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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Cistercians</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03780c.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Religious of the Order of Citeaux, a Benedictine reform, established at Citeaux in 1098 by St. Robert, Abbot of Molesme in the Diocese of Langres, for the purpose of restoring as far as possible the literal observance of the Rule of St. Benedict"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="03780c.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/c.htm">C</a> > Cistercians</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Cistercians</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>(<em>See also</em> <a href="../cathen/03790a.htm">CISTERCIAN SISTERS</a>; <a href="../cathen/16025b.htm">CISTERCIANS IN THE BRITISH ISLES</a>.)</p> <p>Religious of the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, a <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> reform, established at <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> in 1098 by St. Robert, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Molesme in the <a href="../cathen/08789c.htm">Diocese of Langres</a>, for the purpose of restoring as far as possible the literal observance of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>. The history of this order may be divided into four periods:</p> <blockquote><p>I. The Formation (1098-1134); <br>II. The Golden Age (1134-1342); <br>III. The Decline (1342-1790); <br>IV. The Restoration (after 1790). </p></blockquote> <h2 id="section1">The formation (1098-1134)</h2> <p>St. Robert, son of the noble Thierry and Ermengarde of Champagne, was <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Molesme, a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> dependent on Cluny. Appalled by the laxity into which the Order of Cluny had fallen, he endeavoured to effect reforms in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of Saint-Pierre-de-la-Celle, Saint-Michel of Tonnerre, and finally in that of Molesme. His attempts at reform in these <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> meeting with very little success, he, with six of his religious, among whom were Alberic and Stephen, had recourse to Hugh, Legate of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, and <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09472a.htm">Lyons</a>. Authorized by Archbishop Hugh to institute a reform, Robert and his companions returned to Molesme and there chose from among the religious those whom they considered most fitted to participate in their undertaking. To the number of twenty-one the company retired to the solitude of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> (in the Diocese of <a href="../cathen/03566a.htm">Châlons</a>), which <a href="../cathen/02376c.htm">Raynald, Viscount of Beaune</a>, had ceded to them. (See <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, Abbey of.) On the feast of St. Benedict (21 March), 1098, which fell that year on <a href="../cathen/11432b.htm">Palm Sunday</a>, they commenced to build the "New Monastery", as it is called in the "Exordium sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis". This, therefore, was the birthday of the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. By order of the <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">Apostolic legate</a>, Robert received the <a href="../cathen/04515c.htm">pastoral staff</a> from the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>, Gauthier, and was charged with the government of his brethren, who immediately made their <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a> of stability. Thus was the "New Monastery" canonically erected into an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>At this news, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> who had remained at <a href="../cathen/10433b.htm">Molesme</a> sent a deputation to <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Pope Urban II</a>, asking that Robert might be sent back to his first <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> yielded to their petition, and Robert returned to Molesme, after having governed <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> for one year. There the prior, Alberic, was elected to replace him, and, in his turn, sent the two <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, John and Ilbode, as delegates to <a href="../cathen/11514b.htm">Pascal II</a> (who had just succeeded <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Urban II</a>) to beg him to take the church of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> under the protection of the <a href="../cathen/01640c.htm">Apostolic See</a>. By Apostolic Letters, dated at Troja in Campania, 18 April, 1100, <a href="../cathen/11514b.htm">Pascal II</a> declared that he took under his immediate protection the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> and the religious, of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, saving their allegiance to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of <a href="../cathen/03566a.htm">Châlons</a>. Dating from this day, Alberic and his religious established at <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> the exact observance of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>, substituted the white habit for the black which the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictines</a> wore, and, the better to observe the rule in regard to the <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Divine Office</a> day and night, associated with themselves <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a>, to be chiefly occupied with the manual labours and material affairs of the order. These <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a>, or conversi, though they were not <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, were to be treated during life and after death just like the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> themselves. St. Alberic died in 1109.</p> <p>His successor was Stephen Harding, an Englishman by birth, well versed in sacred and profane <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a>, who had been one of the first promoters of the project to leave Molesme. St. Robert, his two immediate successors, and their companions had but one object in view: a reaction against the laxity of Cluny and of other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>  to resume manual labour, to adopt a more severe regimen, and to restore in monastic churches and church ceremonies the gravity and simplicity proper to the monastic profession. They never thought of founding a new order, and yet from <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> were to go forth, in course of <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a>, colonies of <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> who should found other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> destined to become other <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, and thus create an order distinct from that of Cluny.</p> <p><a href="../cathen/02498d.htm">St. Bernard's</a> entrance into the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> (1112) was the signal of this extraordinary development. Thirty young noblemen of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a> followed him, among them four of his brothers. Others came after them, and in such numbers that in the following year (1113) <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> was able to send forth its first colony and found its first filiation, La Ferté, in the Diocese of <a href="../cathen/03566a.htm">Châlons</a>. In 1114 another colony was established at <a href="../cathen/12233a.htm">Pontigny</a>, in the Diocese of Auxerre. In 1115 the young Bernard founded Clairvaux in the <a href="../cathen/08789c.htm">Diocese of Langres</a>. In the same year Morimond was founded in the same <a href="../cathen/08789c.htm">Diocese of Langres</a>. These were the first four offshoots of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>; but of these <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> Clairvaux attained the highest development, becoming mother of sixty-eight <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> even in the lifetime of St. Bernard. (See Clairvaux).</p> <p>After this <a href="../cathen/14290d.htm">St. Stephen Harding</a> was to complete the legislation for the new institute. Cluny had introduced into the monastic order the confederation of the members among themselves. St. Stephen added thereto the institution of general chapters and regular visits. Thus mutual supervision, rendering account of the administration, rigid examination of discipline, immediate correction of abuses, were so many sure means of maintaining the observance in all its purity. The collection of <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a> which St. Stephen drafted, and in which are contained wise provisions for the government of the order, was called the Charter of Charity (<em>La Charte de Charité</em>). It and the "US", the book of usages and customs, together with some of the definitions of the first general chapters, received the <a href="../cathen/01656b.htm">approbation</a> of Pope <a href="../cathen/03185a.htm">Callistus II</a>. At the death of St. Stephen (1134), the order, after thirty-six years of existence, counted 70 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, of which 55 were in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2 id="section2">The golden age (1134-1342)</h2> <p>The diffusion of the new order was chiefly effected by means of foundations. Nevertheless several congregations and <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, which had existed before the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, became affiliated to it, among them the Congregations of Savigny and Obazine, which were incorporated in the order in 1147. St. Bernard and other Cistercians took a very active part, too, in the establishment of the great <a href="../cathen/10304d.htm">military orders</a>, and supplied them with their constitutions and their <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a>. Among these various orders of <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">chivalry</a> may be mentioned the <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a>, the Knights of Calatrava, of St. Lazarus, of Alcantara, of Avis, of <a href="../cathen/10068c.htm">St. Maurice</a>, of the <a href="../cathen/10272a.htm">Wing of St. Michael</a>, of Montessa, etc. In 1152 the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> already counted 350 <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, not including the granges and <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a> dependent upon the principal <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>. Among the causes which contributed to this prosperity of the new order, the influence of St. Bernard evidently holds the first place; in the next place comes the perfect unity which existed between the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and the members of every house, a unity wonderfully maintained by the punctual assembling of general chapters, and the faithful performance of the regular visits. The general chapter was an assembly of all the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of the order, even those who resided farthest from <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. This assembly, during the Golden Age, took place annually, according to the prescriptions of the Charter of Charity. "This Cistercian Areopagus", says the author of the "Origines Cistercienses", "with equal severity and <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a> kept watch over the observance of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>, the Charter of Charity and definitions of the preceding Chapters." The collection of <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a> published by Dom Martene informs us that there was no distinction of <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> made. After a fault became known, the same <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a> was meted out to <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a>, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, and <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, and the first fathers of the order. Thus, as all were firmly persuaded that their <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> would be protected with equal <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>, the collection of <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a> passed by the general chapter were consulted and respected in all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> without exception. All the affairs of the order, such as differences between <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, purchase and sale of <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>, incorporation of <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, questions relating to the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> rites, feasts, tributes, erection of colleges, etc. were submitted to the general chapter in which resided the supreme authority of the order. Other orders took these general chapters as models of their own, either spontaneously, like the <a href="../cathen/12387b.htm">Premonstratensians</a>, or by <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09018a.htm">Fourth Lateran Council</a>, that the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders should adopt the practice of holding general chapters and follow the form used by the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>.