Cistercian
a monastic order in connection with the Roman Catholic Church. In the year 1098, Robert, Abbot of Molesme, in Burgundy, having lost hope of inducing the monks, whose chief he was, to live up to the rule prescribed by St. Benedict, retired with 20 associates to Citeaux and founded there a congregation which afterward developed into the order of the Cistercians. It went CITIES OF THE PLAIN through the ordinary cycle of such monastic institutions, i. e., at first its members were poor and really holy; then the fame of their sanctity, spreading through Europe, branches of the order were established in many places. To aid men so deserving, large contributions were given by pious men and women, and before the 12th century had run its course, the Cistercian communities were wealthy.
With the growth of this wealth, the gradual relaxation of the strict Benedictine rules took place, till finally the Cistercians lost their high reputation and sank to the level of the order against which their secession had been a protest, and to that of the monastic orders generally.
During the time that the order was rising in importance, it enjoyed the advocacy of the celebrated St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who is regarded as its second parent and founder, so that it is sometimes called the Bernardine order, or the order of St. Bernard. Between them and the Cluniacensians there was considerable animosity, and even public controversy.
The majori The majority of Cistercian houses have ceased to exist. There are still a few in Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and Austria, two in Ireland, and one in England.