THE CISTERCIAN ORDER

A religious Order formed by Robert of Molesme (1028-1111), a member of the nobility in Champagne, France. He entered the Benedictine LuxEuil abbey of Montier-la-Celle, near Troyes, Northern France, at the age of 15 and later rose to the status of prior.
Robert of Molesme was made abbot of Saint Michel-de-Tonnerre around the year 1070. Unable to reform the abbey, he returned to Montier-la-Celle. In 1072 he was made prior of Saint-AiYoul. Then Robert founded a monastery at Molesme in the Valley of Langres in Burgundy at the close of 1075. The establishment consisted of only huts made of branches surrounding a chapel in the forest. Molesme Abbey quickly became known for its piety and sanctity. Robert's reputation as a saintly man grew.
In 1098 there were 35 depended priories of Molesme, and other annexes and some priories of nuns. Benefactors gave their children to educate, and the amount of land received required a large number of employees. When it grew increasingly wealthy, new and unsuitable monks came to the area and divided them, challenging Robert's severity. He tried to leave Molesme twice but was ordered back by the Pope. He escaped with 21 of his close "monks" leaving Molesme with the intention of never returning. The Viscount of Beaune owned a desolate Valley in a deep forest, which gave to Robert and his companions, and thus they founded CiteAux Abbey. Stephen Harding and Alberic -2 of Robert's monks from Moleme- were pivotal in founding the new house. The duke of Burgundy, Eudo, finished the building of the monastery they had began, at his own cost, erecting that new monastery into an abbey. In 1100, the monks of Molesme asked Robert to return and agreed to submit "entirely to his interpretation" of the Rule of St. Benedict. He did return and ran the monastery according to "his own interpretation" and example. Moleme became a major center for the Benedictines under his tutelage.
Meanwhile, the monastery at Citeaux, under the direction of Alberic, and Stephen Harding, became "the cornerstone for the New Cistercian Order," which grew to greater fame in the 12th century under Bernard of ClairVaux.  Robert died on April 17, 1111. Pope Honorius III canonized him in1222. His feast day in Roman Catholic Church was fixed at first on April 17, but later on April 29. Robert's Day is celebrated in Washington DC at the Capital Lounge annually on the Sunday before Columbus Day.
This LuxEuil abbey, in which Robert was trained, was one of the oldest and best-known Monasteries in Burgundy. It had been founded about 585-590 by the Irish missionary Columbanus, notable for founding a number of monasteries in the Frankish and Lombard Kingdoms. The most notably were LuxEuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy.
[Celtic Christianity refers to certain features of Christianity that were practiced across the Celtic-Speaking World during Early Middle Ages. This include a distinctive system for determining the dating of Easter, a style of monastic tonsure (cutting or shaving the hair), a unique system of penance, and the popularity of going into "exile" for Christ. Celtic-speaking areas were part of Latin Christendom as a whole at a time in which there was significant Regional variation of Liturgy and Structure with a general collective veneration of the Bishop of Rome that was no less intense in Celtic areas.
A mission initiated by Gaelic monks from Ireland and the Western Coast of modern-day ScotLand, spread Christianity and established monasteries in Great Britain and continental Europe during the Middle Ages.]
Columbanus and his companions first settled in cells at AnneGray, in the comune of VoiVre, Haute-Saone. Looking for a more permanent site for his community, Columbanus decided upon the Ruins of a well-fortified Gallo-Roman settlement, "LuxoVium." The Roman Town had been ravaged by Attila in 451, and was now buried in the dense overgrown Woodland that had filled the abandoned site over more than a century, but the place still had the advantage of the Thermal Bath down in the Valley, which still give the Town its name of LuxEuil-les Bains. The stone images honored in the past still crowded the nearby Woods.
With a grant from an officer of the Palace at ChildEbert's Court, an abbey Church was built with a sense of triumph within the abandoned site and its spectral haunts. Under the spiritual and intellectual stimulation of the Irish Monks, the abbey at LuxEuil, dedicated to Saint Peter, soon became the most important and flourishing Monastery in Gaul.
Most of the earliest rule that was observed in at LuxEuil derived from Celtic monastic traditions, supplemented increasingly by the more formalized Benedictine Rule that was followed through the West. As always happened in history, in 603, a synod accused Columbanus of keeping Easter by the Celtic date. It cause friction with the Burgundian Court. Columbanus was exiled from LuxEuil by Theuderic II of Austrasia and the dowager Queen BruneHaut. He was succeded as abbot by Eustace of Lux Euil, the head of the Monastic School, which under Eustace and his successor WaldeBert, established a high reputation without being the ones who founded it. Anyway the school and example of LuxEuil contributed significantly to the "conversion" of the Burgundians in their own way.
They are also called the Bernardines, after the highly influential Bernard of ClairVaux.
The term "Cistercian" derives from 'Cistercium,' the Latin name for the Village of CiteAux, near Dijon in Eastern France. It was in this Village that a group of Benedictine Monks from the Monastery of Molesme founded CiteAux Abbey in 1098, with the goal of following more closely the Rule of Saint Benedict.
The Rule of Saint Benedict is a Book of precepts written by Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-547) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The title of an abbot had its origins in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, spread through the Eastern Mediterranean, and soon became accepted generally in all languages as the designation of the head of a monastery. The word is derived from the Aramaic "Av" meaning 'father' or "Abba" meaning 'my father.' At first it was employed as a respectful title for any monk, but it was soon restricted by Canon Law to certain "priestly superiors."The best known of them were Robert of Molesme, Alberic of CiteAux, and the English monk Stephen Harding, who were the first 3 abbots. Bernard of ClairVaux entered the monastery in the early 1110s with 30 companions and helped the rapid proliferation of the Order. By the end of the 12th century, the Order had spread throughout France and into England, Wales, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Eastern Europe. in relation to fields such as agriculture, hydraulic engineering and metallurgy, the Cisternians became the main force of technological diffusion in Medieval Europe.
The Cisternians were adversely affected in England by the Protestant Reformation, the Disolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII, the French Revolution in continental Europe, and the Revolutions of the 18th century, but some survived and the Order recovered in the 19th century.
In 1891 certain abbeys formed a new Order called Trappist, which today exists as an Order distinct from the Common Observance.
The Rule of Saint Benedict provided a moderate path between individual zeal and formulaic institutional-ism; because of this middle ground it became popular. However, no evidence exists to suggests that Benedict intended to found a religious order. His rule was written as a guide for individual, autonomous communities in order to create models of tightly bonded unions and contemplative lifestyles.