</p> <p>The general chapters were held every year up to 1411, when they became intermittent. Their decisions were codified. The first codification was that of 1133, under the title "Instituta Capituli Generalis". The second, which bears the title "Institutiones Capituli Generalis", was commenced in the year 1203 by the Abbot Arnoud I, and was <a href="../cathen/12454b.htm">promulgated</a> in 1240. The third, "Libelli Antiquarum Definitionum Capituli Generalis Ordinis Cisterciencis", was issued in 1289 and in 1316. Finally, the general chapter of 1350 <a href="../cathen/12454b.htm">promulgated</a> the "Novellae Definitiones" in conformity with the Constitution of <a href="../cathen/02430a.htm">Benedict XII</a>, "Fulgens ut stella" of 12 July, 1355. The regular visits also contributed much to the maintenance of unity and fervour. Every <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> was visited once a year by the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of the house on which it immediately depended. <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> was visited by the four first fathers, that is to say, by the Abbots of La Ferté, of <a href="../cathen/12233a.htm">Pontigny</a>, of Clairvaux, and Morimond.</p> <p>"The Visitor", say the ancient <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a>, "will urge the Religious to greater respect for their Abbot, and to remain more and more united among themselves by the bonds of mutual <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> for <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus Christ's</a> sake . . . The Visitor ought not to be a man who will easily believe every one indiscriminately, but he should investigate with care those matters of which he has no <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a>, and, having ascertained the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, he should correct abuses with <a href="../cathen/12517b.htm">prudence</a>, uniting his <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zeal</a> for the Order with his feelings of sincere paternal affection. On the other hand, the Superior visited ought to show himself submissive to, and full of confidence in, the Visitor, and do all in his power to reform his house, since one day he will have to render an account to the Lord. . . [The Abbot] will avoid both before the Visitor and after his departure everything that will have the appearance of revenge, reproach or indignation against any of them" [sc. his subjects]. If the visitor should act against prescriptions, he was to be corrected and punished according to the gravity of his fault by the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> who was his superior, or by another <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, or even by the general chapter. Likewise, the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> visited should <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> that he would become grievously culpable before <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> by neglecting the regular form of visit, and that he would deserve to be called to account by his "Father Immediate" or by the general chapter.</p> <p>Thus everything was foreseen and provided for the maintenance of good order and charity and for the preservation of the unity of observance and spirit. "No one then ought be astonished", says the author of "Origines Cistercienses", "to find in the Cistercian <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, during their Golden Age, so many sanctuaries of the most fervent <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>, of the severest discipline, as well as of untiring and constant labour. This explains also why, not only <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> of <a href="../cathen/07543b.htm">humble</a> and low extraction, but also eminent men, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> and <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of other orders, <a href="../cathen/05072b.htm">doctors</a> in every <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a> <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honoured</a> with the highest dignities, humbly begged the favour of being admitted into the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>." Thus it was during this period that the order produced the greatest number of <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, blessed, and <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a> <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a>. Many <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>  such as Clairvaux, <a href="../cathen/15431c.htm">Villiers</a>, Himmerod, Heisterbach, etc.  were so many nurseries of <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>. More than forty have been <a href="../cathen/02364b.htm">canonized</a> by the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>. The Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> constantly enjoyed the favour of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, which in numerous <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bulls</a> bestowed upon the Cistercians the highest praise, and rewarded with great privileges their services to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. They enjoyed the favour of sovereigns, who, having entire confidence in them, entrusted to them, like <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick II</a>, important delegations; or, like Alphonsus I of <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a>, placed their <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> and kingdoms under the care and protection of Our Lady of Clairvaux; or again, like <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick II</a>, feeling themselves near the point of death, wished to die clothed in the Cistercian habit.</p> <p>The Cistercians benefited <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> by their agricultural labours. According to <a href="../cathen/08282a.htm">Dr. Janauscheck</a>, "none but the <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorant</a> or men of bad <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> are capable of denying the merited praises which the sons of St. Benedict have received for their agricultural labours throughout <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, or that this part of the world owes to them a greater <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">debt</a> of gratitude than to any other colony no matter how important it may be." They also conferred great benefits on <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> by the exercise of <a href="../cathen/03592a.htm">Christian charity</a>. By means of their labours, their economy, their privations, and sometimes owing to generous donations which it would be ungrateful to despise, they became more or less rich in the things of this world, and expended their wealth upon the instruction of the <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorant</a>, the promotion of letters and arts, and the relief of their country's necessities. <a href="../cathen/03137a.htm">Caesarius of Heisterbach</a> speaks of a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> in <a href="../cathen/15601b.htm">Westphalia</a> where one day all the cattle were killed, the <a href="../cathen/03561a.htm">chalices</a> and books pledged as security, in order to relieve the poor. The Cistercian <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> had a house for the reception of the <a href="../cathen/12327a.htm">poor</a>, and an infirmary for the sick, and in them all received a generous hospitality and remedies for the ills of <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> and body.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Intellectual labour had also its place in the life of the Cistercians. Charles de Visch, in his "Bibliotheca Scriptorum Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis", published in 1649, devotes 773 historical and critical notices to authors who belonged to the Cistercian Order. Even in the very first period, <a href="../cathen/14290d.htm">St. Stephen Harding</a> left a work on the <a href="../bible">Bible</a> which is superior to anything of its kind produced by any contemporary <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, not excepting Cluny. The Library of <a href="../cathen/04794b.htm">Dijon</a> preserves the venerable <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscript</a> of St. Stephen, which was to serve as a type for all Cistercian Bibles. The Cistercian <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">libraries</a> were rich in books and <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>. Nor did the sons of St. Bernard neglect the <a href="../cathen/05248a.htm">fine arts</a>; they exercised their genius in building, contributed powerfully to the development and propagation of the Romanesque and the <a href="../cathen/06665b.htm">Gothic architecture</a> throughout <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, and cultivated the arts of <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painting</a> and engraving.</p> <h2 id="section3">The decline (1342-1790)</h2> <p>The decadence of the order was due to several causes, the first of which was the large number of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, often-times situated in the most widely distant countries, which prevented the "Fathers Immediate" from making the regular visits to all the houses of their filiations, while some of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> could not assist every year at the general chapter. Some were also found who, seeing themselves thus sheltered from the remonstrances and the punishments either of the general chapter or of the visitor, permitted abuses to creep into their houses. But the principal cause of the decline of the order (which is based on unity and charity) was the spirit of dissension which animated certain superiors. Some <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, even not far from <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, explained in a particular sense, and that adapted to their own point of view, certain points of the Charter of Charity. The solicitude of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">Roman pontiffs</a> themselves who tried to reestablish harmony among the superiors, was not always successful.</p> <p>And yet at that time there were found some <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courageous</a> and determined <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> who became reformers, and even founded new congregations which were detached from the old trunk of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. Those congregations which then severed their union with <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, but which no longer exist at the present time, are:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>The Congregation of the Observance of St. Bernard of <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, founded by Dom Martin de Vargas, in 1425, at Monte Sion near Toledo;</li><li>The Congregation of St. Bernard of <a href="../cathen/15103b.htm">Tuscany</a> and of <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">Lombardy</a>, approved by <a href="../cathen/01289a.htm">Alexander VI</a> (1497);</li><li>the Congregation of <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a>, or of Alcobaca, founded in 1507;</li><li>the Congregation of the <a href="../cathen/06064a.htm">Feuillants</a>, founded by John de la Barriere in 1563, which spread into <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, however, eventually detaching themselves from those of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> to form the Congregation of the Riformati di San Bernardo;</li><li>the Congregation of <a href="../cathen/03410b.htm">Aragon</a>, approved by a <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> of <a href="../cathen/11581b.htm">Paul V</a> (1616);</li><li>the Congregation of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, or of Central <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, created by a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">Decree</a> of <a href="../cathen/07004b.htm">Gregory XV</a> in 1623;</li><li>the Congregation of Calabria and Lucania, established by <a href="../cathen/15218b.htm">Urban VIII</a> in 1633, and to which was united the old Congregation of Flore, which had for its founder Blessed Joachim surnamed "the Prophet".</li></ul></div> <p>Together with the congregations which separated from <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> there were five or six others which, while remaining subject to the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the parent house, were legislated for by provincial or national chapters. Chief among these congregations were those of Northern <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, the Strict Observance, and La Trappe. The Congregation of Northern <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> was erected in 1595 by Nicholas II (Boucherat), <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, at the desire of <a href="../cathen/04027a.htm">Pope Clement VIII</a>, in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Furstenfeld. It comprised four provinces ruled by the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, vicars of the general. It counted twenty-two <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, only three of which survived the revolutionary tempest, and now form part of the Common Observance of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, as the Cistercian province of <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria-Hungary</a>. The Congregation of Strict Observance, resulting from the efforts for reform of the Abbots of Charmoye and Châtillon, was established at <a href="../cathen/03798c.htm">Clairvaux</a> by Denis Largentier, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of this <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> (1615). The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, Nicholas Boucherat, approved the reform and permitted it to hold special assemblies and to choose a <a href="../cathen/15402a.htm">vicar-general</a> with four assistant generals. The general chapter of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> in 1623 praised it highly, <a href="../cathen/13047a.htm">Cardinal Richelieu</a> became its protector, and the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> gave it encouragement. In 1663 it received an important member in the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> of Abbot de Rancé, who introduced the Strict Observance into the Abbey of La Trappe in the Diocese of Séez, adding to it other very severe practices.