> [[09-figures|↑ Back to TOC]] # Saint Bernard of Clairvaux ## Biography Bernard was born in 1090 at Fontaines, near Dijon, France; died at Clairvaux, 21 August, 1153. His parents were Tescelin, lord of Fontaines, and Aleth of Montbard, both of the highest nobility of Burgundy. At about age twenty-two he persuaded thirty companions to join him in entering the recently founded monastery of Cîteaux. Three years later he was sent to found a new house at what he named Claire Vallée, or Clairvaux. He became the dominant figure of twelfth-century European Christianity — reformer, preacher, theologian, mystic, and counselor to popes and kings. He is a Doctor of the Church and is known especially for his sermons on the Song of Songs and his deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. *Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Bernard of Clairvaux"* ## Notes - Sermons on the Song of Songs. - De consideratione. - Letters, treatises on humility, love of God, free will. - Leader of Cistercian reform; founder of Clairvaux Abbey.