Clairvaux Abbey

File:Abbaye de Clairvaux gravure XVIIIe.jpg

According to legend, on 25 June 1115 the Cistercian monk Bernard was sent from Cîteaux Abbey with a group of twelve other monks to found a new monastery at Vallée d'Absinthe. Hughes I, Count of Troyes and a relative of Bernard, donated this valley to the Cistercians.{{Cite book |last=Jonas |first=Margaret |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xrxk2XwgIPgC&dq=Hughes+of+Troyes+clairvaux&pg=PA30 |title=The Templar Spirit: The Esoteric Inspiration, Rituals and Beliefs of the Knights Templar |date=2011 |publisher=Temple Lodge Publishing |isbn=978-1-906999-25-4 |pages=30 |language=en}} The monastery was dedicated to the Virgin Mary on October 13, 1115, which became the feast day of Our Lady of Clairvaux.{{Cite web |title=Our Lady of Clairvaux |url=https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-clairvaux.html |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=www.roman-catholic-saints.com}} Bernard was installed as first abbot by William of Champeaux, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne.{{Cite book |last=McGuire |first=Brian Patrick |title=Bernard of Clairvaux: an inner life |date=2020 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-5154-7 |location=Ithaca [New York]}}

The abbey developed rapidly, eventually reaching its peak in numbers at 700 members belonging to Clairvaux alone, thus the largest Cistercian abbey in France.{{Cite book |last=Dimier |first=Anselm |title=New Catholic Encyclopedia |date=2003 |publisher=Thompson/Gale; Catholic University of America |isbn=978-0-7876-4004-0 |editor-last=Catholic University of America |edition=2nd |location=Detroit, New York, San Diego, Washington, D.C. |pages=758 |chapter=Clairvaux, Abbey of}} Many daughter monasteries followed. In 1118 Trois-Fontaines Abbey was founded from Clairvaux on land donated by Hugh de Vitry. Many nobles were buried there.{{Cite journal |last=Colker |first=M. L. |date=2002 |title=The Liber Altarium and Liber Sepulchrorum of Clairvaux (in a Newly Discovered Manuscript) |url=https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/10.1484/J.SE.2.300497 |journal=Sacris Erudiri |language= |volume=41 |pages=391–465 |doi=10.1484/J.SE.2.300497 |issn=0771-7776}} Later, Clairvaux founded Foigny Abbey (1121), and Cherlieu Abbey was founded in 1131. During Bernard's lifetime over sixty monasteries were founded from Clairvaux all over Europe and reaching into Scandinavia. Many ("over a third of them") were pre-existing communities of monks, canons, or hermits who had decided to join the Cistercian movement.Holdsworth, Christopher. “Bernard of Clairvaux: His First and Greatest Miracle Was Himself.” The Cambridge Companion to the Cistercian Order. Ed. Mette Birkedal Bruun. Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 175.

Construction of the abbey in its roughly current form (named Clairvaux II by historians) began in 1135, and the abbey church was dedicated in 1174. However, the only building surviving from this time is a large 12th-century lay brother's building, eventually converted into a barn.{{Cite web |title=Clairvaux {{!}} Cistercian Abbey, Monastery, Monks {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Clairvaux |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} By the end of the middle ages, it had founded 530 abbeys across Europe. As the mother of so many, Clairvaux occupied a central place in the Cistercian world.Bucher, François. “Cistercian Architectural Purism.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 3, no. 1, 1960, pp. 89–105. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/177899. Accessed 17 Sept. 2024.

Clairvaux continued to attract promising monks; one of them became a pope (Eugene III), twelve became cardinals, and over thirty were elevated to the episcopacy. The manuscripts copied and written at Clairvaux were of great importance.{{Citation |last=Doyle |first=Kathleen |title=Early Cistercian Manuscripts from Clairvaux |date=2020-03-18 |work=Illuminating the Middle Ages |pages=109–124 |editor-last=Cleaver |editor-first=Laura |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004422339/BP000009.xml |access-date=2024-11-06 |publisher=BRILL |doi=10.1163/9789004422339_010 |isbn=978-90-04-42233-9 |editor2-last=Bovey |editor2-first=Alixe |editor3-last=Donkin |editor3-first=Lucy}} Research about the monks' literary and theological studies have led to a research project that seeks to reconstruct the abbey's medieval library.{{Cite web |title=Bibliothèque virtuelle de Clairvaux |url=https://www.bibliotheque-virtuelle-clairvaux.com/ |access-date=6 November 2024}} In the 13th century, Clairvaux Abbot Stephen Lexington founded the Cistercian college at the University of Paris and it remained under the abbey's responsibility for generations.

