AELRED (AELREDUS, AILRED, ALRED, EALRED, ETHELRED) of HEXHAM, Saint. — English writer, Cistercian abbot of Rievaulx, born in 1110 at Hexham (Yorkshire) of a noble family, died on 12 January 1167 at Rievaulx.
He spent his youth (1124–33) as a page at the court of David I, King of Scotland, though he remained deeply English in spirit. Sent (1133) by King David on a mission to Rievaulx (Yorkshire), he immediately embraced the monastic life in the abbey of Rievaulx, the second Cistercian foundation in England (1131), established by Walter Eppes with the assistance of St. Bernard. His favourite readings became the Fourth Gospel and the Confessions of Augustine. In 1141, upon returning from Rome, where he had accompanied Abbot G. William, he became master of novices. Yet already in 1142, at the age of thirty-two, he was chosen as the first abbot of Revesby (Lincolnshire), a dependency of Rievaulx.
In 1146 he was placed in charge of the mother house at Rievaulx, which he governed until his death. In 1164 he travelled to Scotland to convert the barbarous peoples of Galloway.
He succeeded in drawing even the chieftain of the Picts to the monastic ideal. He suffered greatly from gout during the last ten years of his life. Canonized in 1191, he is commemorated on 12 January (Acta SS. Ianuarii, I, Antwerp 1643, pp. 748–51).
Writings (PL 195, cols. 195–798):
A) Historical-biographical: 1) De bello Standardi, an account of the Battle of the Standard (22 August 1138) between the army of David, which was defeated, and the English barons of the North; 2) Genealogia Regum Anglorum, with particulars concerning the royal family of the Malcolms of Scotland; 3) Vita Sancti Edwardi regis, dedicated to King Henry II of England (Acta SS. Ianuarii, I, ed. cit., pp. 293–302); 4) Vita s. Niniani, of little value; 5) De sanctimoniali de Wattont; 6) De fundatione monasteriorum S. Mariae Eborac. et de Fontibus, a manuscript in the library of Christ Church College (Cambridge); 7) It seems also to be his the short work De Sanctis Ecclesiae Haugustaldensis et eorum miraculis, published anonymously by Mabillon (Acta SS. O.S.B., t. III, I, Paris 1672, p. 228 ff.).
B) More noteworthy are his theological-ascetical works, which earned him, within the Cistercian tradition, the praise: “Bernardus prope par Aelredus noster.”
1) Speculum caritatis, his principal spiritual work, a practical treatise on Christian perfection, judged by his contemporaries to be the best of its kind. The Compendium speculi caritatis is held by some to be an earlier draft; but Wilmart considers it an extract. 2) De spirituali amicitia, in the form of a dialogue, one of Aelred’s most expressive little works, which Christianizes the analogous treatise of Cicero. 3) Regula sive Institutio Inclusarum or De Vita eremitica ad sororem, written for his sister who was a nun, published as an appendix to the works of St. Augustine (PL 32, 1451–74) and partly inserted among the Meditationes of St. Anselm (15–17: PL 158, 784–98); chapters 47–65 propose meditation on the mysteries of the Lord according to the method later developed in the Meditationes Vitae Christi (14th c.) of the pseudo-Bonaventure; 4) De Iesu puero duodenni, an ascetical treatise inspired by Luke 2:42–52, formerly attributed to St. Bernard (PL 184, 849–70); 5) Sermones de Oneribus, thirty-two sermons on Isaiah 13–16, forming a treatise on the various obstacles (onus, i.e. burden) to Christian perfection; 6) Sermones de Tempore et de Sanctis, addressed to his religious; only twenty-five have been published in PL; 7) The Oratio pastoralis (O bone Pastor Iesu), filled with biblical quotations in the manner of St. Bernard, a synthesis of pastoral duties; 8) De natura animae, an unfinished and unpublished psychological treatise (MS 52 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford).
Other works, such as his Epistolary, are lost.
A. is the principal representative of the medieval Cistercian school in England. A scholar of Augustine and a contemporary of St. Bernard, he was a worthy disciple of both. Le Bail thus enumerates the characteristics of his spiritual doctrine: Christian life must reproduce the mysteries of Christ; Jesus Christ communicates himself to the soul through the Church; the mediation of Mary is necessary (St. Benedict exercises a similar mission toward his monks); asceticism must take account of the immediate action of God or the “visits of the Lord” to the soul; the summit of charity is found in contemplation or the “Sabbath” of the soul; divine friendship must be the principle and end of human friendship.