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Split
Towards the end of the eleventh century several monks from the abbey of
Molesme broke away and sited their new abbey at Citeaux. They were
unhappy at Molesme because the abbey had become too rich and the
monks there were not following the rules of the Order strictly enough.
They wanted to get back to basics.
Stephen Harding
Lead by Abbot Robert of Molesme the monks built a wooden monastery
and chose to live an extremely hard life. Robert was replaced first by
Alberic and then by Stephen Harding when he returned to the abbey at Molesme.
Stephen Harding was an Englishman born at Sherborne in Dorset and one
of the original founding monks. Before Stephen died he had transformed
a very poor monastery into to the centre of one of the most powerful
monastic Orders of the time. The name given to the Order was the
Cistercian Order. Although already popular, the success of the Cistercians was to
increase with the arrival of Bernard of Fontaines who joined the
order in 1112. As a preacher Bernard or St. Bernard of Clairvaux was
very persuasive. He became the Abbot of Clairvaux in 1115.
By the time that Bernard died in 1153 there were up to 340 Cistercian abbeys in Europe.
From Citeaux the Cistercians spread across France and then in
1128 moved across the Channel to create its first abbey in Britain at Waverley in Surrey.
Location
In general the Cistercians built their monasteries in remote
places far from civilisation and refused to accept donations apart
from the land on which they built.
Affiliations
All Cistercian abbeys were descended from the mother church at Citeaux. For
a diagram showing the relationship between the abbeys click here: -
Affiliations of Britain's Cistercian Abbeys
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Selected Cistercian
abbeys in Britain
Beaulieu Abbey
Bassingwerk Abbey
Biddlesden Abbey
Bordesley Abbey
Buildwas Abbey
Byland Abbey
Calder Abbey
Cleeve Abbey
Coggeshall Abbey
Croxden Abbey
Cymer Abbey
Dore Abbey
Forde Abbey
Fountains Abbey
Furness Abbey
Garendon Abbey
Hailes Abbey
Holme Cultram Abbey
Jervaulx Abbey
Kirkstall Abbey
Kirkstead Abbey
Margam Abbey
Merevale Abbey
Neath Abbey
Netley Abbey
Newminster Abbey
Revesby Abbey
Rievaulx Abbey
Roche Abbey
Sawley Abbey
Tintern Abbey
Stoneleigh Abbey
Strata Florida
Waverley Abbey
Whalley Abbey
Valle Crucis Abbey
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