They have left us a great legacy, probably without principally intending to. They didn’t set out to found a new religious Order, just a monastery. Each, however, successively contributed through many hardships and unpromising circumstances to the birth and development of what turned out to be a new and enduring monastic observance. They had to have had great faith in what God could accomplish in the face of any obstacle—for they experienced many!
In reading up on their backgrounds again, I found it interesting that they
shared a pre-Molesme history, with Alberic rather than Robert taking the lead.
Alberic was a hermit in the forest of Collan in France with five other hermits.
After Robert eventually joined them, they asked him to begin a new monastery
with them that would live under the Rule of St. Benedict. Robert had already
been asked to lead a number of small groups of reform-minded monks to establish
new communities centered on the desire for authentic monastic simplicity and
evangelical poverty through a more literal interpretation of St. Benedict’s
Rule—but all these attempts had failed, making him something of a wandering
reformer.
So in 1075, at Alberic’s invitation, it was Robert who led this band of 6 hermits to the forest of Molesme to begin a religious settlement there. In Molesme, Robert served as the first abbot and Alberic as prior. However, as the settlement’s fame grew, gifts came in, and new wealth attracted new monks who didn’t worry about compromising the Rule in favor of a certain laxity. The Molesme community became divided, with many monks opposing Robert and Alberic. In reaction, Robert left Molesme twice to live as a hermit, and twice the pope ordered him back. In one of his absences, the brothers actually imprisoned Alberic so that they might have their way. In 1093, Robert left Molesme yet again, taking Alberic (the prior) and Stephen Harding (his secretary) with him. This time, it was the Bishop of Langres who commanded Alberic back to Molesme. He returned, but he made no headway with the quarreling brothers. Five years later, in 1098, when Robert was back at Molesme again as abbot, he finally obtained permission to found a new monastery and was given an inaccessible piece of land in the wilderness of Cîteaux. Twenty-one monks left Molesme with him, Alberic and Stephen Harding, and set out for Cîteaux.
We are all familiar with their personal contributions to their endeavor but perhaps less so with this background of their wild and turbulent attempts to begin a new, reformed monastery. It must have felt like “mission impossible,” involving numerous re-locations and never-ending contention. Just think of it: three times the Pope ordered Robert to return to Molesme at the request of the monks there, who themselves remained sharply divided about reform. Robert was seventy years old when he took up the abbatial cross at Molesme for the last time, after being recalled from Cîteaux. During his twelve remaining years, he undertook remarkable activities and raised Molesme to great renown. He died in 1111, after a life of unceasing struggle and immense labors. His experience of an unsettled, frustrated, yet fruitful life is testimony to today’s Gospel, in which Jesus assures his disciples that what human beings find impossible is not impossible for God.
When Robert returned to Molesme, he left at Cîteaux a young community that was relatively prosperous and filled with zeal. Alberic was elected as his successor. Practically the only direct reference we have to Alberic is found in the Exordium Parvum, which describes him as “a man of great learning, well-versed in both the divine and human sciences, and a lover of the Rule and of the brothers.” Under his direction, the new observance was to take its first steps and develop its definitive form. It was Alberic who, in 1100, obtained from Pope Paschal II papal approval and canonical protection for Cîteaux, issued in a document known as the Roman Privilege. But under Alberic, observance of the Rule was made even more austere at Cîteaux. Alberic also contributed to the accomplishments of his successor, Stephen Harding, and to the whole future of the Order from an economic viewpoint (and in every other way) by admitting lay brothers and salaried workers. They assured the livelihood of the monks who lived inside the enclosure and allowed them to devote their time to prayer, study and work in the scriptorium without doing too little or too much in the way of the manual labor prescribed by the Rule. Although the spirit of simplicity continued to inspire the monks and shape their lives, the austerities that Cîteaux had embraced with great fervor, unfortunately, seemed to discourage those who admired their way of life from joining them, and the community diminished to the point where Alberic feared its extinction.
In 1108 Stephen Harding succeeded Alberic as abbot of what must have seemed like a sinking ship—the lack of vocations was yet another “impossible” situation that beset the Founders. Things unexpectedly turned around, however, four years later when Bernard and 30 of his relatives entered Cîteaux. This Providential moment began a new chapter in the life of the Cistercian movement, which then spread quickly throughout Europe to include over 500 monasteries by the end of the 13th century.
We have much to be grateful for today, nine centuries later, when we think of what the Lord accomplished through the faith and hope of our founders. In their time they lived the stark truth of today’s Gospel: namely, that Jesus admittedly makes impossible demands of those whom he calls to follow him, both individually and corporately. But the story of our founders is our story as well: the authenticity and holiness Jesus calls us to (and inspires in our hearts) cannot be arrived at through determination alone. Rather, it is a gift that unfolds as we linger in his company, dwell with his Word, and share his life in the sacraments and in daily fidelity to the grace of our vocation. The monastic life passed on to us through our three Founders, each playing a very different role but sharing a single vision, transfigures us and forms us for what is beyond our reach and nature—which is nothing less than the holiness of God. And we can attest from our own experience that Cistercian life works!
It was our Founders who “began the good work” of living the Cistercian charism, a particular expression of Gospel discipleship; it is up to those of us who follow to “keep beginning.” Every new generation begins again, not from nothing, but in our progress towards everything—everything that the Lord holds out to us who leave all to follow him. Like the Founders, we have to figure out what we hope for. And the most we can do is to live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof . . . .
Reflection by Father Dominic.