In the early modern period, Clairvaux was the nucleus of the movement toward stricter observance, particularly under Abbot Denis Largentier in the 16th and 17th centuries. Starting in 1708, comprehensive reconstruction of the abbey's buildings in the classical style began, dubbed Clairvaux III by historians.{{cite episode |title=Clairvaux : de l'abbaye à la prison |series=La Marche de l'Histoire |last=Leroux-Dhuys |first=Jean-François |network=France Inter |date=12 June 2012 |language=fr}} The works were wide-ranging, and records indicate that construction was not complete upon the arrival of the revolution.{{Cite web |date=2024-07-19 |title=Restauration des toitures et structures du Grand Cloître de l'abbaye de Clairvaux |url=https://www.culture.gouv.fr/en/regions/drac-grand-est/news/MH-State/clairvaux/large-cloister-1 |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=www.culture.gouv.fr |language=fr-FR}}

Clairvaux's library was of particular note, it expanded continuously through the middle ages and early modern period. At the time of its dissolution, it housed 40,000 volumes. Its collection of medieval manuscripts inventoried by Abbot Pierre de Virey, of which 1,115 of 1,790 survive, constitutes the largest of its kind, and is exceptionally well-preserved.{{Cite news |title=Library of the Cistercian Abbey of Clairvaux at the time of Pierre de Virey (1472) |url=https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/library-cistercian-abbey-clairvaux-time-pierre-de-virey-1472 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240630134830/https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/library-cistercian-abbey-clairvaux-time-pierre-de-virey-1472 |archive-date=2024-06-30 |access-date=2025-03-09 |language=en}} This collection is today housed in the Troyes-Champagne Médiathèque, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the University of Montpelier's Faculty of Medicine.

{{See also|Clairvaux Prison}}File:Revue régionale illustrée mars 1901 100478 (clairvaux).jpg

At the time of the French Revolution in 1789, Clairvaux had only 26 professed religious, counting the abbot, Louis-Marie Rocourt, ten lay brothers, and ten affiliated pensioners of the house; 19 of the religious and all the lay brothers were secularized.{{Cite journal |last=Lekai |first=Louis |date=1968 |title=French Cistercians and the Revolution (1789–1791) |journal=Analecta Cisterciensia |volume=24 |pages=86–118}} The relics of Bernard of Clairvaux were moved from the abbey church to Troyes Cathedral.{{Cite web |title=Our Lady of Clairvaux |url=https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-clairvaux.html |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=www.roman-catholic-saints.com}}

Having become state property according to the decree of 2 November 1789, the abbey was purchased in 1792 and converted into a glassworks, which was repossessed by the state upon its bankruptcy in 1804 and turned into a prison. This fate was not uncommon for former monasteries following the penal reforms of Napoleon, it also befell others like Fontevraud and Mont-Saint-Michel. Because the abbey church was sold off as a quarry in 1812, a small new chapel was built inside the former refectory in 1828. During the 19th century, the abbey held 2,700 prisoners, including 500 women and 550 children. Deplorable conditions at the abbey inspired Victor Hugo to write his short story "Claude Gueux", based on a real prisoner at Clairvaux, in 1834.{{Cite journal |last=Allan H. Pasco |date=2016 |title=Reforming Society and Genre in Hugo's 'Claude Gueux' |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.111.1.0085 |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=111 |issue=1 |pages=85–103 |doi=10.5699/modelangrevi.111.1.0085|jstor=10.5699/modelangrevi.111.1.0085 }} Following a reform in 1875 that required individual cells for prisoners, "chicken cages", cells measuring 1.5 x 2-meter (5 x 6.5 ft), were installed, they remained in use until 1971. The abbey was in 1926 as a historical monument by the French Ministry of Culture, but only one of the buildings, the one for the lay brothers, is medieval in origin yet erected after Bernard had died.

Starting in the 2000s, the prison was gradually dismantled. Comprehensive restorations began in 2013, and the prison was finally shut down in 2023.{{Cite web |date=2015-07-10 |title=Abbaye de Clairvaux : inauguration des restaurations |url=https://www.culture.gouv.fr/regions/drac-grand-est/actu/MH-Etat/clairvaux/Abbaye-de-Clairvaux-inauguration-des-restaurations-du-refectoire-chapelle-de-la-Prison-des-enfants-et-des-amenagements-exterieurs |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=www.culture.gouv.fr |language=fr-FR}} Renovation has been underway since.