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> which did not respond to the appeal of Martin de Vargas, of Denis Largentier, or of Abbot de Rancé, formed an observance which <a href="../cathen/01294a.htm">Pope Alexander VII</a>, in his <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> of 19 April, 1666, named <em>Common</em>, to distinguish it from the <em>Strict</em> Observance, from which in reality it differed only in the use of meat and similar articles of food three times a week, a use certainly contrary to the rule of perpetual abstinence which obtained in the early days, but which the religious <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> and other evils of the times in a measure rendered <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a>. Mention should be made of two other reforms: that of Orval in <a href="../cathen/09465a.htm">Luxemburg</a>, by Bernard de Montgaillard (1605), and that of Septfons, in the <a href="../cathen/10603b.htm">Diocese of Moulins</a>, by Eustache de Beaufort, in 1663. The former numbered six <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, the latter did not extend beyond Septfons.</p> <p>The Strict Observance developed rapidly. In a very short time it counted fifty-eight <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>. At the death of Denis Largentier (1626), Etienne Maugier, who succeeded him, inspired it afresh. From that time it aimed at a certain superiority to which it believed it had some claims, and was resolved, in case of meeting with any opposition, to withdraw from the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the General of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. Hence arose quarrels and litigations which lasted forty years or more. In 1632, at the request of the king (Louis XIII), <a href="../cathen/15218b.htm">Urban VIII</a> continued the powers which <a href="../cathen/07004b.htm">Gregory XV</a> had given ten years before to Cardinal De La Rochefoucauld for the reform of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the kingdom. The <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> heard only the Fathers of the Strict Observance, who persuaded him that no reform was possible without a return to the abstinence from meat. He therefore passed a sentence in 1634 which derogated in many points from the ancient constitutions and the Charter of Charity, particularly in what concerned the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> and of the four first fathers. The College of St. Bernard at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> passed into the hands of the Strict Observance. The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, Peter de Nivelle, appealed to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">sovereign pontiff</a>. The latter annulled the sentence of the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> in every point in which it was contrary to legitimate authority. In the meanwhile Peter de Nivelle having resigned, the non-reformed, in the hope of escaping from the authority of Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, elected <a href="../cathen/13047a.htm">Cardinal de Richelieu</a> <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> applied the reform in his <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. Sustained by him, the reformed took possession of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> after having dispersed into other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> the professed religious of this <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. At the death of <a href="../cathen/13047a.htm">Richelieu</a> the expelled <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> assembled at <a href="../cathen/04794b.htm">Dijon</a>, 2 January, 1643, and elected to his place Dom Claude Vaussin, but the king vetoed the election; they voted again, 10 May, 1645, and gave all their voted to Claude Vaussin, while the reformed, to the number of only fifteen, voted for Dom Jean Jouaud, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Prieres in Britanny. On the 27th of November following, <a href="../cathen/08020b.htm">Innocent X</a> sent his <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bulls</a> to Dom Claude Vaussin, and imposed silence on the reformed. February 1st, 1647, a <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a> of the same <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> re-established all matters in the condition in which they had been before the sentence of Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld.</p> <p>The Strict Observance then tried to form an independent order under the authority of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Prieres, and with this object in view raised new difficulties in relation to the question of abstinence. A <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a> of <a href="../cathen/01294a.htm">Alexander VII</a>, dated November, 1657, confirming the decision of <a href="../cathen/14032b.htm">Sixtus IV</a>, in 1475, that abstinence from flesh meat was not essential to the rule, did not quiet their scruples. Finally, 26 January, 1662, the same <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> interfered in a decisive manner by inviting the two parties to appear at the Court of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. The Common Observance sent Claude Vaussin; the Strict Observance, Dom George, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Val-Richer; La Trappe, Abbot de Rancé. On the 19th of April, 1666, appeared the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "In Suprema", which put an end to the divisions. It recommended that the visits be regularly and strictly made, that <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> should live in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, and that the general chapters should be held every three years. It restored the night silence, poverty in apparel, and <a href="../cathen/14779a.htm">monastic tonsure</a>. It maintained the use of meat where that already obtained, and recommended the religious who had made the <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a> of abstinence to be faithful to it. The Strict Observance remained under the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. This constitution was accepted by the general chapter of 1667, which was held at <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, in spite of protests from the opponents, and in particular of Abbot de Rance, and the new reform was put into force in all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, where the number of <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> was sufficient.</p> <p>During the eighteenth century, however, there was introduced into the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, as into almost all the great religious <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">families</a>, a pernicious licence of thought and morality. New conflicts between the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> and the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of the four first houses of filiation arose concerning the government of the order and their own <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a>. In virtue of the liberties of the Gallican Church, the king and his council appointed a commission to restore order. A new collection of <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a> was drawn up, but these were not definitively adopted until 1786. The general chapter of that year finally agreed among themselves and adopted the new <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a> on the eve of the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a>. The political and religious disturbances which then and at the commencement of the nineteenth century troubled <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> almost ruined this venerable order. When the National Convention, by the <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of 13 February, 1790, secularized all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">religious houses</a> of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> had in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> 228 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, with 1875 religious; 61 of these houses, with 532 religious, were in the filiation of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>; 3, with 33 religious, in that of La Ferté; 33, with 171 religious, in that of <a href="../cathen/12233a.htm">Pontigny</a>; 92, with 864 religious, in that of Clairvaux; and 37, with 251 religious, in that of Morimond. The sixty-second and last <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, Dom François Trouvé, having lost all hope of saving his <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, begged <a href="../cathen/12131a.htm">Pius VI</a> to transfer all his powers to Robert Schlecht, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Salsmansweiler, of the Congregation of Northern <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, so that the remnants of the ancient corporation of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> might still have a ruler.</p> <p>From <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> the <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hatred</a> of religion passed with the arms of the usurpers into <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>, <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, and other countries, and there continued the work of destruction. By an imperial veto of the 25th of February, 1803, and a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the <a href="../cathen/12519c.htm">Prussian</a> Government of the 28th of April, 1810, all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> were ruined. The <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> were abolished by a law of the 26th of May, 1834, those of <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> by the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of the 25th of July and 11th of October, 1835, those of <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a> disappeared before the decrees of the Russian and <a href="../cathen/12519c.htm">Prussian</a> rulers.</p> <h2 id="section4">The restoration (after 1790)</h2> <p>The reform inaugurated at <a href="../cathen/09035a.htm">La Trappe</a> by Abbot de Rance, reviving the austerity and fervour of primitive <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, was maintained, almost intact, against difficulties of every kind, until the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a>. There were then at <a href="../cathen/09035a.htm">La Trappe</a> seventy religious and a numerous and fervent <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novitiate</a>. When, on the 4th of December, a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the National Assembly suppressed the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, Dom Augustin de Lestrange, then master of <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a> at <a href="../cathen/09035a.htm">La Trappe</a>, authorized by his local superior and the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Clairvaux, set out with twenty-four of his brethren for <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>. The Senate of Fribourg permitted them to settle in Val-Sainte, 1 June, 1791. <a href="../cathen/12131a.htm">Pope Pius VI</a>, by a <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a> of 31 July, 1794, authorized the erection of Val-Sainte into an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>. Dom Augustin was elected <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> on the 27th of the following November, and on the 8th of December of the same year, a solemn <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the <a href="../cathen/11160a.htm">nuncio</a> of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> at <a href="../cathen/09406b.htm">Lucerne</a>, executing the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a> of <a href="../cathen/12131a.htm">Pius VI</a>, constituted Val-Sainte an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> and the mother-house of the whole Congregation of <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a>. There the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a> was observed in all its rigour, and at times its severity was even surpassed. Novices flocked thither. From Val-Sainte Dom Augustin sent colonies into <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, and <a href="../cathen/12076b.htm">Piedmont</a>.