Bernard of
Clairvaux, O.Cist (1090 – August 20, 1153) was a French abbot and the primary
builder of the reforming Cistercian
order.
After the death of
his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. "Three
years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen
known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 km southeast of Bar-sur-Aube.
According to tradition, Bernard founded the monastery on 25 June 1115, naming
it Claire Vallée, which evolved into Clairvaux. There Bernard
would preach an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary." In
the year 1128, Bernard assisted at the Council of
Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights
Templar, who soon became the ideal of Christian nobility.