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St. Bernard of Clairvaux
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Bernard, the founding abbot of Clairvaux Abbey
in Burgundy, was one of the most commanding Church leaders in
the first half of the twelfth century as well as one of the
greatest spiritual masters of all times and the most powerful
propagator of the Cistercian reform.
He was born in Fontaines-les-Dijon in 1090 and entered
the Abbey of Citeaux in 1112, bringing thirty of his relatives
with him, including five of his brothers-- his youngest
brother and his widowed father followed later. After receiving
a monastic formation from St.
Stephen Harding, he was sent in 1115 to begin a new
monastery near Aube: Clairvaux, the Valley of Light. As a
young abbot he published a series of sermons on the
Annunciation. These marked him not only as a most gifted
spiritual writer but also as the "cithara of Mary,"
especially noted for his development of Mary's mediatorial
role.
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