</p> <p>But the French troops invaded <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> in 1796. Obliged to leave Val-Sainte, Dom Augustin, with his religious of both sexes, commenced two years of wanderings through <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, during which period they gave to the world the spectacle of the most <a href="../cathen/07292c.htm">heroic virtues</a>. In 1800 Dom Augustin returned to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, and two years later resumed possession of Val-Sainte. In 1803 he sent a colony of his religious to America under the direction of Dom Urbain Guillet. In 1811, fleeing from the <a href="../cathen/01489a.htm">anger</a> of <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a>, who first favoured the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> and then suppressed all their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and the whole empire, Dom Augustin himself left for America. In 1815, on the downfall of <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a>, he returned immediately to La Trappe, while Dom Urbain Guillet established himself at Bellefontaine in the <a href="../cathen/01489b.htm">Diocese of Angers</a>.</p> <p>During this imperial <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a>, a <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a> took place in the Congregation of La Trappe. The colony which Dom Augustin had sent from Val-Sainte into <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a> under the direction of Dom Eugene de Laprade, and which had settled first at Westmalle, and then at Darpheld in <a href="../cathen/15601b.htm">Westphalia</a>, had abandoned the Rules of Val-Sainte to embrace those of de Rance. It returned to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and occupied Port-du-Salut in the Diocese of Laval; Westmalle, restored in 1821, withdrew from the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of Dom Augustin to form, five years later, the Congregation of <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Dom Augustin died 16 July, 1827, at <a href="../cathen/09472a.htm">Lyons</a>. A <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">Decree</a> <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dated</a> 1 October, 1834, confirmed two days later by <a href="../cathen/07006a.htm">Gregory XVI</a>, united the different houses of <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> in one congregation known as the Congregation of Cistercian Monks of Our Lady of La Trappe. The General President of the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> is its head and confirms its <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>. The four first fathers are the Abbots of Melleray, Port-du-Salut, Bellefontaine, and Gard. The <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a> and the Constitutions of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> or those of de Rancé, according to the custom of each <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, are observed. But with this diversity of observance, the union did not last long. A pontifical <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">Decree</a> dated the 25 February, 1847, and granted at the request of the religious of each observance, divides the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappist</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> into two congregations: the Ancient Reform of Our Lady of La Trappe, which follows the Rules of de Rance, and the New Reform, which follows the Primitive Observance and is governed by the Charter of Charity. Already Westmalle in 1836 formed a distinct congregation known as the Congregation of <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>. There were then three distinct congregations of the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a>.</p> <p>It was reserved for a later generation to see the most complete reform effected by the fusion of all the congregations into one order in unity of government and observance. On the first of October, 1892, at the desire of <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a>, a plenary general chapter was held in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, under the presidency of Cardinal Mazzella, delegated by the <a href="../cathen/03341a.htm">Cardinal Protector</a> Monaco della Valetta. The assembly lasted twelve days; the fusion was adopted; <a href="../cathen/15721b.htm">Dom Sebastian Wyart</a>, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Septfons, who had taken the most active part in all the negotiations to effect this union, was chosen "General of the Order of the Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe". Such was the name given to the order. A <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars of 8 December, 1892, then a pontifical <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a> of 23 March, 1893, confirmed and ratified the Acts of the chapter. On the 13th of August, 1894, the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">sovereign pontiff</a> approved the new constitutions and the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars <a href="../cathen/12454b.htm">promulgated</a> them on the 25th of the same month. In 1898, the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the order, the sons of St. Bernard again took possession of the ancient Abbey of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. <a href="../cathen/15721b.htm">Dom Sebastian Wyart</a> was elected <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, and thus was restored the chain of <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> which had been broken for 107 years. It was then decided to suppress in the title of the order the words "Our Lady of La Trappe", the Abbey of La Trappe yielding the first rank to <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. Finally, on the 30th of July, 1902, an <a href="../cathen/01636a.htm">Apostolic Constitution</a> of <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a> solemnly confirmed the restoration of the order and gave to it the definite name of "Order of Reformed Cistercians, or the Strict Observance". <a href="../cathen/15721b.htm">Dom Sebastian Wyart</a> died 18 August, 1904. The general chapter, postponed that year until October, chose for his successor the Most Rev. Dom Augustin Marre, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Igny, and <a href="../cathen/08025a.htm">titular</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/04286c.htm">Constance</a>.</p> <h2>Condition of the order in 1908</h2> <p>Several modern congregations must be mentioned which have been grafted on the old trunk of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, and which, with some ancient <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> that escaped the <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> of the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, form the Common Observance. Their mode of life corresponds to that of the Cistercians of the seventeenth century, whose mitigation was approved by <a href="../cathen/01294a.htm">Alexander VII</a> in 1666. They are the Congregations of <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a>, and <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>, and the Congregation of Sénanque.</p> <p>1. The Congregation of St. Bernard of <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> was formed in 1820 with the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> which remained of the Congregations of the Roman Province and of <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">Lombardy</a>, after <a href="../cathen/12132a.htm">Pius VII</a> had been deprived of his States. The congregation adopted the constitutions of the ancient Congregation of <a href="../cathen/15103b.htm">Tuscany</a> and <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">Lombardy</a>.</p> <p>2. The Congregation of <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, formed in 1836, at Bornheim in the Diocese of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a>, by the religious who were expelled in 1797 from Lieu-Saint-Bernard-sur-l'Escaut, observe constitutions based upon the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a> of <a href="../cathen/01294a.htm">Alexander VII</a> and the Cistercian Ritual. They were approved by the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> in 1846</p> <p>3. The Cistercian Congregation of <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a> and <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a> was formed in 1859 by the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a> which had escaped from the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a> and submitted to the President General of the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>.</p> <p>4. The Congregation of <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> was formed in 1806 by the three <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of Hauterive, Saint-Urbain, and Wettingen, remnants of the Congregation of North <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. These <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> having succumbed in 1841 and 1846, the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Wettingen, an exile in <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>, purchased, in 1854, the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of <a href="../cathen/10146d.htm">Mehrerau</a> on the Lake of Bregenz, to which the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> transferred all the privileges of Wettingen. To this <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was joined that of Marienstatt in the Diocese of Cologne in Nassau.</p> <p>5. The Congregation of Sénanque, or the Mean Observance, owes its origin to the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, Luke Barnouin, who, with some associates, in 1849, attempted the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious life</a> in the solitude of Our Lady of Calvary in the <a href="../cathen/02158a.htm">Diocese of Avignon</a>, leaving that retreat in 1854, to take up his abode in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of <a href="../cathen/13713c.htm">Sénanque</a>, which he had purchased. The new congregation, which, without returning to the primitive constitutions, did not adopt all the mitigations of later centuries, received the name of "Congregation of Cistercians of the Immaculate Conception". It was incorporated in the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> in 1857, and in 1872 transferred its seat to the ancient <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of <a href="../cathen/09188b.htm">Lérins</a>. The constitutions of this congregation were approved by <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a>, 12 March, 1892.</p> <p>When the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, in 1892, undertook to unite in one order the three Congregations of La Trappe, His Holiness caused the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars to address a letter to the Cistercians of the Common Observance inviting them to join their brethren of the Reformed Observance of La Trappe. But as the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> left them free, they preferred to retain their respective autonomies. Since that time the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> is divided into two branches absolutely distinct; the Strict and the Common Observances. To these may be added the small Congregation of <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> of Casamari in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, which has only three <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> with about 45 members.</p> <p>The Order of Reformed Cistercians has (1908) 71 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of men with more than 4000 subjects. In this number of houses are included the annexes which were founded in certain places to serve as refuges for the communities which had been expelled from <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. These <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> are distributed as follows: in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, 20; in <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, 9; in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, 5; in <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>, 5; in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, 3; in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, 3; in <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Ireland</a>, 2; in <a href="../cathen/01777b.htm">Asia</a>, 4; in <a href="../cathen/01181a.htm">Africa</a>, 2; in America, 10; (4 in <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a>, 5 in <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canada</a>, and 1 in <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazil</a>). The Reformed Cistercians make profession of the Primitive Observance of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, with the exception of a few modifications imposed by the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> at the time of the fusion. Their life is strictly cenobitical, that is to say, life in common in its most absolute form. They observe perpetual silence, except in cases of necessity provided for by the rule, or when express permission is granted by the superior. Their day is divided between the <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Divine Office</a>, agricultural and kindred labours, and free intervals for reading and study. The supreme authority of the order resides in the general chapter, which assembles every year at <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, from the 12th to the 17th of September, and is presided over by the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> general. When the general chapter is not in session, current and urgent matters are regulated by the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> general aided by his "Council of Definitors".