Saint Stephen Harding

Upon his return, our Saint, hearing of the virtues and austerities of the religious of Molesme, an abbey recently founded by Saint Robert in the diocese of Langres, came there to dedicate himself to the service of God. The greatest poverty reigned in this wilderness; they often had nothing for food but wild herbs. The inhabitants of the neighborhood, struck by such destitution and virtue, provided abundantly for the needs of the religious. But this profusion became a principle of spiritual decadence; laxity was introduced at Molesme. Robert, Alberic, and Stephen, having uselessly and repeatedly made efforts to bring about a reform, withdrew with some other religious to Cîteaux, a marshy wilderness fi ve leag Cîteaux Mother house of the Cistercian Order where Bernard completed his novitiate. ues from Dijon, and, on the land that was ceded to them by the Viscount of Beaune, built cells with their own hands.

Saint Alberic Saint Albéric Second abbot of Cîteaux. , at the death of the blessed Robert, was charged with governing the new institute which was, so to speak, still only in its infancy. Stephen completed it. He maintained within it, above all, the spirit of retreat and poverty. He took measures so that neither the Dukes of Burgundy, although benefactors of the house, nor other princes whoever they might be, would ever come to hold their court at Cîteaux as they were accustomed to doing in monasteries of some importance, especially on days of great feasts. He ordered that magnificence be banished from the church, which is useful in parishes to excite the devotion of the people, but superfluous for monks who have taken a vow of poverty and are accustomed to a life entirely spiritual. For gold and silver crosses, others made of wood were substituted. It was decreed that there would be only one candlestick, and that it would be of iron, as would the censers: for chasubles, stoles, and maniples, gold and silver were also proscribed. Godescard reproduces the spirit, but not the letter of these regulations, when he says that silk was also banished from the monastery, the use of which was not introduced in France until the 15th century. Copes, dalmatics, and tunics were removed as superfluous ornaments. Gold was excluded from everything, but silver and vermeil were admitted in the chalices and in the reeds or small tubes used to drink the blood of Jesus Christ at communion. For the practice of communion under both species lasted a long time in the Order of Cîteaux, even among the nuns.

The monks of Cîteaux divided their time between prayer, manual labor, and study. Saint Stephen made, for the use of his monastery, a copy of the Bible, in 4 folio volumes. In order to better eliminate the inaccuracies of previous copyists, he used a large number of manuscripts and consulted skilled Jews who explained the Hebrew text to him.

But this fervor, this regularity, and these austerities of Cîteaux stirred the murmurs of neighboring monasteries, which saw in them a condemnation of their own laxity. Stephen found himself accused on all sides as a dangerous innovator, and was almost treated as a schismatic. The holy Abbot was deeply afflicted and troubled by these calumnies: for disease carried off the greater part of his religious in the years 1111 and 1112, and no one came forward to replace them. He commanded, by virtue of holy obedience, a religious who was at the point of death to return after his passing to declare to him whether this rigor of life was pleasing to Our Lord or not. Some time later, the deceased appeared to him all radiant with light, and declared to him that God accepted the way of life of his children, and that before long he would be able to say these words of Isaiah: "The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell."

Indeed, the following year, thirty young men, led by the grea t Saint Bernard, ca grand saint Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux and spiritual master of Raoul. me to present themselves to the holy Abbot, who received them with open arms; and, since then, the Order has multiplied marvelously under his wise guidance. He founded the monasteries of La Ferté, near Châlons, Pontigny, near Auxerre, Clairvaux and Morimond, in the diocese of Langres, and nine others. He had, upon dying, the consolation of seeing established a hundred houses, daughters of Cîteaux.

As Superior General of all these monasteries, he neglected nothing to ensure that the same rules flourished in all of them: to this end, he decreed that the visitation of each house would be made every year, and instituted the general chapters, which were, it is said, unknown before him. The first was held in 1116, and the second in 1119. It was in the latter that Saint Stephen published the statutes called: *Charter of Charity*, which Pope Callixtus II confirmed the following year. He then had a collection of the ceremonies and customs of Cîteaux made, which has always been the co Cisterciens Monastic order to which Bertrand and the Abbey of Grandselve belong. de of the Cistercians since. He also had an abridged history of the beginnings of the Order written.

