LEARN MORE BY LISTENING TO SOME BROADCASTS FROM THE RADIO CATHOLIQUE DE FRANCE (RCF) ON THE HISTORY OF CÎTEAUX (french)

Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.

Saint-Robert
VIIIe centenaire de l'ordre cistercien - 1898

Founded in 1098 by Robert of Molesme, the Abbey of Cîteaux, birthplace of the Cistercian Order, is located in the valley of the Saône, in the heart of Burgundy. Characterized by great poverty at its beginning, the community took flight thanks to the arrival of Saint Bernard and his companions in the spring of 1113.

Two years later, Bernard, at the head of 12 monks, was sent to found Clairvaux. In the following 30 years, the abbot would see his community grow to nearly 500 brothers. By means of his writings and their influence, Saint Bernard would be the source of a veritable school of spirituality with which we continue to be nourished. At the end of the 12th century, the Order had more than 500 monasteries. Interrupted for 100 years by the Revolution, monastic life was re-established at Cîteaux in 1898.  Today, a community of 35 brothers (of which 4 left in 2009 to “found” a community in Norway) give themselves to prayer and to work, living under the Rule of Saint Benedict in order to learn to love.

Icon of the three founders of Cîteaux: Robert, Alberic, and Stephen Harding, the Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven and the earth, patroness of Cistercian monasteries.
Abbey of Maria Frieden

The four great periods of Cîteaux’s history:

- Foundation and expansion 11th – 13th c.
- Faithfulness and innovation 14th – 17th c.
- In the upheaval: ridicule and persecution 18th – 19th c.
- Re-foundation 20th – 21st c.

20th – 21st c.

In 1892, the various monasteries of the Trappist movement met together to give birth to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, to which the Abbey of Cîteaux belongs today.

In 1898, 8 centuries after its foundation, monks from various monasteries took possession of Cîteaux to give new life to the Cistercian charism. This resumption caused much stress: the buildings were unsuitable, brothers coming from different communities had to learn to become one, poverty was great, and, during the First World War, the monastery became a hospital.

Setting up the business of cheese production dates from this period. The abbey experienced a significant spiritual renewal under the abbacy of Dom Godefroid Bélorgey (1933-1952): vocations flowed in and the economy stabilized. The years following the Council saw some important changes: the abbot of Cîteaux was no longer the abbot general of the Order, the former distinction between choir monks and lay brothers disappeared, the liturgy was reformed, and the spiritual value of the early Cistercian writings, still relevant today, was rediscovered.

In 1998, the celebration of the 9th centenary of the foundation of Cîteaux was marked by the renovation of the church and by a great assembly of monks and nuns: the large Cistercian family was happy to find itself in the process of a “Cistercian Pentecost.”

  Letter of John-Paul II to the members of the Cistercian family

on the occasion of the 9th centenary of the foundation of the Abbey of Cîteaux.

For some years, the community of Cîteaux has worked on a foundation in Norway. September 14, 2009, monastic life began in a modest establishment at Munkeby, in the diocese of Trondheim.

Ridicule and persecution
18^th – 19^th c.

In the 18th century, Enlightenment philosophy was hostile to monks. The thinkers held them as socially useless and classed them in two categories: the fanatics and the hypocrites. There were heavy consequences for Cistercian monasteries. In Austria, for example, the Emperor Joseph II ordered them to take charge of pastoral work (parishes, schools, hospitals) which harmed the unity of the Order and carried the seeds of divisions to come.

Projet de l'architecte Romain Lenoir à Cîteaux

Bâtiment “Lenoir”, vue de l'Est

Le grand escalier

The abbot of Cîteaux, Dom Joseph Trouvé, was a man of his time. He installed workshops in Cîteaux’s large infirmary in order to provide work for the unemployed in the neighboring region. He also undertook a large architectural project: the demolition of a part of the monastic buildings and their reconstruction in classical style, to please the taste of the day. The current living quarters dates from this period.