</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> general, who is by right Abbot <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, resides in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> (Via San Giovanni in Laterano, 95), with the <a href="../cathen/12451a.htm">procurator</a> general and the five definitors of the order, of whom there are two for French-speaking countries, one for English-speaking, one for German, and one for <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flemish</a>. At the house of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> general are also the students whom the different houses of the order send to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> to follow the course of studies at the Gregorian University. The Order of Reformed Cistercians has for its protector at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> Cardinal Rampolla Del Tindaro.</p> <p>The four first houses, which replace the ancient Abbeys of La Ferté, <a href="../cathen/12233a.htm">Pontigny</a>, Clairvaux, and Morimond, are La Grande Trappe in the <a href="../cathen/13681d.htm">Diocese of Séez</a>, Melleray in the <a href="../cathen/10681a.htm">Diocese of Nantes</a>, Westmalle in the Diocese of <a href="../cathen/10104a.htm">Mechlin</a>, and Port-du-Salut in the Diocese of Laval. The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of these four houses every year visit the mother-house at <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. The other houses are visited regularly every year by the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of the houses on which they immediately depend.</p> <p>The actual condition of the Common Observance is as follows: The Congregation of <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> has five <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> (two of them in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and at San Bernardo alle Terme) and about 60 members. The Congregation of <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a> has two <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> (Bornheim and Val-Dieu), with 63 members. The Congregation of <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a>, the most powerful, has 12 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, with 599 religious. The Congregation of <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> has three <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, with 171 members. Lastly, the Congregation of Mean Observance of Sénanque, which, since the Waldeck-Rousseau Laws of 1901, has lost Sénanque, Fontfroide, and Pont-Colbert, now has but two houses, with about 102 members. The Cistercians of the Common Observance in 1900 elected as their general Dom Amedeus de Bie, of the Congregation of <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>. He has for assistants the vicars-general of the five congregations.</p> <p>The Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> has produced a great number of <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> and has given two <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, <a href="../cathen/05599a.htm">Eugene III</a>, a disciple of St. Bernard, and <a href="../cathen/02430a.htm">Benedict XII</a>. It has also given the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> forty <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a>, five of whom were taken from <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, and a considerable number of <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>. The Cistercians of all observances have no less enlightened the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> by their teachings and writings, than edified it by the <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a> of their lives. Among great teachers may be cited St. Bernard, the <a href="../cathen/05074a.htm">Mellifluous Doctor</a> and the last of the <a href="../cathen/06001a.htm">Fathers of the Church</a>, <a href="../cathen/14290d.htm">St. Stephen Harding</a>, author of the "Exordium Cisterciensis Coenobii", of the "Charter of Charity", etc. Then follow Conrad of Eberbach (Exordium Magnum Ordinis Cisterciensis); Ælred, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Rieval (Sermons); Serlon, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Savigny (Sermons); Thomas of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> (Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles); <a href="../cathen/03329c.htm">Caramuel</a>, the Universal Doctor, author of a Moral Theology very much esteemed, whom <a href="../cathen/01334a.htm">St. Alphonsus Liguori</a> calls "the prince of Laxists"; <a href="../cathen/03137a.htm">Caesarius of Heisterbach</a> (Homilies, "Dialogus Miraculorum", etc.); Manrique (Cistercian Annals in vols. folio); Henriques (Menologium Cisterciense); Charles de Visch (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis); the Abbot de Rance ("De la sainteté et des devoirs de la vie monastique", "Eclaircissements sur le même traité", "Méditations sur la règle de Saint-Benoît", etc.); Dom Julien <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> ("Nomasticon Cisterciense" in fol., Paris, 1664), Dom Pierre le Nain, sub-prior of La Trappe ("Vie de l'Abbé de La Trappe", "Essai de l'histoire de Cîteaux", 9 vols., Paris, 1690-97); Sartorius ("Cistercium bis-tertium", <a href="../cathen/12338a.htm">Prague</a>, 1700, and others. In the nineteenth century it suffices to mention among a great many writers belonging to both Observances: <a href="../cathen/08282a.htm">Dr. Leopold Janauscheck</a> (Originum Cisterciensium tom. I, <a href="../cathen/15417a.htm">Vienna</a>, 1877  the author died before he was able to commence the second volume), Dom Hugues Séjalon, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Aiguebelle (Annales d'Aiguebelle, 2 vols. and a new edition of the "Nomasticon Cisterciense" of Dom <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>, Solesmes, 1892).</p> <h2>Cistercians in America</h2> <p>The establishment of the Cistercians in America is due to the initiative of Dom Augustin de Lestrange. He was born in 1754, in the castle of Colombier-le-Vieux, Ardèche, <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, the son of Louis-César de Lestrange, an officer of the household of Louis XV, and of Jeanne-Pierrette de Lalor, daughter of an <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Irish</a> gentleman who had followed in 1688 James II in his exile. Dom Augustin was master of <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a> at <a href="../cathen/09035a.htm">La Trappe</a> when the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a> burst forth, and upon the suppression of the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders he sought refuge at Val-Sainte in <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>, with twenty-four of his brethren. Driven from Val-Sainte by the French troops, these religious wandered over the whole of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, going even into <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">Russia</a>. (See above under III. The Decline.)</p> <p>Dom Augustin at length resolved to send a colony of Cistercian <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> to America, where he saw much good to be done. Already in 1793, seeing <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a> flocking to Val-Sainte, he had directed to <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canada</a> a part of his religious under the guidance of Father John Baptist. But at <a href="../cathen/01441b.htm">Amsterdam</a> this colony found itself prevented by political troubles from departing, and divided into two bands, one of which settled at Westmalle in <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, while the other went to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> and established itself at Lulworth in Dorsetshire, in the very place where formerly there had existed a Cistercian <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> which was destroyed by <a href="../cathen/07222a.htm">Henry VIII</a>. Dom Augustin, however, had not given up the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of an American foundation. In 1802 he charged Dom Urbain Guillet to carry out his intentions in this regard. Dom Urbain, born at <a href="../cathen/10681a.htm">Nantes</a>, in 1766, the son of Ambroise Augustin Guillet, Knight of Malta, and of Marie-Anne Le Quellec, entered La Trappe in 1785, and was the last to pronounce his <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> in that <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> when the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a> burst forth. He assembled 24 religious, <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a>, and members of the third order (an institution of Dom Augustin de Lestrange), and sailed from <a href="../cathen/01441b.htm">Amsterdam</a>, 24 May, 1802, on board of the Sally, a <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Dutch</a> vessel flying the American flag to avoid the risks of <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a>  for <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a> was at the time an ally of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, and a conflict was imminent between that country and <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>.</p> <p>The Sally entered the port of <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a>, on the 25th of September, after a voyage of four months, having been hindered by contrary winds, and having gone out of her course to avoid English cruisers. Dom Urbain and his companions were received at St. Mary's Seminary, which was under the direction of the <a href="../cathen/13378a.htm">Sulpicians</a>, to whose superior, the venerable M. Nagot, then eighty-five years of age, the Cistercian immigrants had letters. At that time St. Mary's College possessed several eminent professors, and among these was M. Flaget, who later became <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Bardstown, and then of <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Louisville</a>, and who, in 1848, was to receive in Kentucky the religious who left Melleray to found Gethsemane.</p> <p>About fifty miles from <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a>, between the little towns of Hanover and Heberston was a plantation known as Pigeon Hill, which belonged to a friend of the <a href="../cathen/13378a.htm">Sulpicians</a>. Being absent for some years, he left them the power of disposing of it as they should deem proper. This large and beautiful residence was well provided with provisions by the <a href="../cathen/06636b.htm">goodness</a> of the <a href="../cathen/13378a.htm">Sulpicians</a>. In the woods near by were found all kinds of wild fruits. The <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> installed themselves at Pigeon Hill. M. de Morainvilliers, a French emigrant, a native of <a href="../cathen/01429d.htm">Amiens</a> and <a href="../cathen/11537b.htm">pastor</a> of St. Patrick's church, <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a>, used his influence with his parishioners to procure for the newly-arrived community the aid <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> for their establishment. But everything was dear in the country, and the money which Father Urbain had destined for the purchase of land did not even suffice for the support of his community. Eighteen months had already passed since the arrival of the colony at Pigeon Hill, and the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> foundation had not yet been begun. Dom Urbain had not accepted any of the land which had been offered to him. Moreover, the proximity of <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a> was a frequent source of desertions among the young people of the third order.</p> <p>About the beginning of 1805 Dom Urbain heard Kentucky spoken of. Its climate was represented to him as more temperate, and its soil more fertile. He left immediately to visit that country, and found there a devoted friend in the only <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> then resident, <a href="../cathen/02200b.htm">Father Stephen Badin</a>. <a href="../cathen/02200b.htm">Father Badin</a> took upon himself the <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> of finding for the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> a suitable establishment. Having left Pigeon Hill in July, 1805, Father Urbain and his companions arrived at <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Louisville</a> in the beginning of September. The inhabitants received them with great kindness and provided for their first wants. They occupied for the time being a plantation which a <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">woman</a> offered them, at some distance from <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Louisville</a>, and this gave them time to acquire, about sixty miles south of <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Louisville</a>, in the neighbourhood of Rohan's Knob, a <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> called Casey Creek, or Potinger's Creek.</p> <p>In the meantime a new band had been sent out by Dom Augustin Lestrange, under the conduct of Father Mary Joseph, a native of Chapell-les-Rennes, in Jura (b. 22 April, 1774), who had been a grenadier in the French army. One day he had been ordered to shoot a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, but had refused to obey; he left the army and became a religious at Val-Sainte. His community was at that time composed of seven <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, seventeen <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a>, and twenty-one young people of the third order.