19 Facts About Cistercians

The Cistercians made major contributions to culture and technology in medieval Europe: Cistercian architecture is considered one of the most beautiful styles of medieval architecture; and the Cistercians were the main force of technological diffusion in fields such as agriculture and hydraulic engineering.

Cistercians returned the community to the original Benedictine ideal of manual work and prayer, dedicated to the ideal of charity and self sustenance.

The Cistercians initially regarded themselves as regular Benedictines, albeit the "perfect", reformed ones, but they soon came to distinguish themselves from the monks of unreformed Benedictine communities by wearing white tunics instead of black, previously reserved for hermits, who followed the "angelic" life.

Cistercians had a predominant influence and the power of enforcing everywhere exact conformity to Citeaux in all details of the exterior life observance, chant, and customs.

Cistercians granted monks from the Ebrach Abbey in Bavaria an area of land just north of what is today the provincial capital Graz, where they founded Rein Abbey.

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Cistercians left four of his companions to be trained as Cistercians, and returned to Ireland to introduce Cistercian monasticism there.

Cistercians later came popularly to be regarded as the founder of the Cistercians, who have often been called Bernardines.

Cistercians found his life threatened, his representatives attacked and his party harassed, while the three key houses of Mellifont, Suir and Maigue had been fortified by their monks to hold out against him.

In Germany the Cistercians were instrumental in the spread of Christianity east of the Elbe.

Cistercians promulgated a series of regulations to restore the primitive spirit of the Cistercian Order.

Cistercians identified the causes of this decline as the ceaseless wars and hatred between the two nations; a lack of leadership; and the control of many of the monasteries by secular dynasties who appointed their own relatives to positions.

In 1892, the Trappists left the Cistercians and founded a new order, named the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance.

The Cistercians that remained within the original order thus came to be known as the "Common Observance".

Cistercians acquired a reputation in the difficult task of administering the building sites for abbeys and cathedrals.

Cistercians "made it a point of honour to recruit the best stonecutters", and as early as 1133, St Bernard was hiring workers to help the monks erect new buildings at Clairvaux.

Cistercians are known to have been skilled metallurgists, and knowledge of their technological advances was transmitted by the order.

Cistercians was quick to recognise heretical ideas, and in 1141 and 1145 respectively, he accused the celebrated scholastic theologian Peter Abelard and the popular preacher Henry of Lausanne of heresy.

Cistercians was charged with the task of promulgating Pope Eugene's bull, Quantum praedecessores, and his eloquence in preaching the Second Crusade had the desired effect: when he finished his sermon, so many men were ready to take the Cross that Bernard had to cut his habit into strips of cloth.

Cistercians rejected the notion that crusaders could be regarded as martyrs if they died while despoiling non-Christians.