If we are to believe Father Helyot, in his history of the monastic Orders, the glory of Saint Stephen has been diminished in order to unnecessarily magnify that of Saint Bernard. According to this historian, Saint Stephen was the true founder of the nuns of the Order of Cîteaux, falsely named Bernardines, for it was he who fou nded, in 1120, Tart-sur-Ouche First abbey of Cistercian nuns. the abbey of Tart-sur-Ouche, the oldest house and the capital of the nuns of this Order.

The virtues of the holy Abbot, as we have already said, contributed more than his precepts to the edification of his Order. He gave above all the example of recollection and poverty. It was his custom, every time he entered the church to sing the praises of God, to stop at the door to say to his thoughts: 'Wait for me here, foreign thoughts, earthly affections: but you, my soul, enter alone and free into the joy of your God.' He transmitted this practice to his disciple Saint Bernard. He often went begging, with a satchel on his back, but he only accepted the most legitimate gifts. He once severely reprimanded one of his monks who had accepted alms from a simoniacal priest. Once, there was a famine at the abbey: they did not know what they would live on the next day, which was the day of Pentecost. This did not prevent the monks from celebrating the feast with holy joy. Although already weakened by hunger, and without provisions, they sang the office, without concern for the meal that was to follow. After the Mass, they saw unexpected food arrive in abundance from various places.

On another occasion, as everything was beginning to run out in the house, the monks were threatened with dying of cold as well as hunger. Stephen told the provider to go to the market of Vézelay, take three carts, each hitched to three strong horses, have them loaded with cloth and flour, and bring them back. The brother said he was ready to obey, but that he could do nothing without money. The Saint replied: 'Take these three denarii, it is the only money that has been found in the whole house. Be persuaded that Jesus Christ will provide for the rest through mercy, and will send his angel before you to prepare the way for you.' The brother departed. On the way, having stayed in the house of a friend of the Cistercians to whom he shared his predicament, the latter went to find a wealthy man in the neighborhood who was preparing to die by giving considerable alms: he gave at least all the money necessary for him to be able to carry out his commission. When the three loaded carts were seen arriving at the monastery, the gratitude towards God was so great that they went to receive them in procession while singing psalms: the Abbot was vested in his sacred garments, had his crosier in hand; his ministers, preceding him, carried the cross and holy water.

In 1125, Saint Stephen visited the monastery of Saint-Vaast, in Arras; in 1128, he attended, with Saint Bernard, the Council of Troyes. He emerged from his retirement once more in 1132 to request certain fav ors from Pope In pape Innocent II Pope reigning during the saint's lifetime. nocent II, who had come to France. Stephen, Bishop of Paris, and Henry, Archbishop of Sens, begged him to assist them with his influe nce over Loui Louis le Gros King of France, contemporary of Geoffrey. s the Fat, King of France; he did so and rendered them all the services that were in his power.

After having wisely and holily governed his Order for more than twenty years, Stephen, seeing himself broken by old age and near his end, resigned his office as abbot at a general chapter held in the year 1133, and consecrated the little time that remained to him to prepare for death: it arrived the following year, in the presence of twenty abbots of his Order who had come to visit him. As he was dying, he showed them the same humility as during his life: for when he was in his agony, some of those present were saying in low voices that he was very blessed and had nothing to fear after a life so penitent and so meritorious; he gathered enough strength to say to them: "I assure you that I am going to God with as much fear and trembling as if I had never done any good, for if the divine Goodness has produced some fruit through my weakness, I fear that I have not corresponded as I should have to the grace." He rendered his soul to God on March 28, 1134, and was buried in the cloister, near the church. He was placed in the tomb of the blessed Alberic, his predecessor, which could still be seen before the Revolution of 1789. Several miracles showed the glory he enjoyed in heaven. His room, at his death, appeared resplendent with lights and was perfumed with the most sweet scents; a beautiful cross formed of five brilliant stars was seen above the church near which he was buried. Like Saint Alberic, he had been favored with several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, for whom he had a tender devotion.

Saint Stephen is represented receiving a white belt from the hands of the Virgin; a bird brings him a fish; it is said that when he was ill and his stomach refused all food, an aerial messenger came to place this delicacy in his mouth; he goes to receive in procession the brother who was returning from the fair with three loaded carts and three good horses.

The Roman Martyrology names Saint Stephen on April 17, the day supposed to have been that of his canonization.

*Histoire des Ordres religieux; Acta Sanctorum.*