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In the year 1098, Abbot Robert of Molesme traveled with
twenty-one companions to a vast French wilderness called Citeaux, and
there began to transform the place into the New Monastery.
Nothing essentially new, however, was the aim of these first
Cistercians. Moved by a yearning for union with God, peace, and
simplicity, they merely sought a closer adherence to the spirit and letter
of St. Benedict’s Rule.
A spiritual heritage which prefers nothing whatever to Christ had been
reborn |
Founders Robert of Molesme,
Alberic and Stephen Harding
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The Charter of Charity, in essence the new Order’s first constitution, sought to
reinforce the founders’ ideal of mutual love and esteem as the guiding
principles of the monastic family. This document established a structured
relationship between the abbeys that was revolutionary: a system of visitation
of daughterhouses by the motherhouse on a regular basis, and an annual General
Chapter at Citeaux attended by all the abbots. In this way, the family tree of
the Cistercian Order was planted.
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The New Monastery’s reputation for fervour and dedication eventually drew many
novices, among them Bernard of Fontaines, better known as St. Bernard of
Clairvaux, and his thirty companions. The expansion of the Order was rapid and
changed the monastic landscape, sweeping across and beyond Europe to include
hundreds of abbeys and priories by the Middle Ages.
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Around the year 1142, two monks were sent out from the abbey of Pontrond, a
granddaughter of Citeaux, to the far west of France, near Nantes in Brittany.
There they claimed a site shaded by magnificent trees which was called Melleray.
A group of religious from Pontrond then joined the original two and chose
Guntarn as the first abbot. |
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The church they constructed was dedicated in 1183, and is
still in use by the monks today.
The community of Melleray weathered many crises over the course of
centuries, and faced yet another in the year 1848. |
| Overcrowded conditions in the house and political unrest
in the land made the foundation of a new daughterhouse imperative. Friendship with their countryman, Benedict Joseph
Flaget, Bishop of Louisville, drew the Trappists to the heart of Kentucky.
GETHSEMANI ABBEY |
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