Bernard of Clairvaux

Who Was Bernard of Clairvaux?

Bernard of Clairvaux was the most influential churchman of the twelfth century — a monk, mystic, theologian, preacher, and political force whose energy and moral authority shaped the church of his time in ways that no purely institutional figure could have matched. Born into a noble Burgundian family, he entered the newly founded Cistercian monastery of Cîteaux in 1112, bringing with him thirty of his relatives and friends. Three years later he founded the monastery of Clairvaux, which he governed as abbot until his death, and from which he exercised an influence over the whole of Western Christendom that was without precedent for a man who held no ecclesiastical office above that of abbot.

His theological writings — particularly On Loving God, the Sermons on the Song of Songs, and On Grace and Free Will — represent the high point of medieval monastic theology: a tradition of reflection rooted in Scripture, shaped by liturgical prayer, and directed toward the transformation of the soul rather than the resolution of abstract philosophical problems. Dante placed Bernard in the highest heaven of the Paradiso as the guide who leads him to the final vision of God — a tribute that captures Bernard’s place in the Western spiritual imagination.

Bernard was also a man of formidable and sometimes troubling public energy. He preached the Second Crusade, pursued the condemnation of Peter Abelard, and intervened in papal elections. His combination of mystical depth and political forcefulness makes him one of the most complex figures of medieval Christianity.

In Their Own Words

Selected Bibliography

• On Loving God (De Diligendo Deo) — c. 1132
• Sermons on the Song of Songs — 86 sermons, c. 1135–1153
• On Grace and Free Will — c. 1128
• Life of Saint Malachy — 1149
• On Consideration — c. 1148–1153, addressed to Pope Eugenius III