</p> <p>In the beginning of 1809 sixty acres of land had already been cleared at Casey Creek, a quantity of grain sowed, and a great number of trees planted. Permanent settlement was about to be made here when a fire destroyed in a few hours all the buildings of the new <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. Dom Urbain was deeply affected by the misfortune, and thought only of going elsewhere. An <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Irish</a> gentleman by the name of Mulamphy whom he had met in <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a>, offered him the ownership of a habitation in <a href="../cathen/09378a.htm">Louisiana</a>. Dom Urbain and Father Mary Joseph left together to visit this <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>. It pleased them, and they decided to leave Kentucky and Casey Creek.</p> <p>In the "Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky, 1787-1826" can be read the unexceptionable testimony which Bishop Spalding renders of the fervour of the religious during the whole time they spent in <a href="../cathen/08620b.htm">Kentucky</a>. Faithful to the rule of penance, they retrenched nothing from the austere practices of their holy state. The Rev. Father Charles Nerinckx, in a letter to Bishop Carroll, is not sparing in his praises of the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a>, though he blames certain details of administration which were the cause of their failure at Casey Creek. In the spring of 1809 the community left for Louisiana and took up their abode at Florissant, the <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> of Mr. Mulamphy, some thirty miles west of St. Louis, on a hill which slopes towards the Missouri. But Father Urbain contemplated the purchase of another <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> on the other side of the Mississippi, which was offered to him by M. Jarrot, former <a href="../cathen/12451a.htm">procurator</a> of the <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> of St. Sulpice at <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a>, who had established himself at Cahokia, six miles from St. Louis. In the first month of 1810 Dom Urbain bought on the prairie of "Looking Glass" the two highest of the forty mounds which formed the burial-ground of the Indians in the vicinity of Cahokia, known by the name of <a href="../cathen/07738a.htm">Indiana</a> Mound.</p> <p>"Looking Glass" was an immense tract of land in St. Clair County, <a href="../cathen/07653a.htm">Illinois</a>, which, it is said, had served the savages for many generations as a burial-place for their dead. These people had built there gigantic monuments which rose up from a base of 160 feet in circumference to a height of more than 100 feet. The <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> constructed several cabins on the smaller of the two mounds purchased by Dom Urbain, reserving the higher mound for the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> which they intended to build later. But the new settlers soon felt the influence of the unhealthy climate. Several savage tribes who had attempted in the past to take up their abode there had been <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to abandon the undertaking. One of the religious escaped the fever, but only one of them died. However, Monks' Mound, as it was afterwards named, presented great advantages. The city of St. Louis was only six or seven miles distant, all around were vast prairies or abundance of wood, and the waters of the Mississippi were so full of fish that, to use the expression of Father Urbain, "a blind man could not help but spear a big fish, if he tried". The lands were easy to cultivate and very fertile. The savages who made frequent incursions into the neighbourhood never molested the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. Dom Urbain had his <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> of <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> confirmed by Congress at Washington in March, 1810. He wished also to acquire 4000 acres of land in the neighbourhood of Monks' Mound. The president and a certain number of members of Congress were favourable to him, but the hostility of several influential members, who feared to see this country peopled under the influence and direction of religious and <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, caused his petition to go over to the next session. While waiting, Dom Urbain, struck by the sad condition of religion in the vicinity of St. Louis and in Illinois sent two of his religious to preach the Gospel there  Father Mary Joseph and Father Bernard, the latter a <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canadian</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> who he had brought with him from New York to Casey Creek. These settled in a <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> which was the most renowned for its <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">scandals</a>. "There", says Gaillardin ("Histoire de la Trappe", II. 285), "a husband had just sold his wife for a bottle of whiskey; the purchaser in his turn sold her for a horse; and finally she was sold a third time for a yoke of oxen." But so <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zealously</a> did these missionaries labour there by word and example that in a short time religion flourished. Father Bernard, already advanced in age, after some time succumbed to fatigue. To aid Father Mary Joseph, Dom Urbain took upon himself the care of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> people who were nearest to the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>.</p> <p>In 1812 a terrible plague visited the colony of the Monks' Mound. This fever, which desolated the country for two years, attacked the community and rendered it impossible for them to do any work. At the same time all necessaries were dear, and there was no money. Dom Urbain resolved to leave Monk's Mound. He sold all he possessed and transferred his community to <a href="../cathen/09755b.htm">Maryland</a>. There he found on his arrival six other religious under the direction of Father Vincent de Paul, who had been sent from <a href="../cathen/02682a.htm">Bordeaux</a> to America by Dom Augustin de Lestrange, and, having landed in <a href="../cathen/02703a.htm">Boston</a> the 6 August, 1811, with two religious, had been joined in the following year by three <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a>. (Father Vincent de Paul was a native of <a href="../cathen/09472a.htm">Lyons</a>, born in 1769.) Dom Urbain found the little band in the greatest misery. While waiting for better conditions, he settled them upon a little farm between Baltimore and Philadelphia, and conducted his own subjects to an island near Pittsburgh.</p> <p>In the meanwhile Dom Augustin de Lestrange, pursued by the <a href="../cathen/01489a.htm">anger</a> of <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a>, who had even set a price upon his head, arrived in New York in December, 1813. The <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a> had just given up their foundation in that city, and Dom Augustin took over the building they had used as a classical <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> and which was located where St. Patrick's Cathedral now stands in Fifth Avenue. Here, with Fathers Urbain and Vincent de Paul, he began a little community which resumed the regular life and exerted on outsiders a salutary influence. They cared for a number of children, most of them <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphans</a>; <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestants</a> were edified, and some conversions were made among them. The effort to establish a community was abandoned, however, after two years' experience. Father Urbain made another attempt to found a colony upon a farm which was offered to him by M. Quesnet, <a href="../cathen/15402a.htm">Vicar-General</a> of Philadelphia.</p> <h2>Monastery of Petit-Clairvaux</h2> <p>In 1814 Dom Augustin, after the abdication of <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a>, resolved to return to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> to re-establish there the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. He authorized Father Mary Joseph to remain in America, to continue the evangelization of the savages. Two groups left in October, the one under the conduct of Dom Augustin, the other under that of Father Urbain. A third group set sail later from New York for Halifax, under the guidance of Father Vincent de Paul (May, 1815). Here he was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to wait fifteen days for the vessel which was to take him back to his native land, but the vessel sailed while Father Vincent de Paul was engaged upon some business in town. He found himself without friends, without money, and in a country of which he <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knew</a> nothing. But Father Vincent de Paul found there a vast field for the exercise of his <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zeal</a>. He undertook to preach to the savages and, at the request of Monseigneur Lartigue, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10547b.htm">Montreal</a>, to found a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> in <a href="../cathen/11135a.htm">Nova Scotia</a>. He laboured eight years for the conversion of the infidels, and then, to carry out the latter project, he left for Bellefontaine in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> (1823) and, the same year, returned to America, bringing with him four religious, with whom he founded, in 1825, the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Petit Clairvaux, in Big Tracadie, Nova Scotia. Father Vincent de Paul lived twenty-eight years longer, spreading the <a href="../cathen/02599b.htm">blessings</a> of the Gospel in that country. He died 1 January, 1853, in the odour of <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a>, and there is a question of introducing his cause at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>.</p> <p>For many years this foundation struggled for existence. Two fires in succession destroyed all. Discouraged thereby, the little community, in 1900, left that country and settled near Lonsdale, <a href="../cathen/13020a.htm">Rhode Island</a>, where it founded the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Our Lady of the Valley. Since 1903 the Nova Scotian solitude of Petit Clairvaux has been repeopled. Thirty religious from the Abbey of Thymadeuc (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), under the direction of Dom Eugene Villeneuve, continued the interrupted work, clearing 1000 acres of land, two-thirds of which are forest-lands, two thirds of the remainder either pasture or meadow-lands; only about 15 acres are capable of being worked. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> is situated one mile from the Intercolonial Railway. Although the Cistercian Rule was in vigour there it was only incorporated in the Order of Reformed Cistercians in 1869.</p> <h3>Gethsemane and New Melleray</h3> <p>The year 1848 saw the erection of two other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in the <a href="../cathen/01409c.htm">New World</a>, one in Nelson County in the <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Diocese of Louisville</a>, <a href="../cathen/08620b.htm">Kentucky</a>, not far from the scene of the labours and hardships of Fathers Urbain and Mary Joseph and their companions, the other in the <a href="../cathen/05179b.htm">Diocese of Dubuque</a>, <a href="../cathen/08093b.htm">Iowa</a>, twelve miles west of the Mississippi River. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> are the present Abbeys of Our Lady of Gethsemane and Our Lady of New Melleray.</p> <p>The Abbey of Gethsemane, in the <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Diocese of Louisville</a>, was founded by the Abbey of Melleray in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. In 1848 Dom Maxime, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of that <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, sent two of his religious to the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a> to find a suitable location for a foundation. Bishop Flaget of <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Louisville</a>  the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint</a> of Kentucky, as he was called  indicated to them an establishment called Gethsemane, belonging to the Sisters of Loretto who were directing an <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanage</a>. The <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>, consisting of about 1400 acres of good land, was purchased, and on the 20th of December, 1848, forty religious from Melleray took possession of it. On the 21st of July, 1850, <a href="../cathen/12134b.htm">Pius IX</a> erected Gethsemane into an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>. Dom Eutropius was chosen <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> in March, 1851, and on the 26th of the following October he received abbatial blessing from the hands of Mgr. Spalding, successor of Mgr. Flaget in the <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Diocese of Louisville</a>. The ten or twelve log houses which had served as dwellings for the Sisters of Loretto and their <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphans</a> had become entirely inadequate for the needs of the Fathers, and Dom Eutropius decided to build a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. After eleven years of hard and incessant labour, which had considerably impaired his health, the <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zealous</a> superior resigned his charge and returned to Melleray. From this place of retirement he was called to become the first superior of Tre Fontane near <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>.