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Leaving behind the Benedictine Abbey of Molesme, St. Robert and his companions sought a way of life more faithful to the simplicity of St. Benedict’s rule. Their renewal at Citeaux expanded into a network of related but independent monasteries. This expansion led the early Cistercians to innovate a charter of fraternal communication that would hold the various monasteries together, one which soon emerged as a watershed in the history of federated governance. Key mandates of this “charter of charity” required each Cistercian abbot to make an annual inspection (“visitation”) of his daughter-abbeys, as well as to convene annually with his brother abbots at Citeaux in a “General Chapter”. The humble beginnings of the new “order” were soon followed by spectacular expansion, owing especially to the spiritual leadership and saintly personality of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153). At his death, Cistercian abbeys numbered about 350. A century later that number was almost doubled with Cistercian houses extending all over Europe – from |
