Life of St. Stephen Harding: Abbot of Citeaux and Founder of the Cistercian OrderNewman Bookshop, 1898 - 208 pages |
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abbey abbot of Citeaux afterwards Alberic and Stephen altar amongst archbishop archbishop of Lyons authority Benedict Benedict's rule Benedictine Bern Bernard bishop blessed body brother called cardinals Chalon chapter choir Christ Church Cist Cistercian order Citeaux Clairvaux cloister Cluniac convent council council of Troyes cowl cuculla Dijon diocese disciple Ducs de Bourgogne duke of Burgundy election Exordium faith Father Dalgairns followed forest France froccus garment gave God's Guignard habit hands hard heart holy Hugh Innocent king lands lay brethren letter live Lord Mabillon manual labour Molesme monastery monastic monks monks of Molesme night noble novices obedience Pascal peace Peter the Venerable poor pope poverty prayers psalms refectory reform religious rest Robert Rome rule of St saints says seems Sherborne soul spirit struggle Suger things thou tithes took vows whole William of Malmesbury words
Popular passages
Page 121 - Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Page 112 - For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Page 118 - Thirty men of the most noble blood in Burgundy were thus collected together ; as many of them were married men, their wives also had to give up the world ; all these arrangements required time, and for six months they put off their conversion till their affairs could be arranged. The females retired to the Benedictine monastery of Juilly, whence afterwards it is supposed that many were transferred to the first Cistercian nunnery, the abbey of Tard, near Dijon. When the time for proceeding to Citeaux...
Page 98 - Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father.
Page 160 - Church, and thus enabled her to resist the dry and cold rationalistic heresies which then threatened to overwhelm her with the maxims of worldly science. It was this education too, in the cloister of Citeaux, before the morning light, and at the feet of Stephen in the auditorium, which made him the great founder of the science of the interior life of the Christian. He has been called the last of the fathers, and he thus stands on the confines of the system of the early Church, which contemplated...
Page 120 - After casting our eyes on the holy rood, does it never occur to us to wonder how it can be possible to be saved in the midst of the endearments of a family and the joys of domestic life ? God forbid that any one should deny the possibility ! — but does it not at first sight require proof, that heaven can be won by a life spent in this quiet way...
Page 203 - Citeaux ; the number of houses of the whole order was upwards of ninety. St. Stephen was in character a very Englishman ; his life has that strange mixture of repose and of action which characterises England. Contemplative and ascetic as he was, he was still in his way a man of action ; he had the head to plan, and the calm, unbending energy to execute a great work.
Page 137 - Fridays, which were fastdays : during the rest of the year, from Holy Cross day to Easter, they never had but one meal a day, and that after nones, up to Ash Wednesday, but during Lent not till after vespers. It will be necessary, therefore, to give a sketch of their mode of living, first in summer and then in winter. Lauds, as has been said before, followed matins very soon in summer, after which an interval was allowed, during which the brethren might go to the dormitory to wash themselves, and...
Page 12 - ... in hopes of obtaining absolution from the successor of St. Peter. There was then many an object, both good and bad, to arrest the attention of our pilgrims on the way, and to call for their sympathy. The road to Rome was an indication of what the city was itself ; it was the head of the Catholic Church, and, like the Church, had both a heavenly and an earthly aspect. In one sense it was Christ's kingdom, holding in its hands His interests, and dispensing His mysteries ; in another sense it was...
Page 148 - ... lives, was read aloud in the cloister. On the finishing of the reading, all turned their faces to the east, and the abbot said, " Our help is in the name of the Lord ;" the convent responded, "Who hath made heaven and earth;" and then they proceeded into the church to sing compline, which was the last office of the day. The time for compline varied according to the hour when they retired to rest, which in winter would be about seven, and in summer about eight2.