Vigils Reading

THE RISE OF THE CISTERCIAN ORDER

From the “Exordium Magnum” of Conrad of Eberbach2 ◊◊◊

By the generous grace of God, the number of persons in the church at Cîteaux increased and the mother who had hitherto mourned in sadness because she was barren began to rejoice in many children. That vine of the Lord of hosts began to send out shoots far and wide…

In those days the abbeys which that church founded in various dioceses grew by the great and potent blessing of the Lord so much that within eight years, from the time of the foundation of La Ferté which was the first daughter house of Cîteaux… twelve monasteries had been founded and built by those who were originally sent out from Cîteaux and by others who were raised up by them. It was a pleasant enough sight, and in this activity they stood out as imitators of the most blessed Father Benedict, whose life and statutes they desired with all their hearts to emulate, for it is written of that father that he built twelve monasteries which handed down the precepts of his Rule to be observed. So in the renewal of this way of life according to that Rule they established twelve monasteries which passed on the cup of salvation to the whole world, like the twelve apostles of Christ, drunk with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

In fact, before the Cistercian abbeys began to flourish, the most reverend father Stephen, inspired by the Holy Spirit and in council with his brothers, set out to write down a decree which was called the Charter of Charity. In it we are taught how the communities of our Order, dispersed throughout various parts of the world and divided by various languages, have been bound by the cord of marvelous charity and the manifestation of mutual respect and have become one church, one way of life, even one body in Christ. He decided to call this decree the Charter of Charity because by its statutes all monetary exactions were rejected and only what belongs to charity and the salvation of souls was maintained in all things human and divine. Among those things which the blessed man and his brothers had with marvelous foresight decreed for the preservation of peace and charity and to keep the discipline of the holy Order from censure, this was especially found worthy of acceptance: that all the abbots of the Order were to meet once a year at Cîteaux and hold a General Chapter at which they should discuss very carefully the whole ordering of their life and the unbroken peace which was very deliberately to be kept among themselves.

To this end, their mode of life was quite often examined and consolidated by the authority of the Holy Scriptures so that it could not easily grow tepid but would be able to thrive over the space of many years. It is for this reason that from then until now the reverend fathers of the Cistercian Order visit their motherhouse once a year to hold a General Chapter, and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit they formulate statutes, a full description of which is contained in the Book of Determinations. So, from diverse elements they confected an antidote for the health of souls and endeavored to discern what was necessary throughout the whole brotherhood of our congregation