</p> <p>His successor at Gethsemane was Dom Benedict Berger, under whose rule the beautiful abbatial church of Gethsemane was <a href="../cathen/14133a.htm">solemnly</a> <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> by Archbishop Purcell, of <a href="../cathen/03773a.htm">Cincinnati</a>, assisted by the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Louisville</a> and Buffalo, 15 November 1866. Mgr. Spalding, who had become <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a>, was present on the occasion, and preached the sermon, a masterpiece of sacred eloquence. Dom Benedict died 13 August, 1890, and was succeeded by Dom Edward Bourban, who transformed into a <a href="../cathen/04107b.htm">college</a> the little <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> which the Sisters of Loretto had left in charge of the new community. This college is situated about a quarter of a mile from the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> in a picturesque location, and has since been incorporated by the legislature of <a href="../cathen/08620b.htm">Kentucky</a>. In 1895 Dom Edward, while on a visit to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, resigned his charge on account of the poor state of his health, and was appointed <a href="../cathen/03579b.htm">chaplain</a> of the Trappistines of Our Lady of Les Gardes, in the <a href="../cathen/01489b.htm">Diocese of Angers</a>, <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. On the 11th of October, 1898, Dom Edmond Obrecht, cellarer of the Abbey of Tre Fontane near <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, was elected <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Gethsemane, and was blessed by Bishop McCloskey of <a href="../cathen/09386a.htm">Louisville</a> on the 28th of the same month. This community numbers 75 members.</p> <p>The Abbey of New Melleray, in the <a href="../cathen/05179b.htm">Diocese of Dubuque</a>, <a href="../cathen/08093b.htm">Iowa</a>, about twelve miles west of the Mississippi, is so called because its mother-house is the Abbey of Mount Melleray in <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Ireland</a>, which was founded by the Melleray Abbey of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. In 1848 Dom Bruno Fitzpatrick, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Mount Melleray, sent some of his religious to the <a href="../cathen/08093b.htm">State of Iowa</a>. Mgr. Lorans, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/05179b.htm">Dubuque</a>, offered them 80 acres of land in the vicinity of his episcopal city. The cornerstone of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was laid 16 July, 1849. Raised to the dignity of an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> in 1862, it had for first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, Dom Ephrem McDonald. After twenty years he resigned and returned to Mount Melleray. The Rev. Alberic Dunlea, who arrived in September, 1885, with an important colony from Mount Melleray, succeeded him as superior. He relieved the financial condition of the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>, and ended the difficulties which had nearly ruined it under the preceding administration. In 1889 a new superior was elected in the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> of Father Louis Carew. Later he became definitor of the order for the English-speaking countries, and was succeeded by Father Alberic who became titular prior. In 1897 the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was restored to its dignity of <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>, and Dom Alberic Dunlea was elected <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>. The <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> comprises some 3000 acres of land, with an abundance of excellent water. The <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> has been rebuilt, but in 1908 it was not yet completed.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h3>Abbey of La Trappe, Canada</h3> <p>The Abbey of Our Lady of the Lake of Two Mountains (better known by the name of La Trappe, the official name given to the post-office established there) is situated in the territory of Oka, in the Diocese of <a href="../cathen/10547b.htm">Montreal</a>, about thirty miles from that city and upon the shores of the Lake of the Two Mountains, whence it derives its name. The first thought of founding this <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was due to the venerable M. Rousselot, <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> of St. Sulpice, and <a href="../cathen/11537b.htm">pastor</a> of Notre-Dame of <a href="../cathen/10547b.htm">Montreal</a>. Born at Cholet (Maine et Loire, <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), a few leagues distant from the Abbey of Bellefontaine, M. Rousselot had often, in his youth, visited this <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. Several times during his visits to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> he had communicated his projects to the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Bellefontaine, Dom Jean-Marie Chouteau. The expulsion of the religious decreed by the French Government, and put into execution at Bellefontaine, 6 November, 1880, decided the Rev. Father Jean-Marie to accept the proposition of M. Rousselot. On the 8th of April, 1881, the Rev. Father Abbot, accompanied by one of his religious, arrived in <a href="../cathen/10547b.htm">Montreal</a>, where he was most kindly received by Bishop Fabre. After some weeks of negotiation, the Seminary of St. Sulpice ceded to the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> 1000 acres of land in the seigniory of the Lake of the Two Mountains. At the same time the provincial Government of Quebec promised to encourage the foundation and to come to its aid. On his return to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> the Rev. Father Abbot sent to <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canada</a> four of his religious, so that the infant colony comprised five members, including his companion who remained. Father William was the superior. They installed themselves for the time being as well as they could in a little wooden house that belonged to the Mill of the Bay, as it was called, in the territory of Oka. This temporary installation lasted until the month of September. The religious then took possession of a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> which, without being a permanent abode, gave them room enough for faithfully carrying out the Cistercian observances and receiving new recruits. This first <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was blessed, 8 September, 1881. It has since been transformed into an agricultural <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>.</p> <p>The grain of mustard seed promised to become a great tree. Novices presented themselves, and at the same time the grounds, until then uncultivated, covered with brush and forests and filled with rocks, were cleared and tilled. After this a permanent <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was planned. In the autumn of 1889, thanks to a generous benefactor, M. Devine, work was commenced upon it. In the month of May, 1890, the <a href="../cathen/14303a.htm">corner-stone</a> was laid, and on the 28th of August, 1891, Mgr. Fabre solemnly blessed the first two wings which had been completed. This same day, by a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, the <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> of Our Lady of the Lake was erected into an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>. On the 26th of March the community chose as <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> the Very Rev. Father Anthony Oger, who, on the 29th of the following June, received the abbatial blessing from the hands of Mgr. Fabre in the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> of <a href="../cathen/10547b.htm">Montreal</a>. Finally, in 1897, by the aid of a benefactor as modest as he was generous, M. Rousseau, <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> of St. Sulpice, the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> and the abbatial church were entirely completed, and on the 7th of November Archbishop Bruchesi solemnly <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> the church. Thence-forth the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> could give themselves fully to their lives of labour and <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>, without fearing any inconvenience in the fulfilment of their regular exercises. But on the 23rd of July, 1902, a fire destroyed the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, and the community was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to take shelter in the agricultural <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>. While waiting for sufficient means to rebuild their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> constructed a temporary wooden shelter, and on <a href="../cathen/10068a.htm">Holy Thursday</a>, 1903, were able to leave the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>. The aid rendered by the different houses of the order and the traditional generosity of the <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canadian</a> people and the people of the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a>, without distinction of creed, soon enabled them to commence the building of a new <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> upon the site of the former, and on the 21st of August, 1906, Mgr. Bruchesi, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10547b.htm">Montreal</a>, surrounded by several <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> the abbatial church.</p> <p>The Abbey of Our Lady of the Lake had in 1908, according to statistics, 120 inmates, including the oblates. This name is given to boys of eleven to fifteen years who are entrusted to the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> by their <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> to be brought up according to the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>, so that later, if the superiors judge them to be called to the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious life</a>, they may become <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. The rule is mitigated for them in consideration of their tender age. This is a revival of the <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> and of the first centuries of <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious life</a>. The principal industries of Our Lady of the Lake are the manufacture of cheese and of a medicinal wine. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> possesses also an important creamery for the manufacture of butter. But that which contributes most of all to the renown of La Trappe of Oka is its agricultural <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>. In this matter the Reformed Cistercians (Trappists) of Our Lady of the Lake follow the glorious traditions of their ancestors. From their very installation in the country, their skill in deriving profit from lands previously sterile was noticed by the farmers of the neighbourhood. Persons of every age and condition asked to be permitted to work with them, so as to learn their methods. This was the beginning of the agricultural <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> which the Government was in a short time to recognize officially, and which, reorganized since the burning of the former <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, gives instruction in agricultural <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a> every year to 80 or 100 students. Today the building devoted to this <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> is a large modern construction delightfully situated in a picturesque location, and commands a beautiful view of the Lake of the Two Mountains. This agricultural <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> has been affiliated with the University of Laval.</p> <h3>Monastery of Lake St. John</h3> <p>For a long time the <a href="../cathen/10198a.htm">Honourable Honoré Mercier</a>, Prime Minister of the <a href="../cathen/12598a.htm">Province of Quebec</a>, had at the request of the colonization agent of the province, been earnestly entreating the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Bellefontaine and Dom Anthony of Our Lady of the Lake to send some religious into the country of Lake St. John, recently opened to colonization. He had offered to the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappist</a> Fathers 6000 acres of land and a considerable sum of money. In the year 1891 he charged the Rev. Th. Greg. Rouleau, principal of the Laval Normal School, who accompanied Mgr. Begin on his visit <em>ad limina</em>, to urge this request of the Government upon the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Bellefontaine. When the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, with the <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> authorization from his order, arrived in Quebec to settle the matter, M. de Boucherville had succeeded <a href="../cathen/10198a.htm">M. Mercier</a> as prime minister. M. Pelletier, Secretary of the Province, and the Honourable Louis Beaubien, Minister of Agriculture, were exceedingly <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">happy</a> to continue the work of the preceding ministry. They favoured with all their power the establishment of the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> at Lake St. John. Mgr. Labrecque, who had succeeded Mgr. Begin in the <a href="../cathen/03658a.htm">See of Chicoutimi</a>, made the foundation the particular object of his personal care and attention. In 1892 Dom Anthony sent a little colony to Lake St. John. Thus was founded the prosperous and beneficent <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Our Lady of Mistassini at Lake of St. John in the <a href="../cathen/03658a.htm">Diocese of Chicoutimi</a>. In January, 1906, it was erected into a <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a>, and the Rev. Dom Pacomius Gaboury was elected prior. