St. Bernard (1090-1153 A.D.) lived at a time of splintering turmoil within the Church.

Monasteries that were once devoted to the “desert way” of life fell victim to worldly temptations.  Spiritually, traditional practices in the monastic way were slowly fading away.  However, it was Bernard’s “honey tongue” steeped in Scripture that knew how to redirect the heart of society back towards God.

At the young age of twenty-four, Bernard was given the seemingly impossible task to establish a new foundation at Langres (1115) as abbot to twelve monks.  Living the Christian state of life as consecrated religious calls for the removal of whatever is incompatible with the practice of love of God and neighbor.  Hence, Bernard accepted the enormous task to carry out Christ’s mission with a heart of love.

Known as the “bitter valley,” the uncultivated Langres was depleted of natural resources and basic necessities. Even so, he was not deterred by the deplorable conditions and forged ahead.  Putting his great faith in action and spiritually enlightening fellow monks, the ruins soon flourished with plants and trees. The new monastery’s name was sooned changed to “Clairvaux” (Claire Valléer or Clear Valley) and became the motherhouse to sixty-eight Cistercian monasteries that were established by its brothers.

At the time of his death, there were 343 Cistercian monasteries that formed a network across Western Europe.  In one of his famous meditations on the Song of Solomon, Bernard gives the key to his natural movement between action to win souls and contemplation: “The nature of true contemplation is such that, while kindling the heart with divine love, it sometimes fills it with great zeal to win other souls for God.”  It was Bernard’s pure love of God that brought countless Christians to a life of grace confirmed in Christ.

Bernard was one of the earliest saints who demonstrated a tender and filial devotion to Mary, the mother of the Lord and the holy Church, a devotion that is reflected in his many Marion sermons.  In fact, he developed the charismatic way of praising God and showing devotion to the Blessed Mother who he adoringly named “Star of the Sea” and “Ladder of Sinners.”  Speaking on the blessedness of Mary, Bernard elucidates “Take away Mary, the star of the vast sea: what would remain but obscurity over all, a night of death and icy darkness? Therefore, with all the love of our soul, let us venerate Mary; it is the will of Christ who wished us to have all things through her.”  It is important to note that Bernard’s tender way of prayerful devotion softened the cold way of spirituality hardened under the influence of the Scholastics.

Loving God, he was the first to compose a prayer honoring the most sacred shoulder wound of Christ.  What is more, Bernard reintroduced the spiritual practice of the Lectio Divina that had long been discontinued.  Thus, it was the perpetual display of Bernard’s passionate love of God that set countless hearts on fire for Christ.

The beloved saint was profoundly devoted to loving God and sharing his desire for a personal relationship with all of humanity.  Pope Benedict XVI expressly points to how St. Bernard engages the human spirit for Christ in an all-encompassing way.  He states “With an unsurpassed clarity in discerning the truths of the faith, the richness and merits of his theology do not lie in having taken new paths, but rather in proposing the truths in a style so incisive that prepared souls for spiritual recollection and prayer.”