Clairvaux I
The beginnings of Clairvaux and Britain British Library Yates Thompson 32 f. 9v. A Bruges miniature of Bernard de Fontaines (Bernard of Clairvaux) taking possession of the Abbey of Clairvaux. From the Chroniques abrégées des Anciens Rois et Ducs de Bourgogne. According to the British Library the church in the background is based on St. Servatius in Maastricht. Clairvaux is just a few kilometres outside today's Burgundy, being just over the border in the Aube département, but in the Middle Ages it was a key location in the Burgundian monastic revival, and had a great influence upon England. Indeed, it was the English Abbot of Cîteaux, St Stephen Harding, who chose St Bernard to lead a group of monks from Cîteaux, which was growing rapidly, to found the Abbey of Clairvaux in 1115 as the third daughter of Cîteaux (after La Ferté and Pontigny). The growth of the monastery was phenomenal: at St Bernard's death in 1153, it contained about 700 religious, includ...