The Revolution interrupted the construction and dispersed the monks. It was a time of confusion. The abbey, sold as government property to speculators in 1791 was dismantled and transformed into a stone quarry, then into a factory, a co-operative community (after Fourier), and finally into a penal colony for children. This last project, founded by Father Rey, required numerous buildings: Cîteaux welcomed up to a thousand young people and teachers.

Vue générale de la colonie du Père Rey vers 1868

Dom Augustin de Lestrange

Following the Revolution, the Cistercian Order broke down. Monasteries were closed as the French armies moved across Europe. Many monks remained faithful to their vows until death. A small group of monks and nuns from monasteries of the Strict Observance, particularly from the line of La Trappe, fled as far as Russia under the leadership of Dom Augustin de Lestrange.

Gravure : Cîteaux XIX^e s.

After the storm of the Revolution, they assured the renewal of Cistercian Trappist life in France. Against all expectations, the 19th century saw a flowering and prospering of fervent abbeys gathered into various congregations: the unity of the Order no longer existed.

14th – 17th c.

After these flourishing beginnings, came a time of testing and persevering in faithfulness. Monastic life was followed, but it was not any longer in the forefront. Sometimes the wealth of monasteries made them the focus of power games, sometimes establishing monastic life could even bring along a spiritual numbness; however, the diminished visibility of spiritual practices was not necessarily a sign of decadence. In the course of centuries, through wars and social changes, the monks of Cîteaux lived, prayed, and worked. They continued to cultivate in an exemplary manner their properties: forests, ponds, and vines.

The abbot de Rancé

After the Council of Trent, a deep spiritual renewal appeared throughout the Church. In the Cistercian Order, it manifested itself in the 17th century in the movement of the Strict Observance. Some abbots worked to recover practices that had been abandoned: having dormitories rather than cells, abstaining from meat, insisting on silence and the Divine Office. They also introduced new spiritual practices (mental prayer or even pilgrimages). This movement stirred tensions between reformed monasteries and others: the sometimes stormy debates in this quarrel over observances took place in the Définitoire of Cîteaux.

The abbey of Cîteaux was then politically at stake and its role as center of unity for the Order was too important for it to take sides in this conflict.

During this movement of the Strict Observance, the figure of the abbot de Rancé emerged in particular: the strict reform that he put in place at La Trappe gave its name to the Trappists. Today’s monks of Cîteaux are its heirs. 

11^th – 13^th c

In the 11 century, a great desire for renewal swept across the Church, giving birth to a vast movement of . Many women and men wanted to live a simple life, faithful to the Gospel. In monastic life, this ideal manifested itself in the desire to find again the strictness of the Rule. In , a group of monks from the abbey of Molesme in Burgundy, inspired by this ideal and under the leadership of their , came to a secluded place, the forest of Cîteaux. The story of this episode is told to us in The Great Exordium of Cîteaux.

The beginnings were difficult. This austere life was exemplary but it attracted few candidates.
The brothers were saddened at not being able to pass on their experience. This desert crossing was completed under the leadership of Albéric, the second abbot of Cîteaux. He established the material basis to be developed, in particular the institution of the lay brothers (conversi) which reconciled two potentially contradictory demands of the Rule of Saint Benedict: on one hand, living by the work of their own hands and thus, in an agricultural society, directly working the land, and, on the other hand, remaining in the enclosure of the monastery. 

Hymn for the feast of the Founders (January 26)

In 1113, the third abbot, Étienne Harding, joyfully welcomed Bernard of Fontaine, who arrived with about 30 companions to be schooled in monastic life. This charismatic young man brought about a very rapid growth: foundations multiplied throughout Europe.
Bernard, this man of fire, spread the Cistercian reform and gave it an extraordinary splendor. This rapid expansion remained balanced by Stephen who, in the Charter of Charity, set the foundations of a decentralized monastic order, governed by a general chapter of abbots and characterized by mutual support, unity, and charity.