Cistercian spirituality

The Cistercian abbey church plan with its flat east end--the famous "Bernardine plan"--is one of the most distinctive and written about church plans of all of medieval architecture, and has traditionally been thought to owe its origins to the architectural standards of Bernard of Clairvaux (the leading ecclesiastical politician of Europe) and to the overriding concern of simplicity.  However, this view appears to have largely come about from the influence of modern architecture on modern scholars.  Instead, it can be shown by reading this plan--in conjunction with the Cluniac apse-echelon plan and the well-known pilgrimage plan--through the monastic sacred economy, through a close understanding of contemporary accounts, and especially with reference to current monastic architectural theory (particularly regarding materials, craftsmanship, and public access), that the "Bernardine plan" is not really by Bernard at all but is better thought of as "the classic Cistercian plan," a compromise plan of lower spiritual standards, aimed at a broader institutional acceptance.

This paper considers how the union of sun, landscape, and architecture contributed to the siting of Welsh Cistercian abbeys. From August 2014 to March 2016 the authors surveyed and measured the orientation of all Cistercian churches with extant foundations in Wales, as well as the elevations of their surrounding landscapes. Using methodologies drawn from cultural astronomy, analysis of this data revealed that through the intentional orientating of the abbey within the local topography, each church formed a relationship to the sun’s light on theologically significant days. Other notable observations include the emphasis on sunsets and the west, the focus on the astronomical equinox rather than the Julian calendar equinox, and the solar position on Michaelmas and/or Saint David’s Day. The implications of these  results for wider debates in the field of Cistercian studies are then discussed.

Bernhard von Clairvaux war nicht nur Reformabt, Kreuzzugsprediger und Mystiker, er war über allem der bedeutendste Lehrer seiner Zeit. Die vorliegende Arbeit versucht seine Vielseitigkeit, aber auch seine Modernität aufzuzeigen. Seine Spiritualität gehört zum immateriellen Kulturerbe des christlichen Abendlandes. In der Stille der Klöster überkommen, wurden seine Gedanken und Ideen in vielen Predigten, Schriften und Briefen auch Laien zugänglich. Einer der berühmtesten Briefe ist das "Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae" an die Tempelritter, worin er deren militärische Aufgabenstellung formuliert, aber sie noch ergänzt durch spirituelle Unterweisungen an den Heiligen Stätten, bei deren Besuch eine Nachfolge von Jesu Lebensweg vollzogen wurde, die als eine Art "Initiation" gedeutet werden kann. Damit eröffnete der bedeutende Mystiker, Bernhard von Clairvaux, die "Schola Christi", das Erlernen der Kunst der Spiritualität, in Abgrenzung zu den "Artes liberales", jenem auserwählten Kreis von Laien wie es die Tempelritter waren. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellten sich die Tempelritter der Aufgabe, das Interesse von Laien für Spiritualität und mystische Innerlichkeit zu wecken und damit übergeordnete Ziele wie den "Gottesstaat" zu begründen und anzustreben, nicht ohne Folgen...

Legends, tales and stories told to me as a child expanded with original research. The tales were mostly told by my father, Cleo Harden, as told to him by his mother and father and other relations, including William Gurley. This investigation traces information in the Family History back to events in the life of Saint Stephen Harding and acts as a biography for that Saint. A new look at his contributions to modern society and what motivated him in forming the Cistercians, the Templars, Romanesque architecture and a guild system that formed the basis for modern sciences. Includes a thorough exploration of the Temple of Aard, the Red Branch, and other mysteries in the Harding family.

Les vestiges des bibliothèques médiévales des 153 abbayes cisterciennes de la péninsule Ibérique permettent d’analyser les pratiques de réception et de production d’exégèse. La proportion d’ouvrages du genre exégétique semble dans la norme générale pour les abbayes masculines mais nettement inférieure dans les abbayes féminines. Les auteurs carolingiens s’y trouvaient rarement, à l’inverse de Beatus de Liébana. Les textes liés à l’enseignement universitaire y étaient bien représentés, mais curieusement pas les auteurs cisterciens habituels, hormis Bernard de Clairvaux. Les moines cisterciens avaient d’autres occasions que le temps quotidien de lecture individuelle pour entrer en contact avec l’exégèse et ils se tenaient au courant des pratiques universitaires en la matière. Il n’y eut pas de production spécifiquement cistercienne d’écrits exégétiques avant la toute fin du XVe s. et le petit essai du moine d’Alcobaça João Claro.
Mots-clés : bibliothèques, cisterciens, exégèse, lecture, manuscrits,
péninsule Ibérique

Exégesis y lectio divina en los claustros cistercienses
ibéricos, ss. XII-XV
Los vestigios de las bibliotecas medievales de las 153 abadías cistercienses de la Península ibérica permiten analizar las prácticas de recepción y de producción de exégesis. La proporción de obras pertenecientes al género exegético parece seguir la norma general de las abadías masculinas, pero resulta claramente inferior en las abadías femeninas. Pocas veces aparecen los autores carolingios, al contrario de Beato de Liébana. Los textos vinculados con la enseñanza universitaria estaban bien representados, pero no tanto, curiosamente, los autores cistercienses habituales, excepto san Bernardo. Los monjes cistercienses tenían otras oportunidades para entrar en contacto con la exégesis que el tiempo diario de lectura individual y se mantenían al tanto de las prácticas universitarias. No hubo una producción específicamente cisterciense de escritos exegéticos hasta casi acabado el s. xv y el pequeño ensayo del monje de Alcobaça João Claro.
Palabras claves: bibliotecas, cistercienses, exégesis, lectura, manuscritos, península ibérica

Singuli in singulis libris legentes. Exegesis and lectio divina in Cistercian Iberian cloisters, 12th-15th c.
The remains of medieval libraries in the 153 Cistercian abbeys of the Iberian Peninsula make it possible to assessing how exegesis was received and produced. he proportion of books belonging to the exegetical genre seems to follow the general norm for monks in male abbeys, however is inferior for nuns in female abbeys. Carolingian authors were not to be found frequently, unlike Beatus of Liébana. Texts related to university teaching were oten present, however, strangely not the usual Cistercian authors, with the exception of Bernard of Clairvaux. To familiarize themselves with exegesis, Cistercian monks had opportunities other than the daily moments of individual reading, and they kept themselves informed on the evolution of its practice in the universities. here was no specific Cistercian production of exegetical texts before the very end of the 15th c. and a short essay by the monk of Alcobaça João Claro.
Keywords: Cistercians, exegesis, Iberian Peninsula, libraries, manuscripts, reading

This presentation explored the theoretical, theological, and ascetic-pragmatic dynamics between monastic humility and humiliation in the First Life (Vita Prima I) and letters of Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux.  Its focus was on the bond between the extended commentary on humility in chapter 7 of the Rule of Benedict and Bernard's life, treatises, sermons, and letters, with particular reference to his radical and idiosyncratic asceticism.  The paper concluded with discussion of Bernard's submission to abbatial government according to the Rule of Benedict and as observed in Cistercian monasticism during the abbacy of Stephen Harding.

This paper was an early submission of ongoing research for my PhD thesis.  It explored eleventh-century monastic beliefs and practices that may have contributed to the Cistercian development of their concept of "caritas" as an instrument of institutional conformity.  Attention was paid to the ambiguities of Cistercian practices of poverty and the representations of their ascetic program in their early narrative and legislative texts, the Exordium parvum, Exordium Cistercii, and Carta caritatis.  The paper asserted the continuity of Cistercian ideology with late Carolingian and Benedictine monastic spiritualities.