mother of God, he is often referred to as, “Mary’s Troubadour.”
Bernard founded over 70 monasteries in his lifetime. They were scattered throughout Europe in Germany, Sweden, England, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy. He filled them filled them with more than 800 monks. Ninety additional affiliated communities sprang up around these monasteries and scores of Benedictine Convents soon followed. Before he died Bernard was responsible for the welfare of three hundred and forty-three Cistercian monasteries. It was the great austerity of his communities which drew people. His monks and nuns wore the poorest of habits; they ate their meals in silence and practiced what is now known as “grand silence” after the evening meal until after Mass the next day.
His most well-known and studied books are “Steps of Humility in Pride,” the “Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles,” which is composed of four volumes, and “On Loving God,” a beautiful and thorough summary of Spiritual Theology. Less well known but extremely influential was his book entitled, “Five Books on Consideration – Advice to a Pope.” The latter was written expressly for Pope Eugene III, who was one of Bernard’s students. In this book Bernard exhorts the Pope – all popes, really – to prayer and to a life which is balanced in and supported by an active prayer life in the midst of administrative responsibilities.
His best loved book is “On Loving God.” In it, Bernard discusses, in a most unique way, the movement of the soul through four stages of true Christian love. He calls the process “The Purification of Love,” in which the soul progresses from loving self for its own sake, to loving God for its own sake, to loving God for His sake, and finally to loving itself for God’s sake. Of this process, Bernard says,
“The Lord will place our loves in order.”
At the age of 63, at home in his beloved monastery in Clairvaux, Bernard entered the welcoming arms of His Heavenly Father. It was August 20, in the year 1153. In addition to his spiritual writings Bernard is credited with may healings and miracles. He was canonized in 1174 and was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius VIII.
Saint Bernard, pray for us!
References
- The Fulfillment of All Desire, Ralph Martin, Emmaus Road Publishing, 2006
- “Bernard of Clairvaux,” G. R. Evans, Classics in Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, Crookston, MN, 1987
- “The Letters of St. Bernard of Clairvaux” Epistle 174 Tr.,Bruno Scott James. 1998
- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux,” M. Gildas,The Catholic Encyclopedia, The Robert Appleton Co, NY, 1907
Fellowship of the Lamb 