Thursday Read: August 20 - Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
On this date in 1153, Bernard of Clairvaux died at age 63 after spending forty years as a monk and abbot. He founded 163 Cistercian monasteries during his lifetime, wrote prolifically on Christian spirituality, advised five popes, and was called the "honey-tongued doctor" for his eloquent preaching. He was canonized just 21 years after his death and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1830. Yet his life reveals profound contradictions between contemplative ideals and political involvement, spiritual wisdom and troubling actions.
Bernard was born in 1090 to French nobility near Dijon. His mother's death in 1107 marked what he called the beginning of his "long path to complete conversion." At 22, he entered the struggling Cistercian monastery at Cîteaux, bringing 30 relatives and friends with him - his persuasive power was evident early. Within three years, his abbot sent him to establish a new monastery. Bernard chose a desolate valley he named "Clairvaux" (Valley of Light), where he would remain as abbot for the rest of his life.
At Clairvaux, Bernard practiced extreme asceticism - severe fasting, sleep deprivation, relentless self-denial. This destroyed his health, leaving him plagued by anemia, migraines, gastritis, hypertension, and impaired taste. His superiors eventually intervened, forcing him to moderate his practices. Yet Bernard's physical suffering seemed to deepen his spiritual life. As his body weakened, his writings grew richer, his influence expanded, and his reputation for holiness spread across Europe.
Bernard's greatest literary work is his "Sermons on the Song of Songs" - 86 sermons exploring the soul's love for God through meditation on this biblical love poem. He wrote: "The Father is never fully known if He is not loved perfectly." And: "What is the measure of love for God? To love without measure." His writings emphasized God's love as the source and goal of Christian life, mystical union with God as the highest calling, and contemplation as the path to transformation.
His most famous work, "On Loving God," describes four stages of love: loving yourself for your own sake (natural self-love), loving God for your own sake (because he benefits you), loving God for God's sake (because he's worthy), and loving yourself for God's sake (seeing yourself as God sees you). This progression moves from self-centered to God-centered love, from using God to get what you want to wanting God himself above all else.
But Bernard wasn't just a contemplative monk writing spiritual treatises. He was deeply involved in church politics and conflicts. In 1130, rival factions elected two different men as pope. Bernard championed Innocent II against Antipope Anacletus II, traveling across Europe to secure support. He succeeded - Innocent prevailed. Bernard became advisor to five consecutive popes, wielding enormous influence over medieval Christianity.
This power created problems. In 1146, Pope Eugene III commissioned Bernard to preach the Second Crusade after Muslims captured Edessa. Bernard preached with such passion that thousands took up the cross. His sermon at Vézelay was legendary - he gave away his own robes after running out of fabric crosses to distribute. Yet the crusade was a catastrophic failure, ending in humiliating retreat. Bernard blamed the soldiers' sins for the defeat, but his reputation suffered the last four years of his life.
More troubling was Bernard's role in persecuting heretics and confronting theological opponents. He opposed Peter Abelard, a brilliant theologian whose rationalist approach Bernard considered dangerous. Bernard secured Abelard's condemnation at the Council of Sens in 1140. He also preached against the Cathars (a heretical movement) and supported forceful measures against them. Later crusades against Cathars would result in mass slaughter - a trajectory Bernard's rhetoric helped establish.
Yet Bernard also protected Jews from violence during the Second Crusade. When German crusaders began massacring Jewish communities, Bernard traveled to German cities and preached against these attacks. Ephraim ben Jacob, a Jewish scholar, documented Bernard's words: "Whoever touches a Jew to lay hand on his life does something as sinful as if he had laid a hand on Jesus himself." Bernard's intervention saved many Jewish lives.
These contradictions reveal the complexity of Christian history. Bernard wrote beautifully about God's love while supporting crusades. He practiced severe personal asceticism while wielding enormous political power. He championed contemplative withdrawal while constantly involving himself in controversies. He protected Jews from violence while preaching against Muslims and heretics. He's quoted by Catholics and Protestants, praised for spiritual depth and criticized for moral compromises.
John Calvin and Martin Luther both quoted Bernard extensively. Calvin cited him on justification by faith alone and imputed righteousness - using a medieval Catholic monk to support Protestant theology. This shows Bernard's writings transcended later Catholic-Protestant divisions, speaking to deeper spiritual realities both traditions recognize. His emphasis on God's grace, human inability, and divine love resonated across theological boundaries.
Bernard's life demonstrates that spiritual giants are still flawed humans. Great spiritual insight doesn't guarantee moral perfection. Deep communion with God doesn't prevent tragic mistakes. Bernard wrote eloquently about humility while exercising enormous power. He taught about peace while promoting war. He practiced contemplation while engaging in constant conflict. The man who said "Believe me, for I know, you will find something far greater in the woods than in books" spent much of his life in cities advising popes.
As Bernard lay dying in 1152, his monks gathered around his bed, begging him not to leave them. His final words captured his life's tension: "I do not know whom to obey: the love of my sons, who ask me to stay, or the love of God, who calls me to Himself." Even at death, Bernard navigated between competing loves, competing callings, competing loyalties - the contemplative life and active ministry, the monastery and the world, his community and his God.
Bernard's legacy is his writings, which continue guiding spiritual formation today. His sermons on Song of Songs, his treatise "On Loving God," his steps of humility, his devotion to Mary - these still shape Christian spirituality across denominations. He reminds us that loving God without measure is both simple and profound, that contemplation and action must be held in tension, and that even flawed people can write truths that outlive their failures.