{{Commons category|Abbaye de Clairvaux}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=19em|

• 1115–1153 — Bernard of Clairvaux
• 1153–1157 — {{ill|Robert de Bruges|lt=Robert I of Bruges|fr}}
• 1157-vers 1161 — {{ill|Fastradus|fr|Fastré de Cambron}}
• 1162–1165 — Geoffrey of Auxerre
• 1165–1170 — {{ill|Pons of Polignac|fr|Ponce (abbé de Clairvaux)}}
• 1170–1175 — Gerard I
• 1176–1179 — Henry of Marcy
• 1179–1186 — Peter I Monoculus
• 1186–1193 — Garnier de Rochefort
• 1193–1196 — Guy of France
• {{circa|1214}}–1216 — Conrad I of Urach
• 1217–1221 — William I
• 1221–1223 — Robert II
• 1223–1224 — Lawrence
• 1224–1232 — Raoul de la Roche-Aymon
• 1233–1235 — Dreux de Grandmont
• 1235–1238 — Evrard
• 1238–1239 — {{ill|William of Dongelberg|fr|Guillaume II (abbé de Clairvaux)}}
• 1242–1255 — Stephen I of Lexington
• 1257–1260 or 1261 — John I
• 1262–1273 — {{ill|Philip I (abbot of Clairvaux|lt=Philip I|fr|Philippe Ier (abbé de Clairvaux)}}
• 1273–1280 — Beuve
• 1280–1284 — Thibaud de Sancey
• 1284–1285 — Gerard II
• 1286–1291 — Jean II de La Prée
• 1291–1312 — Jean III de Sancey
• 1312 — William III
• 1313–1316 — Conrad II of Metz
• 1316–1330 — Mathieu I d'Aumelle
• 1330–1345 — Jean IV d'Aizanville
• 1345–1358 — Bernard II de Laon
• 1358–1359 — {{ill|Jean de Bussière|lt=Jean V de Bussières|it|Jean de Bussière}}
• 1363–1380 — Jean VI de Deulemont
• 1380–1402 — Étienne II de Foissy
• 1402–1405 — Jean VII de Martigny
• 1405–1428 — Mathieu II Pillaert
• 1428–1448 — Guillaume IV d'Autun
• 1449–1471 — Philippe II de Fontaines
• 1471–1496 — Pierre II de Virey
• 1496–1509 — Jean VIII de Foucault
• 1509–1552 — {{ill|Edmond de Saulieu|fr}}
• 1552–1571 — Jérôme Souchier
• 1571–1596 — Lupin Lemire
• 1596–1626 — {{ill|Denis Largentier|fr}}
• 1626–1653 — Claude Largentier
• 1654–1676 — Pierre III Henry
• 1676–1718 — Pierre IV Bouchu
• 1718–1740 — Robert III Gassot du Deffend
• 1740–1761 — Pierre V Mayeur
• 1761–1784 — François Le Blois
• 1784–1792 — Louis-Marie Rocourt

}}

• Henry of France, Archbishop of Reims (1175){{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Abbey of Clairvaux |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03798c.htm |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=www.newadvent.org}}
• Philip I, Count of Flanders{{Cite book |last1=Burton |first1=Janet E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=adHIaVe-zBgC&dq=Philip+Count+Flanders+clairvaux&pg=PA242 |title=The Cistercians in the Middle Ages |last2=Kerr |first2=Julie |date=2011 |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=978-1-84383-667-4 |pages=184 |language=en}}
• Saint Malachy{{Cite book |last=Craughwell |first=Thomas J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQblhT1XtkMC&dq=malachy+saint+clairvaux&pg=PA186 |title=Saints Preserved |date=2011-07-12 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-59074-9 |pages=186 |language=en}}
• Bernard of Clairvaux
• Theresa of Portugal, Countess of Flanders
• Giacomo da Pecorara{{Cite web |title=PECORARA, Giacomo - Enciclopedia |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giacomo-pecorara_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=Treccani |language=it}}

{{Portal|Catholicism|France}}

• Chiaravalle Abbey, a monastery in Milan, Italy
• Claraval in Brazil: the same name in Portuguese; also the seat of a former territorial abbey

{{Reflist}}

{{Catholic|wstitle=Abbey of Clairvaux}}

• [https://www.abbayedeclairvaux.com/ Official website]
• [https://www-bibliotheque--virtuelle--clairvaux-com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc Virtual Library of Clairvaux]

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Category:Cistercian monasteries in France

Category:1115 establishments in Europe

Category:1110s establishments in France

Category:Buildings and structures in Aube

Category:Christian monasteries established in the 1110s

Category:Ruins in Grand Est

Category:Tourist attractions in Aube

Category:Burial sites of the Herbertien dynasty

Category:Burial sites of the House of Metz

Category:Ville-sous-la-Ferté

Category:Monasteries used as prisons