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> in 1907 had twenty inmates.</p> <h3>Monastery of Our Lady of the Prairies, Manitoba</h3> <p><a href="../cathen/14427c.htm">Archbishop Taché</a> of <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a> had long desired to enrich his <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> with an institution of this kind. He wrote about it several times to the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Bellefontaine, and in the spring of 1892 the latter came to an understanding with the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishop</a>, and his colabourer, M. Ritchot, <a href="../cathen/11537b.htm">pastor</a> of St. Norbert. The <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a> gave the Rev. Father Abbot 1500 acres of good land in the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> of St. Norbert, and immediately sent thither a little colony under the direction of Father Louis de Bourmont. The work of construction was carried on with vigour and rapidity, and on the 18th of October in the same year, <a href="../cathen/14427c.htm">Archbishop Taché</a> blessed the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> and named it Our Lady of the Prairies. St. Norbert is situated on the west bank of the Red River, about nine miles south of Winnipeg, the great <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolis</a> of Western <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canada</a>. It is exclusively an agricultural colony, and farming is carried on there on an extensive scale by means of the latest improved machinery. In 1893 the harvest was remunerative. In 1897 there were more than five hundred acres of first-class land under cultivation. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Our Lady of the Prairies had forty inmates in the year 1908. By this date a new building had been erected.</p> <h3>Monastery of Our Lady of the Valley, Lonsdale, Rhode Island, U.S.</h3> <p>This <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> is no other than the former Little Clairvaux transferred. After the disastrous events which made it impossible for the community of Little Clairvaux to continue its work at Big Tracadie, Dom John Mary Murphy, yielding to the desire of Bishop Harkins of Providence to have some contemplative religious in his <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>, transferred it to Lonsdale, <a href="../cathen/13020a.htm">Rhode Island</a>, in March, 1900, leaving to other religious who came from <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> his <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Little Clairvaux. He commenced without delay to build a wooden structure which would serve for a temporary shelter for the religious. At the same time he was constructing the buildings indispensable for farming. These preparations were pushed forward with such energy that by the month of July the community were able to commence the clearing and cultivation of the lands. It was an arduous and ungrateful task; no single-handed farmer would have undertaken it. But what was impossible to individual effort was soon effected by united labour, and the ungrateful soil became productive. The new <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, begun in April, 1902, was finished in December of the same year, and in the month of January, 1903, the religious had the consolation of being installed in a building appropriate to their kind of life. For a farm the water supply is of prime importance. The <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> of Our Lady of the Valley have discovered a spring which supplies water abundantly for all purposes. Moreover, this water, on account of its mineral properties, has a considerable commercial value. The total area of the <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> is 450 acres. The success which has thus far attended the efforts of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> at Lonsdale is a precious encouragement for all those who are engaged in farming pursuits in that rocky part of <a href="../cathen/13020a.htm">Rhode Island</a>.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was erected into a <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> in 1907, and the religious elected the Rev. Dom John Mary Murphy prior. It retains in the order the rank of seniority corresponding to the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of incorporation of Little Clairvaux in the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. in 1869.</p> <h3>Monastery of Our Lady of Calvary, Rogersville, N.B.</h3> <p>Foreseeing the evils with which their communities were threatened by the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1901 (Waldeck-Rousseau), several <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of the Order of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> looked to find a refuge in case of expulsion. Dom Anthony Oger, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Our Lady of the Lake, wrote to Mgr. Richard, <a href="../cathen/11537b.htm">pastor</a> of Rogersville, N.B., who answered promptly, placing at his disposal certain mills and 1000 acres of land already partly cultivated. In August, 1902, the <a href="../cathen/12427c.htm">prior</a> of Bonnecombe, <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, the Rev. Father Anthony Piana and the Rev. Mother Lutgarde, <a href="../cathen/12428a.htm">prioress</a>, with another sister, arrived in <a href="../cathen/10547b.htm">Montreal</a> and afterwards at Our Lady of the Lake by way of <a href="../cathen/10547b.htm">Montreal</a>. Dom Anthony Oger devoted his whole paternal solicitude to aiding his visitors in finding a place suitable for a foundation. The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> communicated Mgr. Richard's proposal to the <a href="../cathen/12427c.htm">prior</a> of Bonnecombe, who, after two visits to Rogersville decided to accept it, and the project was submitted to the <a href="../cathen/01656b.htm">approbation</a> of the general chapter. The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> general, <a href="../cathen/15721b.htm">Dom Sebastian Wyart</a>, urged Dom Emile, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Bonnecombe for <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canada</a> under the direction of Dom Anthony Piana. On the 5th of the following November the little colony was <a href="../cathen/14133a.htm">solemnly</a> received at Rogersville by the <a href="../cathen/11537b.htm">pastor</a> and his parishioners, and took possession of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, to which was given the name of Our Lady of Calvary, which was canonically erected into a <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> 12 July, 1904.</p> <h3>Monastery of Our Lady of Jordan, Oregon</h3> <p>In 1904 the Cistercian <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Fontgombault (Indreet-Loire, <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), were forced to abandon their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. They, too, looked for a refuge in America. Under the direction of their <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, Dom Fortunato Marchand, they went to <a href="../cathen/11288a.htm">Oregon</a> to ask for a place of retreat where they would be able to serve <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">Almighty God</a>, and observe their rule. The new foundation of Our Lady of Jordan is situated in the township of Jordan, Linn County, about 90 miles from the Pacific Coast, upon a plateau a mile and a half in area. The <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> consists of about 400 acres of land, almost 200 of which are actually under cultivation or in meadow-lands, 100 in wood land, and the remainder covered with brush. A torrent, tributary of the Santiam River, bounds it on the south. Upon this torrent has been built a steam saw-mill in connection with the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. Here the <a href="../cathen/11288a.htm">Oregon</a> fir-trees, which attain immense heights, are converted into lumber for the needs of the community and for commerce. The future of this Cistercian community to a great extent rests upon this industry. The land is ordinarily fertile and produces cereals, vegetables, pears, plums, apples, etc. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Our Lady of Jordan was <a href="../cathen/14133a.htm">solemnly</a> dedicated in 1907, the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/11288a.htm">Oregon</a> City officiating, in the presence of a large assembly of the <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laity</a>, among whom were many non-Catholics. On the same occasion the Sacrament of Confirmation was administered by the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishop</a>. The Right Rev. Father Thomas, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> Abbey of Mount Angel, preached the dedicatory sermon, in which he explained the nature and the object of the life of the Cistercians, or <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a>.</p> <h3>The Monastery of Our Lady of Maristella</h3> <p>This <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, at <a href="../cathen/14465b.htm">Taubaté</a> in the Archdiocese of São Paulo do <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazil</a>, is the first, and up to now the only <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of the Cistercian Order in South America. It was founded in 1904 by the Abbey of Septfons in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, on a farm, or <em>fazenda</em>, at the foot of the Serra Mantiqueira, not far from the railroad between Rio and São Paulo, about twelve miles from <a href="../cathen/14465b.htm">Taubaté</a> and six from Trememblé, a small place connected with Taubaté by a tramway. The <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> consisting of 4000 or 5000 acres, had remained untilled since the abolition of slavery in 1888, and the buildings were falling into ruins. One half of the land lies along the River Parahyba, and the other, consisting of hills and valleys, forms the base of the chain of mountains of Mantiqueira. Rice, coffee, sugar-cane, Indian corn, etc., are cultivated, and cattle are raised. The climate is temperate, although it is within the tropics. The community, forty in number, has established a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> for the children of the vicinity.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes"><em>Exordes de Cîteaux</em> (Grande Trappe, 1884); D'Arbois De Jubainville, <em>Interieur des abbayes cisterciennes au XII et au Les annales d' Aiguebelle</em> (Valence, 1863); Janauscheck, <em>Originum Cisterciensium etc.</em> (Vienna, 1877), I; <em>Gallia Christiana</em>, IV; Hélyot, <em>Dictionnaire des ordres religieux; Ordinis Cisterciensis Jurium etc.</em> (Rome, 1902); <em>Abrege de l'histoire de l'ordre de Cîteaux par un moine de Thymadeuc</em> (St. Brieuc, 1897). Gaillardin, <em>Histoire de La Trappe</em>; <em>Dom Augustin de Lestrange et les trappists pendant la Revolution</em> (Grande Trappe, 1898); <em>Vie du R. P. Urbain Guillet</em> (Montligeon, 1899); Vérite, <em>Cîteaux, La Trappe et Bellefontaine</em> (Paris, 1885); Spalding, <em>Sketches of the Early Missions of Kentucky, 1781-1826</em>; Maes, <em>The life of Rev. Charles Nerinckx</em> (Cincinnati, 1880); <em>L'abbaye de Notre-Dame du Lac et l'ordre de Cîteaux au Canada et dans les Etats-Unis</em> (Montreal, 1907); Tessier, <em>Bibliotheca Patrum Cisterciensium</em> (4 vol. 4x, 1660); Alanus De Insulis, <em>Opera Mosalia</em> (4x, 1654); Bona, <em>Opera Omnia</em> (4x 1677): Caretto, <em>Santosale del S. Ordine Cisterciense</em> (4 vol. 4x, 1705); Debreyne, many volumes on theology an medicine; Ughelli, <em>Italia Sacra</em> (10 vol. folio, 1717); Henriquez should be quoted for having not only the menologium but also the Phoenix reviviscens (4x, 1626); <em>Regula Constit. et Privilegia Ord. Cist.</em> (folio, 1630); Janauscheck, <em>Bibliographia Bernardina</em>.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Gildas, M.</span> <span id="apayear">(1908).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Cistercians.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03780c.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Gildas, Marie.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Cistercians."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 3.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1908.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03780c.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Larry Trippett.</span> <span id="dedication">In memory of Fr. Columban, Our Lady of Guadalupe monastery, Oregon, whose kindness and wisdom remain with me.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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