From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   August 20th - Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot, Theologian, and Poet   
      
   Bernard, third son of a Burgundian nobleman, was born in 1090. His brothers   
   were   
   trained as soldiers, but Bernard from youth was destined for scholarship.   
   One   
   Christmas Eve as a child he had a dream about the infant Christ in the   
   manger;   
   and the memory of it, and consequent devotion to the mystery of the Word   
   made   
   flesh, remained with him throughout his life.   
      
   Bernard had good prospects of success as a secular scholar, but he began to   
   believe that he was called to the monastic life, and after a period of   
   prayer   
   for guidance, he decided at age 22 to enter the monastery of Citeaux (Latin   
   Cistercium, appearing on modern maps as Corcelles-les-Citeaux, 47:10 N 5:05   
   E),   
   an offshoot of the Benedictines which had adopted a much stricter rule than   
   theirs, and became the founding house of the Cistercian (Trappist) order.   
   (Actually, the Trappists are a reformed (i.e. stricter) offshoot of the   
   Cistercians, who are a stricter offshoot of the Benedictines.) He persuaded   
   four   
   of his brothers, one uncle, and 26 other men to join him. They were the   
   first   
   novices that Citeaux had had for several years. After three years, the abbot   
   ordered Bernard to take twelve monks and found a new house at La Ferte. The   
   first year was one of great hardship. They had no stores and lived chiefly   
   on   
   roots and barley bread. Bernard imposed such severe discipline that his   
   monks   
   became discouraged, but he realized his error and became more lenient. The   
   reputation of the monastery, known as Clairvaux (48:09 N 4:47 E), spread   
   across   
   Europe. Many new monks joined it, and many persons wrote letters or came in   
   person to seek spiritual advice. By the time of his death, 60 new   
   monasteries of   
   the Cistercian order were established under his direction.   
      
   For four years after 1130 Bernard was deeply involved with a disputed papal   
   election, championing the claims of Innocent II against his rival Anacletus   
   II.   
   He traveled throughout France, Germany, and Italy mustering support for his   
   candidate (and, it should be added, preaching sermons denouncing injustices   
   done   
   to Jews), and returned from one of these journeys with Peter Bernard of   
   Paganelli as a postulant for the monastery. The future Pope Eugenius III   
   spent   
   the next year stoking the monastery fires. Years later, Bernard wrote a   
   major   
   treatise of advice to Eugenius on the spiritual temptations of spiritual   
   power.   
      
   The papal election was not the only dispute in which Bernard became   
   involved. He   
   was highly critical of Peter Abelard, one of the most brilliant theologians   
   of   
   the day (see 21 April). Bernard believed that Abelard was too rationalistic   
   in   
   his approach, and failed to allow sufficiently for the element of mystery in   
   the   
   faith. When Abelard rejected some of the ways of stating Christian doctrines   
   to   
   which Bernard was accustomed, Bernard concluded, perhaps too hastily, that   
   this   
   was equivalent to rejecting the doctrine itself. A conference was scheduled   
   at   
   Sens (48:12 N 3:18 E), where Abelard's views were to be examined, but soon   
   after   
   it began Abelard decided that he was not about to get a fair hearing,   
   announced   
   that he was appealing to Rome, and left. He set out for Rome and got as far   
   as   
   Cluny, where he stopped. Peter the Venerable, the abbot (see 30 April), was   
   a   
   friend of both Abelard and Bernard, and managed to reconcile them before   
   they   
   died.   
      
   One of Bernard's most influential acts, for better or worse, was his   
   preaching   
   of the Second Crusade. The First Crusade had given the Christian forces   
   control   
   of a few areas in Palestine, including the city of Edessa. When Moslem   
   forces   
   captured Edessa (37:08 N 38:46 E, now called Urfa and located in eastern   
   Turkey)   
   in 1144, King Louis VII of France (not to be confused with St. Louis IX,   
   also a   
   Crusader, but more than a century later) was eager to launch a crusade to   
   retake   
   Edessa and prevent a Moslem recapture of Jerusalem (31:47 N 35:13 E). He   
   asked   
   Bernard for help, and Bernard refused. He then asked the Pope to order   
   Bernard   
   to preach a Crusade. The pope gave the order, and Bernard preached, with   
   spectacular results. Whole villages were emptied of able-bodied males as   
   Bernard   
   preached and his listeners vowed on the spot to head for Palestine and   
   defend   
   the Sacred Shrines with their lives.   
      
   The preaching of the Crusade had an ugly side-effect. In the Rhineland, a   
   monk   
   named Raoul wandered about telling crowds that if they were going to fight   
   for   
   the faith, the logical first step was to kill the Jews who were near at   
   hand.   
   There were anti-Jewish riots in Mainz (50:00 N 8:16 E, in the Rhineland),   
   where   
   the archbishop sheltered the Jews, or many of them, in his palace, and sent   
   an   
   urgent message to Bernard to come before both he and they were killed.   
   Bernard   
   came. He called Raoul arrogant and without authority, a preacher of mad and   
   heretical doctrines, a liar and a murderer. Then he got nasty. Raoul sneaked   
   off   
   the scene, and the riots were over. From that day to this, Bernard has been   
   remembered among Rhineland Jews and their descendants as an outstanding   
   example   
   of a "righteous Gentile," and many of them (e.g. Bernard Baruch) bear his   
   name.   
      
   As for the Crusade, things went wrong from the start. The various rulers   
   leading   
   the movement were distrustful of one another and not disposed to work   
   together.   
   Of the soldiers who set out (contemporary estimates vary from 100,000 to   
   1,500,000), most died of disease and starvation before reaching their goal,   
   and   
   most of the remainder were killed or captured soon after their arrival. The   
   impact on Bernard was devastating, and so was the impact on Europe.   
      
   In 1153, Bernard journeyed to reconcile the warring provinces Metz (around   
   49:00   
   N 6:10 E) and Lorraine (around 49:00 N 5:30 E). He persuaded them to peace   
   and   
   to an agreement drawn up under his mediation, and then, in failing health,   
   returned home to die.   
      
   If Bernard in controversy was fierce and not always fair, it is partly   
   because   
   he was a man of intense feeling and dedication, quick to respond to any real   
   or   
   supposed threat to what he held sacred. It is his devotional writings, not   
   his   
   polemical ones, that are still read today. Among the hymns attributed to him   
   are   
   the Latin originals of "O Sacred Head, sore wounded," "Jesus, the very   
   thought   
   of Thee," "O Jesus, joy of loving hearts," "Wide open are Thy hands," and "O   
   Jesus, King most wonderful." His sermons on the Song of Songs, treated as an   
   allegory of the love of Christ, are his best-known long work.   
      
   This Version taken from:   
   http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/08/20.html   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does   
   you   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)